Category: Trash Can Sinatras

It was back in 1990 that The Trash Can Sinatras released Cake, one of the finest debut LPs from any act ever to emerge from these parts.  It was a real head-scratcher that neither of the first two singles – Obscurity Knocks and Only Tongue Can Tell had failed to find favour with the record-buying public, but then again that was a hard thing to achieve when the songs weren’t getting aired on national radio, although the band did enjoy a reasonable amount of support from stations in Glasgow and West-Central Scotland.

And so in October 1990, Go! Discs made another effort with the release of Circling The Circumference. It was a remixed version of one of the songs featured on Cake, and while it did capture much of what brought the band to my attention (i.e. jangly guitars, clever lyrics and fine harmonies), it struck me as a wee bit of a strange choice as a single with its difficult to decipher lyric and a tune/changing tempo that was kind of reminiscent of some of those that even a band such as The Smiths had difficulty in turning into something other than minor chart hits.

mp3: The Trash Can Sinatras – Circling The Circumference (remix)

I thought it worth helping you out……when you just read the words on paper, you have to marvel at the superb job Frank Reader does in getting them all to fit into the tune.

All around the alphabet
To hide a sadder tale of someone sad at
Circling the circumference
Show me the way from the periphery

But everybody is wrapped in a warm embrace
With their arms around the answers
While I’m wrapped up
In my own rigamarole, because

I can’t have that in my life
But soon I’ll find
I won’t have that in my life

Right or righteous? – I can’t say
Another day, another dilemma
Don’t have the time, thirst, wish, itch or urge to fit
Or that’s my story and I am stuck with it, but

I can’t have that in my life
But soon I’ll find
I won’t have that in my life

You’re deep in conversation
Where you really swim
And in the shallow water
I’m the first one in

A straight-forward answer
Is out of the question
Why her whole body joins in
In the way she smiles,
But it’s all too much of a muchness for me, and

I can’t have that in my life
But soon I’ll find
I won’t have that in my life

I’m the man who missed a sitter
The pearly-gate crasher
The king’s new clothes hanger
Skeptic kind of sucker
Straight man gone solo
Drunk or canned laughter
I’m sorry
What was the question again?

It’s a song that, over the years, I have grown increasingly fond of, largely down to it being quite idiosyncratic.  It’s one that I am determined to air at the next Simply Thrilled night, should we ever get the chance to get such things going again post-COVID.

Here’s the b-sides and I make no apologies for again using the blog to feature the dreamy cover version of the theme tune from a 60s telly series.

mp3: The Trash Can Sinatras – My Mistake
mp3: The Trash Can Sinatras – White Horses

JC

Around three weeks ago, while out on the golf course (and putting together a really decent score), I got a sudden pain in lower part of my back, just above my left arsecheek. Within 24 hours, I was a near cripple in that I couldn’t walk for more than a few yards without wanting to cry with the pain (admittedly, I do have a very low threshold). I eventually got myself over to see the GP who diagnosed a muscle tear with the only cure being time, anti-inflammatory tablets and some deep heat rubs with the additional advice that I take things very easy for a bit.

Which was a real blow as it meant that I had to miss going to see Trash Can Sinatras play a home-town gig of sorts at Oran Mor in Glasgow, a review of which by the awfully talented Craig, from the wonderful blog Plain or Pan?, can be read here.

I was listening a lot to the band in the build-up to the gig and I am still very much smitten and in awe of the material from the early 90s. The later material does have a lot of very fine moments but sometimes the songs sound a wee bit too grown-up and sensible for my liking but I was so keen to hear them played in the live environment, especially as UK shows are such a rarity these days with a number of the band now resident in the States.

Above all else, I really wanted to dance my backside off to this, their fourth single and the first one chosen from 1993 sophomore album, I’ve Seen Everything:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Hayfever

A fabulously memorable tune with a wry, clever and head-scratching lyric. What more could you ask for? And yes, I can confirm that Moscow is indeed in Ayrshire.

Hello, I’m Harry
I’ve had women, I’ve had germs
They’re eerie, wild and wailing
And seductive in small doses

Only one way
Only one way
Why can’t we take a couple of tablets?

Hello, I’m Harry
Did you receive the letter sent?
The cheque enclosed, the negatives
Now here’s some headlines
Current and sensible

Moscow’s in Ayrshire
What’s the problem?
Should I throw my tammy in the ring
And run for president?
Ooh, it’s farmed out
Ooh, I’m penned in
Ooh, I’m left to no doubt
I’m Harry, hello
I’m Harry, hello

You want me, you want me, do I?
Arsenic be judge, gin be jury

The chocolate’s watching
The cuckoos are clocking me
They leave me alone in my sulk
Stalking a beautiful girl in a rural spot
It gets larger….as she gets nearer

There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way, away away
There’s only one way
The rest is chemistry

Here’s yer b-sides:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Say
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Kangaroo Court
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Skindiving

It reached the heights of #61 here in the UK, the highest placing for any of their singles. Further evidence, if any was needed, that the record buying general public are a bunch of fuckwits.

JC

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MONDAY 14 APRIL 2008

(and reposted on 11 October 2014  as part of the Scottish singles series)

We now move into the middle third of the most self-indulgent chart run-down of 2008, and coming in at #30 will be a band probably not all that familiar to some of you.

The Trash Can Sinatras were formed in the late 80s, in a town called Irvine, which is around 25 miles or so south-west of Glasgow.

Much of the initial attention was focussed on singer Frank Reader, simply for the fact that his elder sister, Eddi Reader had enjoyed a fair bit of attention and fame, firstly as a backing vocalist with Gang Of Four, and later as the singer with Fairground Attraction who enjoyed a #1 hit with Perfect in 1988.

I suppose I first noticed the band for the simple reason that they were signed to Go! Disc Records which was the home of Billy Bragg and The Beautiful South, leading me to think the Trashies would be have some sort of political bent. I saw their debut 12” EP on sale in a record shop in Edinburgh and bought it on spec for £2. It was only then that I discovered the band were in fact more aligned with the other reasons that label boss Andy MacDonald signed acts – they wrote and sang gloriously catchy pop songs that were full of clever lyrics that demanded close listening.

In due course, I bought two follow-up EPs as well as the debut LP, all of which appeared in 1990. They were a band on heavy rotation, but I wasn’t really giving music too much close attention, as it was a time when I had not long met the now Mrs Villain and there were far more important and pressing things on my mind …….such as sorting out the divorce from the first wife…..

One day, I went to see the Trashies live in concert and came away rather underwhelemed. It was 1993 before the band released any new material, but the comeback single, like the gig a few years earlier, didn’t do much for me. And with that, I stopped taking an interest in the band.

However, I never stopped loving that debut EP, which still astounds me all these years later. I mentioned earlier about the catchy pop songs with clever lyrics…check this out:-

Always at the foot of the photograph – that’s me there
Snug as a thug in a mugshot pose
Owner of this corner and not much more

Still these days I’m better placed to get my just rewards
I’ll pound out a tune and very soon
I’ll have too much to say and a dead stupid name

Though I ought to be learning I feel like a veteran
Of “Oh I like your poetry but I hate your poems”
Calendars crumble I’m knee deep in numbers
Turned 21, I’ve twist, I’m bust and wrong again

Rubbing shoulders with the sheets till two
Looking at my watch and I’m half-past caring
In the lap of luxury it comes to mind
Is this headboard hard? Am I a lap behind?

But to face doom in a sock-stenched room all by myself
Is the kind of fate I never contemplate
Lots of people would cry though none spring to mind

Though I ought to be learning I feel like a veteran
Of “Oh I like your poetry but I hate your poems”
Calendars crumble I’m knee deep in numbers
Turned 21, I’ve twist, I’m bust and wrong again

Know what it’s like
To sigh at the sight of the first quarter of life?
Ever stopped to think and found out nothing was there?

They laugh to see such fun
Playing Blind Man’s Bluff all by myself
And they’re chanting a line from a nursery rhyme
“Ba Ba Bleary Eyes – Have you any idea?”

The calendar’s cluttered with days that are numbered..

Now have a listen:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks

It was a song that struck a chord with me. Just a short time earlier, I had been in a rather unhappy marriage. I had a job, but it was far from fulfilling. I did seem to know what it was like to have sighed at the first quarter of life. And I wasn’t sure if I had any real idea….

Thankfully, things changed for the better in the early 90s…..oh and there will be further chapters about my life this countdown continues.

I still have the EP in the collection, and here’s the other tracks:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – The Best Man’s Fall
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Drunken Chorus
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Who’s He?

Tune in next week for something you might not have expected at #29…..

The Trash Can Sinatras were formed in the late 80s, in a town called Irvine, which is around 25 miles or so south-west of Glasgow.

Much of the initial attention was focussed on singer Frank Reader, simply for the fact that his elder sister, Eddi Reader had enjoyed a fair bit of attention and fame, firstly as a backing vocalist with Gang Of Four, and later as the singer with Fairground Attraction who enjoyed a #1 hit with Perfect in 1988.

I suppose I first noticed the band for the simple reason that they were signed to Go! Disc Records which was the home of Billy Bragg and The Beautiful South, leading me to think the Trashies would be have some sort of political bent. I saw their debut 12” EP on sale in a record shop in Edinburgh and bought it on spec for £2. It was only then that I discovered the band were in fact more aligned with the other reasons that label boss Andy MacDonald signed acts – they wrote and sang gloriously catchy pop songs that were full of clever lyrics that demanded close listening.

In due course, I bought two follow-up EPs as well as the debut LP, all of which appeared in 1990. They were a band on heavy rotation, but it was a period when I wasn’t really giving music too much close attention, as it was a time when I had not long met the now Mrs Villain and there were far more important and pressing things on my mind …….such as sorting out the divorce from the first wife…..

The band remained very active up until 1996, releasing three LPs and ten singles without ever making any great commercial breakthrough although they had good size fanbases in the likes of Japan and the USA where there was a market for the idea of catchy pop songs with clever lyrics.

This wasn’t enough for Universal Music who, having bought over Go Discs! in 1996, took the decision to drop the Trashies.  It would be another nine years before the next LP but Weightlifting proved to be an absolute masterpiece of beautifully bitter-sweet pop melodies which reflected the difficulties the band had endured in the preceeding years.

In The Music was the next LP, released in 2009 and yet another excellent LP for those of us who nowadays are just as  happy to sit and listen to our bands rather than work up a sweat down the moshpit all of the time.

I’ve most of the singles and EPs that the band have released over the years and although it was a tough choice I’m going with the debut EP…and thought I’d re-produce the lyric…it’s one that takes me back to a very awkward and uncertain period in my life when I could quite easily have been destined for eternal life in bedsit hell:-

Always at the foot of the photograph – that’s me there
Snug as a thug in a mugshot pose
Owner of this corner and not much more

Still these days I’m better placed to get my just rewards
I’ll pound out a tune and very soon
I’ll have too much to say and a dead stupid name

Though I ought to be learning I feel like a veteran
Of “Oh I like your poetry but I hate your poems”
Calendars crumble I’m knee deep in numbers
Turned 21, I’ve twist, I’m bust and wrong again

Rubbing shoulders with the sheets till two
Looking at my watch and I’m half-past caring
In the lap of luxury it comes to mind
Is this headboard hard? Am I a lap behind?

But to face doom in a sock-stenched room all by myself
Is the kind of fate I never contemplate
Lots of people would cry though none spring to mind

Though I ought to be learning I feel like a veteran
Of “Oh I like your poetry but I hate your poems”
Calendars crumble I’m knee deep in numbers
Turned 21, I’ve twist, I’m bust and wrong again

Know what it’s like
To sigh at the sight of the first quarter of life?
Ever stopped to think and found out nothing was there?

They laugh to see such fun
Playing Blind Man’s Bluff all by myself
And they’re chanting a line from a nursery rhyme
“Ba Ba Bleary Eyes – Have you any idea?”

The calendar’s cluttered with days that are numbered..

Now have a listen:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks

Here’s the other tracks:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – The Best Man’s Fall
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Drunken Chorus
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Who’s He?

Enjoy