Written by: Dave Cantrell
I confess. The first half of the 90s into the early aughts was a period when my forever efforts to stay abreast of everything that was even marginally interesting in the field of modern pop/rock music was so knocked askew by events in my personal life that, even though they rocked me in multiple directions both positive and not-so, they did that back-and-forth pretty much simultaneously with the result being that the usual barometer that I innately depend upon to help steer me toward the good, the moving, the intriguing, or even just the plain pop-savvy, was rendered damn near inoperable and some very worthy – brilliant, even – bands and musicians were perforce skimmed over at best and often just plain left sitting unattended to like an unopened present. Premier among those, as I’ve long suspected, were the Trashcan Sinatras (or Trash Can Sinatras; they’re listed as both on Discogs but from our perspective the 2-word version is by far the cooler variant), a fact made decidedly clear with the arrival on my desk of a press release that includes a revamped, stripped back and not a little moving, 20th anniversary take of the band’s 2004 single/album title track “Weightlifting” as presented by Sinatras front man and main driver John Douglas, which in turn led me back and now here I am with all that proverbial egg on my face. Ah well, no shame in that, really, happens to the best of us, yeah? And anyway, on the resoundingly plus side, as I sit here writing this on a sunny mountain morning in Northern California I have the album Weightlifting alternately lilting and pulsing through my headphones and not only is it a crack LP start to finish but sounds as timeless twenty years hence as it must’ve on day one and that, by our metrics here at SEM, is pretty much THE measure of an album’s worth, which makes sense as anything that basically makes moot the passage of time is a magical thing indeed. And so, thus ‘caught up,’ we move on to the press release at hand, presaging as it does the rather startling prospect of a US John Douglas solo tour supporting his self-titled solo album released by Reveal Records almost exactly a year ago whereon one finds a mix of more re-worked TCS songs alongside several new self-penned tracks which isn’t to mention the sweet bonus of a none-more-moving cover of Prefab Sprouts’ “We Let The Stars Go” which is worth the price of admission right there. So, with all that covered and no further ado to get to, let’s hand the mic over to Douglas himself and let him introduce the video below, below which you’ll find links to various other vids, a near hour-long audio documentary (!) plus, most importantly, links to tickets to those live dates. Meanwhile, you’ll find your correspondent back over on that same Discogs page pricing out the options with an eye – and ear – toward filling those seriously crucial gaps in his collection.
“‘Weightlifting’ was a milestone record in our journey. It took us a long time to make that record due to various hilarious sidetracks… We returned from all those adventures with songs – songs of love, loss, redemption, forgiveness, bravado, friendship, wisdom, peace and tranquility. Songs that we swore ourselves to… and here we are 20 years on and it looks like we somehow built them to last. Somehow, from the chaotic depths, we found ourselves at the top of our game. It’s a miracle of a record.”
[feature photo: Stephanie Gibson]TOUR DATES
October 1 LOS ANGELES – Hotel Cafe *
(Special guest appearance by Trashcan Sinatras’ Frank Reader)
October 2 SAN FRANCISCO – The Lost Church *
October 4 PORTLAND – Mission Theater *
October 5 SEATTLE – Ballard Homestead, Fremont Abbey *
(Special guest appearance by Trashcan Sinatras’ Frank Reader & Paul Livingston)
October 7 SALT LAKE CITY – The Beehive *
October 8 DENVER – Mercury Cafe, Jungle Room *
October 10 KANSAS CITY – Knuckleheads *
October 11 MINNEAPOLIS – Icehouse MPLS *
October 12 CHICAGO – GMan Tavern **
October 15 TORONTO – The Monarch **
October 16 CLEVELAND – Beachland Tavern **
October 17 COLUMBUS – Natalie’s Grandview **
October 19 BOSTON – City Winery Boston **
October 20 NEW YORK – Cafe Wha? **
October 21 PHILADELPHIA – City Winery Loft **
* with Lily Vakili of Vakili Band
** with Lauren Calve
Tour dates and ticket links here.
Hear/watch live versions of:
“Oranges & Apples” here.
“I Just Want to Go Home” here.
“I’m Not the Fella” here.
Hear/watch video for album track “Lost” here.
Ken Sweeney’s documentary here.
