Kevin Bronson on June 3rd, 2010

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This blog post brought to you in part (but only in part) by my nostalgia for the early 1990s, the last era you could hear a song like “Hayfever” on commercial FM radio: The Trashcan Sinatras have endured trials, tribulations and Glasgow’s weather for better than two decades now, their distinctly Scottish and abidingly soulful take on jangle-pop sounding on each outing like the soundtrack to a cool kid’s daydream. From their early albums “Cake” (1990) and “I’ve Seen Everything” (’92) – which yielded the memorable “Obscurity Knocks” and “Hayfever” – to their lost classic “A Happy Pocket” (still never released in the U.S., really?) to their new “In the Music” (finally out in April in the U.S.), the sextet sets tenderness to a tune. On “In the Music,” their fifth album, Frank Reader’s voice is still clear as an infant’s gaze, and the Trashies’ arrangements beautifully meticulous. The Trashcan Sinatras have gone through lulls and gone away (they famously declared bankruptcy in the late ’90s), but it’s good to hear their third decade is sounding as fresh as their first.

||| Download: “People”

||| Live: The Trashcan Sinatras perform Friday at the Key Club, supported by the Ruby Friedman Orchestra (Also: tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano).