hello all!

if you have a look at the wikipedia entry for the trashcans, it says “they finally returned in 2004 with weightlifting, which was warmly received by the critics (citation needed)…”  made me laugh, anyway.  how are you?  speaking of citations, i’ve dragged myself away from the official judgement in paul and heather’s divorce hearing to write this blog.  i can’t believe the judge is so, well, judgmental.  is it balanced to call paul “an icon”?  c’mon heather, appeal!  my favourite part is where paul finally admits to being an oldies artist, saying he earned money during the marriage, but only because he sang beatles and wings songs at his gigs, new recordings being “unprofitable”.  maybe he’ll turn his collar down now and quit it with the botox and chestnut brown hair dye.  heather’s pretty funny, asking for 627,000 per year of paul’s (beatles and wings-generated) dosh “for charitable donations”…she wants him to give her money for her to give to charity?  maybe i should hire a lawyer to read and explain this stuff to me.  that’s how it works, isn’t it?  i’ve read “bleak hoose”.

i’ve just returned from a week in the new york with the new record.  as previously mentioned, the backing tracks (as we singers in our gasconade call them) were recorded live with all the band set up in the same room, give or take the odd baffle or glass door, but the vocals i did at that time - known as “scratch vocals” - were not really up to scratch at all, so this trip was arranged for me to finish them off.  andy chase has a studio set-up in his home and it was a very relaxed situation altogether:  family around, kids to talk to, jigsaws to do, two of the sweetest, fluffiest cats i’ve ever met curled up on the couch…it was like shabby road all over again, but with sunlight, a working shower and better food.  (recently, i got a craving for shabby road’s most oft-served meal: tuna/pasta twists/mayonnaise with corn - and no, paul, there’s no onion in it.)  

 so the songs were sung and now we’re all listening through and trying to come to a consensus on which melodic inflection, tiny lyrical twist, elvis-y grunt we all prefer.  we’re hoping to mix in april/may time, though andy is managing to nudge the songs along as we go so it shouldn’t take forever to mix whenever we do start - we also want to try some radical (if you’re us) editing ideas.

a friend put me onto a band called the fleet foxes, from seattle - check them out, they’re great! wasn’t it south by southwest last week?  man, that’s some good eatin’ down there!

pip pip,

frank xx

hi everyone,

just a wee update on what we’re up to.

since monday, we’ve been staying at a beautiful house on the island of martha’s vineyard, just off the cape cod coast.  ridiculous i know, but true.  and stranger still, it seems to suit us!   andy (producer) and ruddy (engineer) have rigged up a studio for us, where we’ve been polishing off the songs for the album - a bit of guitar here, some keyboard business there and a lot of singing.  we’re going to get some photos to you, just as soon as we get our camera shit together.  meanwhile, the 5th trashcan album is taking shape.  naturally, as the singer, i am falling ill every day with some bug or other and feeling very sheepish about it but despite these self-indulgences, work is being done; carbon is being pressed into diamond.  we’ve got 13 songs recorded (i could list them, they’re that close to being finished, but i’ll hold off for now) and well, it’s just a really wonderful record.  hopefully everyone who hears it will fall in love with it and to it.

recipe for really good eggnog, from my sister barbara:

whip 6 eggs, two at a time until light, add 3 pints of milk and 0.75 cup of sugar (no, i don’t know what a cup is either) and mix until sugar dissolves.  put a quarter-pint of rum and the same of scottish whisky and american bourbon into a measuring jug, add the three-quarters of a pint of hard booze gradually and stir it into the mixture.  in a separate bowl, whisk a pint of heavy cream until it’s thick (but not stiff) and mix that into the whole shebang.  let it chill in the fridge till very cold and serve in a cold glass with a sprinkle of nutmeg.  takes about 10 minutes if you have a food mixer, and it’s DELICIOUS!  if i’ve forgotten anything, i’ll update this recipe.  and let me know if anyone tries it.

lots of love to you all,

frank xxxxxxxxxxxxx