Miscellaneous
...around the corner await simple pleasures...
Within this section of Rainmates Forever are miscellaneous items of 'Trashcanucopia'--such as buttons, tickets, bumper stickers, and other collector's items.
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The Trashcan Sinatras recorded their sixth album, titled Wild Pendulum, in Omaha, Nebraska in early 2015. As part of their pledge drive to raise money for this endeavor, fans had the opportunity to purchase the privilege of receiving a postcard from the Cornhusker State sent by the band during the recording sessions.
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In keeping with the mid-western theme of the postcards, here's one that was sent out from Kansas during their All Night With the Trashcan Sinatras tour in 2017.
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Here is one of the actual guitars that the Trashcan Sinatras have used during touring and recording, a Guild D-50 Standard Acoustic. I purchased this from TCS when they were trying to raise money for the recording of their sixth album Wild Pendulum. Also included are photos of Frank (top) and John (bottom) playing this guitar in concert.
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Frank with guitar
John with guitar
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As part of a package which was purchased during the pledge drive to fund the DVD for the All Night with the Trashcan Sinatras tour, a complete set of autographed set lists was provided. I say "complete", but I haven't checked against the actual tour stops. Looks pretty close, however.
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This here is John Douglas's not-so-little black book. No, it's not what you're thinking. Within these pages contain the chords and/or capo positions of most of the songs that were played on the All Night With the Trashcan Sinatras tour.
You can see that the notebook is divided up into the various TCS albums. The songs therein are both the album's songs as well as B-sides that were written at around the same time. John has also added a tour diary to the backs of some of the chord/capo pages, providing some thoughts and insight while on tour. |
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TCS sent me a collection of flyers / gig notices / set lists from the All Night With the Trashcan Sinatras tour, most of which are shown here.
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The rare promo cards were created as a promotional vehicle for the Trashcan Sinatras newly release sixth album Wild Pendulum. They were given out as a bonus to all people who paid for VIP access during the Spring 2016 tour.
Measuring 12 x 12 cm, the total of 15 cards have a variety of content: one is of the album cover art, two have artistic color photographic renderings of the four regular band members (two per card, front and back), and the remaining twelve cards are devoted to one song each from the album--song title with accompanying art on one side, lyrics on the other side. Very nice indeed. 
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During the North American tour for the Trashcan Sinatras' sixth album Wild Pendulum in May-June 2016, gig attendees were offered a chance to buy VIP access tickets. These tickets allowed the fans to attend a "meet-and-greet" occurring for about 1 hour prior to doors opening for the general admission crowd. TCS afficionados had the opportunity to talk with members of the band, get autographs, and hear a couple of tunes during an exclusive "mini-gig" (San Francisco fans at Slim's got to hear "Best Man's Fall" and "How Can I Apply?").
Part of the VIP access was a collection of promotional cards for Wild Pendulum (see directly above), as well as a laminated VIP pass to wear around your neck while attending this special event. This VIP pass is shown at right for the June 7th 2016 Slim's show in San Francisco. |
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Another VIP pass, this one from the San Francisco show at The Chapel, during the All Night tour.
Front
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Front, magnified
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Back
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Back, magnified
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This is TCS guitarist John Douglas's access pass for the 2017 All Night With the Trashcan Sinatras tour. Despite the wording, this badge does not just limit him access to the bathroom.
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Back
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Here is a VIP pass from the third Las Vegas House Party during the All Night With the Trashcan Sinatras tour in 2017.
Front
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Here is a set of six guitar pics which comes complete with a nice tin case to store them. A rather nice and unique souvenir.
Guitar pick case
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Guitar pick case, open
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Here are two guitar effects pedals that had once belonged to Trashcan Sinatras lead guitarist Paul Livingston. When plugged into sequence between the guitar and the amplifier, the effects pedal can create unique and customized sound alterations and distortions that can help create interesting and enigmatic guitar sounds. Adjusting the provided knobs allows the guitarist to create the sound of his liking that best fills the needs of the song being performed.
The pedal on the left is a re-created clone of the Systech Harmonic Energizer often used by Frank Zappa to create some of his signature guitar sound. The larger pedal on the right is the Pork Loin Soft Clip Injection Overdrive guitar effects pedal, made by Way Huge Electronics. |
The "Legendary Scottish Band" moniker became an unofficial tongue-in-cheek description of the Trashcan Sinatras, a testimony to their perseverance and longevity. Below is the front and back of a bumper sticker produced in 2010. Got one on the back of our family van, in fact.
Bumper sticker, front and back
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Taking the "Legendary Scottish Band" one step further is another bumper sticker singing the praises of "Legendary Scottish Guitarist" Paul Livingston, with the declaration of "MORE PAUL". This phrase was shouted out I believe for the first time at the inaugural Trashcan Sinatras house party in Portland, Oregon in 2010. It has became sort of a recurring theme since then, and here it is immortalized in this bumper sticker, designed by Shane Locke. The photograph was taken at the same Portland house party.
Though the "MORE PAUL" declaration is used as a tongue-in-cheek statement and is basically a recurring joke, everyone can agree that "MORE PAUL" is always a good thing. |
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Here is a unique item--a broken string from singer Frank Reader's guitar. During the second Portland house party in October of 2010, one of the Frank's guitar strings broke, requiring a fix.
The broken string was procured by host Mike Chandler, who then later (after I flew back to San Jose) kindly sent it off to me when he heard that I collected that sort of thing. Thanks, Mike! |
An assortment of pins/buttons, from left to right--
Far left: A button from the very first Trashcan Sinatras show I ever attended (then known as the "Trash Can" Sinatras). This was at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco in February 1991. The Gavin Convention, an annual gathering of radio industry insiders in San Francisco, was occurring at the same time and they apparently were sponsoring the show and this promotional pin.
Middle two: Buttons with standard Trashcan Sinatras logo.
Far right: Button promoting the release of their first single "Obscurity Knocks"
Far left: A button from the very first Trashcan Sinatras show I ever attended (then known as the "Trash Can" Sinatras). This was at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco in February 1991. The Gavin Convention, an annual gathering of radio industry insiders in San Francisco, was occurring at the same time and they apparently were sponsoring the show and this promotional pin.
Middle two: Buttons with standard Trashcan Sinatras logo.
Far right: Button promoting the release of their first single "Obscurity Knocks"
Cafe du Nord ticket, 31 Jul 09
Slim's ticket, 01 Jun 10
Swedish American Hall ticket, 23 Oct 10
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To the left are some ticket stubs from some of the Trashcan Sinatras shows that I've attended in San Francisco:
Top left: The Trashcan Sinatras played at the Cafe Du Nord on Market Street in San Francisco in July 2009. We were able to get nice dinner seats on the right side not too far from the stage. $50 minimum food/drinks with the dinner seats, but that wasn't hard to accomplish. Brookville was the opening band, headed by Andy Chase, the producer of the Trashcans' In the Music, which was soon to be released at that time. Middle left: Hosted by long-time DJ Dennis "the Menace" Scheyer, The Trashcan Sinatras played a gig at Slim's (co-owned by rocker Boz Scaggs) in San Francisco in June 2010. The show was opened by Mike Viola, best known as the singer of "That Thing You Do", from the movie of the same name. Trashcan guitarist Paul Livingston gave me his set list at the end of the show (see below). Bottom left: The Trashcan Sinatras played an acoustic set at the Swedish American Music Hall in October 2010, just upstairs from the Cafe Du Nord (top left ticket). |
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Starting with In The Music, the Trashcan Sinatras provided USB flash drives of their shows, selling them within minutes of the end of each show in most cases, (and for awhile on their website while they lasted).
Pictured at the right are the flash drive sticks that I own. Interestingly, one of them (from the Slim's show on June 1, 2010) has a white background with black and red printing, as opposed to the usual red In the Music background motif. |
USB flash drives - In the Music
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The flash drive for the Wild Pendulum shows has the flying birds motif that is depicted on the album artwork.
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USB flash drive - Wild Pendulum
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Trash can promo
Trash can promo
Cake cassette inside trash can
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This trash can was a promotional item available at the time of the release of the band's first album Cake. What better marketing campaign for a band called the Trash Can Sinatras than an actual trash can? (top-left; middle-left)
The trash can included a cassette of Cake as well as a promotional write-up (bottom-left; below). The one I have has a cassette that's never been opened, still in its original shrink-wrap. The outside of the trash can has a clear plastic strip wrapping around it with the words "Trash Can Sinatras" and "Cake", as well as the Go! Discs and London record label logos. 
Promotional notes
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Another bumper sticker, this one from the early days, during the release of Cake. I suppose to avoid confusion as to which "Sinatra" was being promoted here, the publicity/marketing folks thought it would be funny to emphasize that it was NOT ol' Blue Eyes who had just recorded a new album entitled Cake.
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To the right is a unique item--an autographed Cake LP affixed to a 16" drumhead. This was hanging up on the wall of Trees (a Dallas, Texas live music club) for years. It likely had been there since the band's original US tour as one of the autographs is "George" (George McDaid, bass player during the Cake period).
The LP cover is a bit ratty looking, a testament to the length of time this item had been hanging on the wall of Trees. I like it because it's not exactly a run-of-the-mill item. |
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Here is the tentative set list for the first-ever Trashcan Sinatras house party, on May 30, 2010 in Portland Oregon. I say "tentative" since the list of songs shown on the list was put together by the band prior to the show and was used only as a guide to the show. The strange notations are settings that guitarist Paul Livingston used for the knobs on his effects pedals. The actual set-list was as follows:
I Wish You'd Met Her Prisons Hayfever All the Dark Horses Only Tongue Can Tell I See The Moon People Got Carried Away Earlies Wild Mountainside Freetime In The Music (30 minute break) Easy Read Easy On The Eye Send For Henny Drunken Chorus How Can I Apply..? Funny I Hung My Harp Upon The Willows Oranges and Apples Obscurity Knocks Weightlifting The Lady Is A Tramp Usually I've Seen Everything I'm Immortal The Main Attraction A Coda Claw The Therapist |
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The set-list for the San Francisco show at Slim's on June 1st, two days after the first Portland house party. After attending the Portland show, I flew back down to San Jose to attend the SF show with my girlfriend (now wife).
As with the first Portland house party show set-list, this one also has notations to help out TCS lead guitarist Paul Livingston with his guitar effects. Paul graciously gave me this set list after the show. I believe the songs listed in the upper-right box were choices for encore songs. |
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The second house party in Portland, referred to as "PDX II", was a return to the same house as the first ever Trashcan Sinatras house party. At left is the working set list for the show--"working", as the list is a general outline of the planned show, though changes were made as the show unfolded.
What's interesting here is that the reverse side as another list, along with a (presumably) type-written first draft of suggested songs to do. From what I heard, the band went off to a sushi restaurant after the sound check and wrote the final set list draft (the one at left) after discarding the type-written and hand-written versions on what became the reverse side. Food stains on the paper lend credence to the idea of a last minute re-arranging of songs while enjoying a pre-gig meal. There is also a page entitled "Frank's Cheat Sheet". This was an aid for lead singer Frank Reader to use as a way to determine the people who attended so as to dedicate songs throughout the evening. 
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Pictured below is a copy of the set-list for the San Francisco acoustic show for the 2017 "All Night" tour. These copies were given out only to the VIP attendees, and were each autographed by Frank, Paul and John (Stephen and the others were not part of this tour). Two sets of 30 songs total--pretty generous! Not shown is "Orange Fell", which was performed for the VIPs just prior to letting in the general audience.
A simple postcard promoting the release of Cake, the first album by the Trashcan Sinatras (or the Trash Can Sinatras, as they went by back then). The front side depicts the album artwork, and the back side of the postcard is the address in Kilmarnock, Scotland whereby fans can write the band.
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As part of the pledge drive to raise money for the recording and production of the Trashcan Sinatras sixth album Wild Pendulum, one of the items up for sale was the opportunity to have lead singer Frank Reader read a bedtime story and send a recording of same.
The sound file below is of the classic children's story of "The Velveteen Rabbit" (by Margery Williams), read by Frank. My kids loved it--truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Included with the USB stick was an actually copy of the Velveteen Rabbit book (seen below) with which to read along to the story. Pretty neat! |
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Book (front cover)
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Inside (beginning of the story)
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An interesting little item this, a simple refrigerator magnet with a photo of the cover of the Trashcan Sinatras' fourth album Weightlifting. The photo is embedded underneath a heavy-duty plastic acrylic covering.
The whole thing is pretty small, 2 inches x 3 inches. I've never seen any TCS item like this, so I don't know if this is an official promotional thing, or if it's an unauthorized piece created by a fan. |