News

The European version of the New "Young Fresh Fellows" album not only comes with a different name, but also with different artwork. Both CD and LP will come with a 24 page color booklet with 24 different drawings done by drummer Tad.
Seems to be that this release will be a nice addition to the Yeproc release.

We can exclusively preview the cover art:

Setlist:

Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control
Power Mowers Theme
Where Is Groovy Town?
Lamp Industries
Celebration
Got To Get Away (Rolling Stones)
The Guilty Ones
Why I Oughta
I Don't Let the Little Things Get Me Down
Low Beat
Suck Machine Crater
Taco Wagon
Picture Book
Sometimes I Wantcha For Your Money
If You Believe In Cleveland
Let the Good Times Crawl
My Friend Ringo
Backroom of the Bar

Encore:
Teenage Dogs In Trouble
Topsy Turvy Theme
How Much About Last Night Do You Remember?
Hank, Karen and Elvis
Amy Grant
Equator Blues


And a video of Taco Wagon and Picture Book



Setlists thanks to lou

Thanks to the finest kiss' photostream on Flickr, who not only posted the setlist from last night, but also a bunch of really great pictures. make sure to have a look.
Not sure about a couple of tracks tho, so if you where there last night, let us know about any mistakes. or if you wanna write a nice review.

Young Fresh Fellows
19 June - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

Setlist:

Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control
Let the Good Times Crawl
Go Blue Angels Go
Why I Oughta
Sometimes I Wantcha For Your Money
If You Believe In Cleveland
Middle Man of Time
Fair Exchange (Jimmy Silva)
Where Is Groovy Town?/ White Wine Saturday Morning/ This Is Gonna Be A Great Show
In My Own Time (Bee Gees)
Suck Machine Crater
Celebration
How Much About Last Night Do You Remember?
Trek To Stupidity
My Friend Ringo
Backroom of the Bar
I Don't Let the Little Things Get Me Down
Young Fresh Fellows Theme
Hang On Sloopy (McCoys)

Encore:
Amy Grant
Taco Wagon
Picture Book
Have Love Will Travel (Sonics)
Big House
Go Go Gorilla (Tad on bass, Jim on drums)

A seminal punk-pop trio tours behind their first album in nearly a decade.
By Gwendolyn Elliott - Seattle Weekly

The Pacific Northwest can boast a good deal about its influence on popular music. Many of us are quick to point out our venerable jazz heritage and our spot on the map as the birthplace of grunge. Now a handful of notable area groups are popping back on the scene after years of silence. The legendary Sonics, for example, decades after their '60s heyday, recently staged a well-received comeback, with South by Southwest showcases and sold-out shows in Seattle and beyond. And next month, irreverent garage quartet the Young Fresh Fellows—a group which names the Sonics as a major influence—will issue a new record after eight years of downtime.
...

WNYC has a nice podcast with scott talking in lenght about the Baseball Project's album "Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails"

Go here to download the mp3

The Spanish label "Munster Records / Rock&Roll Inc." will be releasing the new "Young Fresh Fellows" album in Europe. Titled "I Don't Think This Is", the album will have a three different tracks then the one released by YepRoc records in the US (tracklist see bellow).
Unlike YepRoc, "Munster Records / Rock&Roll Inc." will be pressing a limited edition LP of their release , and this will be the only version worldwide. The release date is targeted for around July 7th, but could be off by a few weeks. We will post more info on how and when to get these when we have it, in the meantime check out the munster website.
To promote their new record, The Young Fresh Fellows will do a tour in Spain from Oct 15 to Oct 25th. More info on dates will follow soon.

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS - I Don't Think This Is...
TRACKLIST:
1. Suck Machine Crater
2. Let The Good Times Crawl
3. Never Turning Back Again
4. New Day I Hate
5. Go Blue Angels Go
6. Gotta Get Away***
7. The Guilty Ones
8. The Final Tractor***
9. After Suicide
10. Lay You In The Ground***
11. If You Believe In Cleveland
12. Lamp Industries
13. Shake Your Magazines

*** not on the YepRoc album

You can head over to Pitchfork.com and listen to "Scott Walker's Fault" from the Minus 5's new album "Killingsworth." This is a different version then the one on the "Sad Hasselhoff" 12" EP. Instead of Scott, the lead vocals are done by Colin Meloy of "The Decemberists.".

We are saddened to report that ex-Wilco member and one time Minus 5'er, Jay Bennet died in his sleep at the age of 45 on Saturday the 23th.

Chicago Tribune Article.

Our condolences go out to his friends and family

Thanks to the good folks at YepRoc we have a nice package to give away (containing some YFF and Minus 5 things, and who know what else will be thrown in) to a lucky winner.
I also have some button sets to give away,(these are different from the ones from YepRoc and extremely limited) to a couple of runner ups. Contest will run till the release date of "Killingsworth" and "I Think This Is".

Here is what you do, answer the next two questions correctly and mail them to me

- The first Minus 5 album, "Old Liquidator" was produced by Scott McCaughey, but he also got help from two long time friends, who are they?
- The Young Fresh Fellows have a long tradition of giving their albums different tittles on the spines, what is the alternative title for their debut "The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest"?


Good Luck

Folk-rocker and novelist John Wesley Harding is bringing his sophisticated storytelling to World Cafe Live - and his family to a home in Philadelphia.

By Dan DeLuca; Inquirer Music Critic
Philadelphia Inquirer

There's an Englishman who's moving to Mount Airy from Brooklyn sitting at a cafe in Manayunk, explaining the ways in which his two artistic callings are extremely different from each other, yet still very much the same.

"Playing music can get you instant gratification," says John Wesley Harding. "If I write a song, I can go play it at the World Cafe Live next week, and people will - I hope - applaud."

The folk-rock troubadour will do just that tonight when he cohosts the musical-comedy-literary variety show Wes & Eugene's Cabinet of Wonders at the University City venue. Joining him will be comedian Eugene Mirman, songwriters Jonatha Brooke and Chris Mills, plus a couple of Philadelphians you might not expect to see at a rock club - actor David Morse and author Ken Kalfus.

As Harding - a name he borrowed from a Bob Dylan album - he has been writing and singing songs more cleverly and with greater sophistication than most, from It Happened One Night in 1988 through the new Who Was Changed & Who Was Dead (Popover ***). But when he's not writing and singing songs, Harding puts his words to a different use.
...

Head over to Yeproc to order your copy of the new The Minus 5 and/or Young Fresh Fellows album now. When ordering the two albums combo not only do you get a discount but also receive two cool buttons, one of which is designed by yours truly, these buttons are not to be confused by the ones we made last year.

Contest coming in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled.

Seems like the Baseball Project is getting its first official gig, after doing some songs the day before Steve and Linda's wedding, and some TV appearances. They are finally ready to rock out in front of an audience and will go all the way to the beautiful city of "Sos Del Rey Catolico" in Spain for the "Luna Lunera Festival" on August 7th. Later that month the "Steve Wynn/Minus 5/Baseball Project" tour will kick off in the States for 6 weeks of music.

And some more good news comes from Steve Wynn's blog, "It also looks like we’ll be making a follow-up to “Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails” before the tour begins so I suddenly find myself being able to justify baseball watching as Actual Research, an immersion songwriting program (watered-down beer and stale peanuts can only help the process, I suppose)."

Thanks to Matthijs for the Spain date

Yeproc just released 2 widgets wher you can stream both "Killingsworth" and "I Think This Is".
Check YepRoc for the news story and more info on "Minus 5" and "Young Fresh Fellows."

Tracklist The Minus 5 - Killingsworth

Dark Hand of Contagion
The Long Hall
The Disembowlers
The Lurking Barrister
It Won't Do You Any Good
Vintage Violet
Scott Walker's Fault
Big Beat Up Moon
I Would Rather Sacrifice You
Ambulance Dancehall
Gash In The Cocoon
Smoke On, Jerry
Favorite Mess
Tonight You're Buying Me a Drink, Bub

Tracklist Young Fresh Fellows - I Think This Is

The Guilty Ones
Lamp Industries
Suck Machine Crater
Let the Good Times Crawl
Never Turning Back Again
New Day I Hate
Go Blue Angels Go
Used to Think All Things Would Happen
YOUR Mexican Restaurant
Shake Your Magazines
After Suicide
If You Believe in Cleveland
Ballad of the Bootleg

And Be Sure to check back here in a few days as we will have an exclusive contest.

A couple of tour dates have sprung up for the Minus 5, a few festivals and some CD-release show parties. The Minus 5 is also gearing up for a tour with Steve Wynn and the first ever live shows of "The Baseball Project" coming to you in August/September.


Minus 5 tour dates:

10 July - Doug Fir, Portland, OR - CD release show
11 July - SakeOne Summer Concert Series, Forest Grove, OR
18 July - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA - CD release show
26 August - Portland Center for the Performing Arts Outdoor Series, Portland, OR
28 August - Lake Arrowhead Village, Lake Arrowhead, Ca
7 September - Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA
17 September - St. Francis, Louisville, KY
18 September - Christ the King Oktoberfest, Lexington, KY

But Before all that Scott is joining the “Musicians Bringing Musicians Home V” line up on May the 22.
Read more about that here

Also some new Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 dates went up, including some very nice opening dates for the Decemberist with Andrew Bird

The new baseball season has just started again. And with that Yeproc comes up with and unbelievable promotion. For a limited time(just till May 1st) you can pick up The baseball projects album " Volume 1: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails " for the low price of 9.99$ or 4.99$ for the digital download, and as that wasn't enough you also get the free digital EP "The Homerun EP" with tracks from said Baseball Project, Todd Snider, Reckless Kelly and everyone's favorite The Young Fresh Fellows. Those who order the CD can also expect a real baseball in their package.

So head over to Yeproc and jump in on this deal.
You can also order the EP separately here

July 7th is gonna be a busy day, cause not only the new Minus 5 album, but also the long awaited new Young Fresh Fellow record, their first new album since 2001 "Because We Hate You".
Both albums will come out on Yep Roc Records, while the Fellows album ""I Think This Is." was recorded in Seattle with Robyn Hitchcock as the producer.
The Minus 5 one "Killingsworth" was recorded all over, but mainly in Portland and features and array of local and not so local talent on it.

The releases are still a few months away be sure to come back here in the coming weeks, as we will have samples and streams of the new albums.

Meanwhile for those that can't wait that long, go order the Minus 5 EP "Sad Hasselhof" at the Yep Roc Web Shop, it's a 12" with new tunes, some of which might turn up on the new disc, others just exclusively for this release.
And also don't forget, the boys are currently on tour with Robyn Hitchcock in the US in support of their new album Goodnight Oslo

On February 17th Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 - comprised of R.E.M's Peter Buck on guitar, Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows, R.E.M.) on bass and drummer Bill Rieflin (Ministry, R.E.M.) - will storm back onto the pop music landscape with Goodnight Oslo, the follow-up to their critically lauded 2006 album Ole! Tarantula.

The first fans to pre-order Goodnight Oslo at the Yep Roc Web Shop will receive a limited-edition three-song bonus disc. The CD includes "Up To Our Nex," featured in the film Rachel Getting Married, "I Just Wanna Be Loved," a new song featuring Grant Lee Phillips, and "Nothing Makes Me Cry," a b-side from Ole! Tarantula.

Goodnight Oslo Tracklist:
-----------------------------
What You Is
Your Head Here
Saturday Groovers
I'm Falling
Hurry for the Sky
Sixteen Years
Up To Our Nex
Intricate Thing
TLC
Goodnight Oslo

Celebrate the depths of winter as Neil Young's Doom Trilogy is presented in it's entirety by some of Portland's finest. The Minus 5, Lewi Longmire Band, and The Don of Division Street Band pay tribute to Neil Young's mid-70's, dark masterpieces of rock and roll. Time Fades Away, On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, collectively known to Young fans as the Doom or Ditch trilogy, were released in the wake of the deaths of two close friends and detail the madness and darkness of this time in his creative life. Musicians from REM, The Young Fresh Fellows, Fernando, Richmond Fontaine, Dr. Theopolis, and others are featured on this night of rock and roll tribute.

Jan. 30, Dante's, Portland
THE NEIL YOUNG DOOM/DITCH TRILOGY SHOW
featuring
"The Lewi Longmire Band" performing ON THE BEACH
"The Minus 5" performing TIME FADES AWAY
"The Don Of Division Street" performing TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT

Scott will also play piano in the "The Don Of Division Street"


and some more dates for later in the year
March 13, Tractor Tavern, Seattle and March 14, Crystal Ballroom, Portland
KMRIA
THE MINUS 5 (opening)

with KMRIA being the Pogues tribute band that Scott also plays in.

Here is to another great year filled with good music.
Which shouldn't be a problem with the new Robyn Hitchcock and the venus 3 record that comes out early in the year. And most likely followed shortly by another Minus 5 record. And John Wesley Harding's album he recorded with the minus 5 will see an official release date in March.
Plenty to look forward too, and much more to come hopefully.

Peace

Tune in tomorrow around 4 o'clock local time to hear scott and peter on KEXP radio in Seattle.
You can listen online at KEXP.org

While the album will only be available in stores March '09. You can already order your copy now at johnwesleyharding.com. You will not only get it much faster then anyone else, they promise they will ship it out before the end of the year. They will also send you a link to download the album right now. Comes with lyric booklet, and will be the only place where the lyrics are printed(they won't be in the CD booklet). Early purchase also ensures you get the bonus CD, an otherwise unavailable live album called "Don't Look Back Now - John Wesley Harding live at Union Hall, Park Slope 10.27.08".
There are various offers available to you. including one with a T-shirt, live DVD and limited editon screenprint of the album cover.


"Who was Changed and Who was Dead" was recorded in Portland, OR and New York City, with The Minus Five, not to mention many of JWH's oldest and best musical friends and allies: Scott McOi, Peter Buck, Steve Berlin (producer of Why We Fight), Kurt Bloch (producer of Trad Arr Jones), Mike Viola, Robert Lloyd (who needs no introduction), Kelly Hogan, and many more. The album has thirteen songs, all JWH originals (including three co-written with Mike Viola).


1. My Favourite Angel
2. Love or Nothing
3. Oh! Pandora
4. A Very Sorry Saint
5. Sleepy People
6. Top of the Bottom
7. Daylight Ghosts
8. The End
9. Sick Organism
10. Congratulations (on your Hallucinations)
11. Someday Son
12. Your Mind's Playing Tricks On You
13. Wild Boy

By Josh Jackson - Paste Magazine.
photo by Nathan Gallagher

Robyn Hitchcock recently revealed to Paste that his new album, Goodnight Oslo, will be released by Yep Roc on Feb. 17. It was recorded with The Venus 3: Peter Buck and Bill Reiflin of R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows—all members of the most recent of line-up of the Minus Five.

“The V3 and I have been playing together for years,” Hitchcock says. “Peter and I since 1985, Scott and I since 1994, and the four of us officially since 2005. R.E.M., The Young Fresh Fellows and Ministry all represent great things about American music. As rock is an Anglo-American creature in origin, it makes sense for them to have an Englishman in there sometimes.”

*First off, the online sale of the new EP seems to have been pushed back by YepRoc, and will be anounced shortly through their mailinglist, so head over there to sign up so you make sure you don't miss out on the limited release of only 1000 copies of "Sad Hasselhof". It should be out in selected indie record stores already.



*Some people have posted some clips on Youtube of the Seattle show on the 18th

-Twilight Distillery / Aw Shit, Man
-With A Gun
-I'm Not Bitter
-Timebomb Highschool
-


*The new "Tuatara" album with legendary Sufi poet Coleman Barks which was recorded in December of last year, will see the daylight on November 18th, titled "The Hear And The Gone". On the album Barrett Martin, Coleman Barks, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey will be joined by Rahim Alhaj and Kai Riedl.


*And John Wesley Harding's new album which he recorded with the Minus 5 last year will be out in March 2009. But keep an eye out on his site in the begining of November as he will have news of exclusive offers including: digital downloads of the entire record, artwork, t-shirts, dvds and other unique items.

Here's the tracklist for the forthcoming EP on YepRoc, scheduled for an October 14th release. It comes out on a 12" vinyl and will be limited to 500 copies worldwide. Recorded in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Dublin with a wide array of musicians, including members of the Decemberists, The Shee Bee Gees and Norfolk & Western as well as the regular "In Rock" line up.


TRACKLIST:
--------------
*The Lurking Barrister
*Rage On Regardless
*Burned
*Sad Hasselhoff vs. The Panopticon
*Favorite Mess
*Scott Walker’s Fault

from remHQ.com

Sadly, Peter's signature Rickenbacker guitar was stolen from the stage immediately following tonight's performance in Helsinki, Finland. This is Peter's infamous signature Rick, which has been the staple of Peter's arsenal both live and in the studio since the band released Chronictown in 1982. Needless to say, this instrument means a great deal to Peter and to R.E.M. It is our sincere hope that whoever is responsible for the loss, or whoever has information which can help recover the guitar, will come forward to receive a generous reward, no questions asked.

Email information to fanclub@remtour.com or phone (001) 706 353-6689...

Scott will join a live chat at ESPN on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, for a chat about The Baseball Project and baseball in general.
So if you got any questions that are burning on your lips for awhile, now is your chance, Just go here and leave a question, and with some luck you will find out your answer on Wednesday.

From Barrett Martin's Myspace site comes the following news about Tuatara's colaboration album with Colman Bark.

Hello Everyone,

Well, I have been getting alot of emails from folks asking me for an update on the new Tuatara/Coleman Barks album, so here it is.

Coleman, as many of you already know, is the famed American Sufi poet and author of "The Essential Rumi", the best selling poetry book in the history of American publishing. That's funny, considering that Rumi was a 13th century Islamic scholar from Iran with a penchant for witty, yet deeply spiritual poetry. Coleman is a 20th century incarnation of the same spirit, and this new album we are currently finishing up is a collection of his own original poems, as well as some of the classic Rumi poems resurrected with Tuatara providing the music.

Tuatara as you all know, is my band with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey from REM, and this album was recorded in Santa Fe in the deep winter of 2008, when Coleman was in town for his annual Night Of Rumi concert. Peter, Scott, myself, and a few guest musicians all hunkered down at Fast Horse Solar Studios and recorded about 20 spontaneous poem-songs, the best 16 of which will be on this album. Coleman has titled the album "The Here And The Gone", and we are currently talking with our booking agent about an early 2009 world tour, where we would do a full evening of Tuatara's music, with Coleman as the Great Bard, reciting poems throughout the night.

As soon as we have anchor dates for the tour, I will start posting them. In the meantime, I will be doing final editing and mixing throughout the summer, and we are aiming for a November 18th street date for the US, Canada, and Europe. I can assure you this is one of the better, deeply spiritual, incredibly humourous albums I have ever had the honor to work on. Does not God have the greatest sense of humor? And are not poets and musicians the messengers?

This will be the 7th album for Tuatara and certainly the first for Coleman with an all-star cast of Rock and Roll, Jazz, and World musicians. It will be one of helluva show, if we can pull of this tour!

Best wishes to everyone,

Barrett Martin

And John Wesley Harding has the following news about his album he recorded with the Minus 5 as backing band.

Having spoken about the delay of the album, let me now announce the release of the album in March 2009. (Our baby will be six months by then, touch wood, and I can play some music.) That seems a long way off - but you get to hear it much sooner than that. Please watch this space, and your email box (and email be the most efficient way to get you the timeliest news, so if you'd like it direct and first from here, then please email cathy (wesnews@mindspring.com) your email address). Shortly we will announce:

1. How you can get it first (by digital download), and ensure that you are sent one of the very first copies of the actual CD, weeks, if not months, before the actual release dates.

2. News of a NYC gig, for which you (or certain of you who are quick on the draw) will be able to get free tickets. At this gig I, and probably Robert Lloyd, will play a set of Greatest Hits (as we touchingly call them) for a live album to accompany certain copies of the next record. We want to make sure that the house is full of those of you who most want to be at this gig. (Mind you, having won the tickets, you absolutely HAVE to go!)

3. News of other ways to buy the record in advance of its release, including packages with signed artwork, numbered lyric books etc.

4. We are also planning to put up songs from the album, in non-downloadable format, here on my space. These will be up for a VERY limited time only, for your listening pleasure. And then replaced by something less interesting. (Joke, but perhaps true).

Yes, we have plans. We're doing the artwork now so expect a title to be announced shortly.

It seems as Yep Roc has been shipping out the album already to the people who have pre-ordered it. When you open the album you will find that there is a little voucher inside that enables you to download 2 more tracks, the instrumental "Golden Sombrero" and "The Ballad of Mike Kekich And Fritz Peterson" sung by Steve Wynn.
And so we launch our lyric section of the album, with the regular lyrics if you wanna sign along to the tunes.
Or you can use the Wikipedia version, which gives links to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, in case you don't have a baseball history and like to find out what or who all these songs are actually about.
So feel free to send me a mail if you think i missed something there.

Hope you all enjoy the album, and have fun watching the game

Another nice article about the baseball project, this time from sportsline.com, with some quotes from Scott and Steve.


Photo by Scott McCaughey

"The record works for two reasons. First, because of that clear passion for and knowledge of the game; and second, because it is way loud and incredibly hooky. The end result? Think Ragged Glory-era Neil Young, had he focused his lyric-writing energy on baseball instead of love and peace and model trains."

Full story bellow

After being in the spotlights at the David Letterman Show last week, The baseball project hit a new high with some extended coverage on MLB.com, the official major league baseball site. With a lengthy article(copied bellow), a 3 piece interview and 2 live songs brought to you by Scott, Steve and Linda.



After reading the article, you can check out the videos here:

Interview Part 1
Interview Part 2
Interview Part 3

Baseball Project Live: 'Harvey Haddix
Baseball Project Live: Satchel Paige
Baseball Project Live: Past Time

from the minus 5 myspace page

"Hey there people... Just put up the M5 version of "Burned" -- the fantastic Neil Young Buffalo Springfield number. It's a "TASTE" of the forthcoming six-song vinyl 12-inch, which Yep Roc has kindly agreed to release in October. And that EP will feature a small "TASTE" of the full-length CD coming out in January, as well as a batch of tunes exclusive to this particular slab of wax, including "BURNED" amongst them. Hope you enjoy!"
Exclusively, and limited, Scorch McT

thanks to the nice people from stevewynn.net who put the video up on youtube



More info about the baseballproject here: www.thebaseballproject.com,
myspace.com/thebaseballproject

Bugs & Cranks report:

Posted by Patrick Smith in The Clubhouse
May 26th, 2008

Admit it. Music about baseball stinks. If you were making a baseball mix for a friend, it’d be John Fogerty’s “Centerfield”

over and over about 18 or 19 times. Don’t tell me you like Terry Cashman’s adaptation of “Willie, Micky and the Duke” for your hometown team. You don’t. (When the Orioles used to play Cashman’s song “The Earl of Baltimore,” I wanted to crawl under my seat.)

Finally, though, there’s a light. The excellent Yep Roc Records of Chapel Hill, N.C., aims to clear the air with July’s release of “The Baseball Project,” 13 songs about baseball written and performed by Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Miracle 3) and Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5 and REM). Apparently, Wynn and McCaughey got loaded at the party for REM’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and talked baseball all night. (Which, all by itself, should make you want to buy all their albums.)...

Mecury news has a nice little interview with Scott about all the things he does in R.E.M. as well as the baseball project.

---

If you want to observe the changes in R.E.M., keep an eye on sideman Scott McCaughey this weekend at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.

On recent tours, you'd often find the Saratoga High School alum behind a bank of keyboards, painstakingly re-creating parts from one of the band's recent recordings.

"(On) a lot of songs, I'd be playing three or four different keyboards on the same song," says McCaughey (pronounced "McCoy"). "That takes a lot of concentration and effort - and I'm even a worse keyboard player than I am a guitar player!"

This time around, in support of the hard-driving, stripped-down "Accelerate" CD, R.E.M. is leaving most of the keyboards at home and letting McCaughey focus on his first musical love: electric guitar....

The Baseball Project will be on the "Late Show with David Letterman" on June 20th.

The Baseball Project put on a small live show May 10th at the Capital Ale House. It was the night before Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon's wedding.

3 songs where played:
Past Time
Fernando
The Death of Big Ed Delehanty

We like to congratulate Steve and Linda, and wish them all the best for the future.

***

The Northwest Noise blog caught up with Scott backstage at the Doug Fir Lounge before the Minus 5 gig of April 25 for a nice chat.
You can download the interview here.
Among other things, Scott talks about Minus 5, Robyn Hitchcock, Baseball Project and upcoming things. Pretty interesting stuff.

Setlist:

In a Lonely Coffin
Out There On The Maroon
I'm Not Bitter
You Don't Mean It
The Little Black Egg
With A Gun
Time Bomb High School
Buyin Drink, Bub
Twilight Distillery
New One
Carmelita
Lies Of The Living Dead
Aw Shit Man
Strychnine

Thanks to Jane

You can now pre-order "The Baseball Project" album "Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails" at the Yep Roc Records store. All pre-orders will come with a downloadable exclusive track "Blood Diamond", which will be available right away. The album will be shipped around the release date of July 8th.
But for those who can't wait or aren't entirely sure what to expect, you can stream the entire album right now by clicking the button below(through YepRoc records).

The Baseball Project, a collaboration between Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey with the help of Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon, will release it's first album on July the 8th through Yep Roc Records. The album is titled "Volume One: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails" and has 13 tracks.



Tracklist:

PAST TIME
TED FUCKING WILLIAMS
GRATITUDE (for Curt Flood)
BROKEN MAN
SATCHEL PAIGE SAID
FERNANDO
LONG BEFORE MY TIME
JACKIE’S LAMENT
SOMETIMES I DREAM OF WILLIE MAYS
THE DEATH OF BIG ED DELAHANTY
HARVEY HADDIX
THE YANKEE FLIPPER
THE CLOSER

This months Q magazine features an lengthy interview with R.E.M. as well as an very positive review of their new album,'Accelerate' due out April 1st on warner brothers records.
The magazine also comes with a CD with tracks picked out by the band. Needles to say Peter buck came up with some very interesting tracks, a new 'Young Fresh Fellows' track (from the album that will come out later this year) a 'Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3' track(from the upcoming new album), 'Tuatara' track from last years 'East Of The Sun' and the original 'Myrna Loy' track that was available on 'The Minus 5' album 'I Don't Know Who I Am'. And long time Minus 5 colaborator 'Ken stringfellow' can be found with a track of his new band 'The Disciplines'.

The She Bee Gees – I really want to like this band, but can’t seem to do so. Maybe its their material, I tend to only know one song they do each set: Massachusetts. Maybe some of the other more well known songs are harder to sing. I’d really like to hear them try “To Love Somebody.” The three instrumentalists are quite good and their voices blend together well. However, the gal in the middle always sounds flat to the point of being distracting.

Casey Neil and the Norway Rats is a really fun band. It usually features Casey Neil on guitar, Little Sue on Guitar, Adam East on Bass, Jenny Conlee on keyboards, Lewi Longmire (portland’s answer to Kurt Bloch) on guitar and Ezra Holbrook on drums. Tonight, Jenny and Lewi were absent. I really like their song and would like to see them more often. They finished the set with a cover of “I knew the bride when she used to rock n roll.”

I’ll take this opportunity to admit that my knowledge of Nick Lowe is limited. Before Saturday night I knew about 6 songs, maybe.

The line up was great. Jim Sangster on guitar and keyboard, Graham Black on drums, John Ramberg on Guitar and switching to bass for a few songs, and someone on bass – I didn’t catch his name but I think he was in the Picketts. What did that leave for Scott to do? He played acoustic guitar on a few songs, but for the most part he was a frontman.

And what a frontman! He was jumping around and dancing. His drink rarely left his hand and with all the movement the stage was flooded by the end of the show. I think his microphone started cutting out toward the end of the show, so he knocked it over and stole Jim’s. Jim’s didn’t work either. The soundman figured out that the two center monitors were going out and re-arranged the other monitors. Scott stole John’s microphone and wound up singing “What’s so funny bout Peace Love and Understanding” through two microphones.

It was a really great show, too bad they only play every ten years or so.
-Jane Mcdonald

---

And for those of us who weren't able to make it to the shows, YouTube user CForce33 has uploaded a couple of songs of the Seattle show.
Go check them out if you haven't already: Lowe Beats in Seattle.

Legendary underground cult artist Robyn Hitchcock reveals his creative process as never before in ROBYN HITCHCOCK: SEX, FOOD, DEATH... AND INSECTS.

This Sundance Channel original production chronicles the origins of Robyn's forthcoming album (and features eight brand-new songs), the formation of his band the Venus 3, and their U.S. tour. Famed for his twisted rock lyrics that are at once blithe, scathing and deep, Robyn is one of England's most influential songwriters and performers--and has a body of work spanning over 20 albums and three decades. Joined in music and conversation by friends and bandmates like, Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin, and Scott McCaughey (REM, Minus 5), Chris Ballew (Presidents Of The USA), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Nick Lowe, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Morris Windsor (Soft Boys, Egyptians), and Ruby Wright, Robyn’s creative genius runs wild in a free-flowing musical interview that gives us an unprecedented glimpse into his mind and craft.

FEATURES OVER 20 LIVE PERFORMANCES - INCLUDING 8 NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED SONGS: Afterlight / Star of Venus / Born on the Wind / Evolve / I Often Dream of Trains / John in the Air / Flanagan's Song / Cradled ‘til Dawn / Sickie Boy / Adventure Rocket Ship / Somebody / Uncorrected Personality Traits / My Wife and My Dead Wife / Queen Elvis / Creeped Out / NY Doll / Underground Sun / The Authority Box / Belltown Ramble / Ole! / Tarantula / 16 Years


DVD Features: "Evolve," "John In The Air," "Star of Venus," and "Afterlight" Complete Rough Versions plus Conversations About Robyn's Songwriting Technique; Acoustic Rooftop Performance of "Ole Tarantula"; Music Video for "Adventure Rocketship"

Just found these pictures at the bottom of my mailbox, send by me by Geoff. Must have somehow forgotten about these, but don't wanna keep them from you all, so here they are. Many thanks to Geoff for sending these, and deep apologize for putting them up so late.

R.E.M. - Accelerate
Once again Scott lends his skills to the new R.E.M. album, due out on April 1st(no joke). With the first single "Supernatural Superserious" out February 11th. Album includes many songs they tested out last year in Dublin during a week of rehearsal gigs.

Living Well's the Best Revenge
Man Sized Wreath
Supernatural Superserious
Hollow Man
Houston
Accelerate
Until the Day is Done
Mr. Richards
Sing for the Submarine
Horse to Water
I'm Gonna DJ

More info on R.E.M. HQ and you get a daily teaser video till the album release date on Ninety Nights.

John Wesley Harding & The Negative Quintet - Songs of Guilt and Inexperience
From JWH mailing list

"A happy new year to all from Wes, safely back in the USA after a minor skirmish with Maxjet airlines who decided to fold rather than bring him back home. a few words: it's 2008 and the new album is done - but we must be patient. A lot of love, care and attention, from many people, have gone into the making of the record and I want it to have the best release possible, for about a million reasons, none of them worth a dollar. I made a truly terrible decision for "Adam's Apple", and I must make sure that the new album - which is called "Songs of Guilt and Inexperience" - doesn't suffer the same indignity. I'd rather put it out myself. So, patience, for all of us. And for those who simply can't wait, there will be a preview (of the song 'Love or Nothing') on the cover mount CD of a soon-forthcoming issue of Mojo, curated by Peter Buck. If you get to hear that, you're one-twelfth of the way there. Another consideration is that the Minus Five, with whom I made the record, are touring as their lesser known side-project REM for most of the year. Obviously, it would be fun to do some gigs together when the album is finally out, as we had originally intended. Robyn Hitchcock also has an album due for release, recorded with The Minus Five - he calls them The Venus Three, I call them The Negative Quintet.
More info johnwesleyharding.com, wesleystace.comor MySpace

Coleman Barks - ...
from Barret Martin's myspace page
... I got booked to do four albums back to back, all of which turned out magnificently well, considering their diversity. The first was with Coleman Barks, the famed Sufi poet and elder statesman of Mystical Truth. Coleman wrote "The Essential Rumi" and numerous other poetry books that I have read over the years. He's 71 years old now, and an old friend of mine from Athens, GA, back when I played with REM. So, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey, guitarists of REM, and Kai Riedl of the band Macha came down to Santa Fe and we recorded close to 20 song-poems with Coleman. We basically made up the music on the spot to fit with Coleman's poems, although admittedly, we all came prepared with song ideas or at least riffs and rhythms, so that we could appear to be spontaneous, even if we are actually, dare I say, "professional"?
Rahim Alhaj, the Grammy-nominated Iraqi oud player came down for a few songs too, and he and Coleman bonded quite tightly. Coleman's album will be released in the late spring on Fast Horse (my label) and I think the album will really affect people, largely because of its beautiful Americana poetry, Sufi mysticism, and a helluva lot of humor that might actually shock some of the people who revere Coleman as a saint. Coleman is no saint, but he is a brilliant, warm, humorous bear of man. We love him dearly, and so will you. ...
More info about Barret at MySpaceand barrettmartin.com.
More info about Coleman Barks at colemanbarks.com.


More releases that might come out this year: A new Young Fresh Fellows album, The Baseball Project Record with Steve Wynn, the 2nd Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 album and another Minus 5 album.

Part two of the Tuatara double album(East of the sun/West of the moon) is out for awhile on Fast Horse Recordings now. While "East Of The Sun" the vocals where mostly done by men, this time around on "West Of The Moon" the spotlight is on the women,they include Adama, a British-Nigerian soul singer from London, Gina Sala, a featured vocalist with Cirque De Solei, and American singer-songwriter Jessy Greene. A few of the men from East Of The Sun remain however, with John Wesley Harding, Scott McCaughey, and Coleman Barks each contributing a song or two.

You can pre-listen to the album here.
And you can order either the physical CD or any track of your choice in the Fast Horse record store.



tracklist:
1 Bird's Eye View
2 Los Angeles
3 Wrong Turn
4 Are You Feeling Me
5 When The Love Is Gone
6 The Old Carving Knife
7 God's Meditation
8 Playing And Being Played
9 So Fine
10 Never Look Back
1 Bang Bang
12 An Invisible Bee
13 The Shifting Sands
14 Kali Rides

By Barbara Mitchell
The Portland Tribune, Jan 11, 2008

If you’ve been to a local show by the Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie or Wilco over the past four years – or if you’ve witnessed on stage Robyn Hitchcock, John Wesley Harding or KMRIA, the Pogues cover band featuring members of the Decemberists, during that same time period, you’ve probably wondered who the cool-looking guy is with the unruly hair, huge grin and sunglasses.


BY JIM CLARK

If you’ve seen the Minus 5, a Northwest supergroup of sorts that typically includes R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, you already know that the individual in question is Scott McCaughey – one of the hardest-working and most beloved members of the Northwest music community.

Team Photo, L-R: Peter, Steve, Adam, Linda and Scott

The people from KEXP blog had a little chat with Steve Wynn about "The Baseball Project"(Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, and Linda Pitmon). While there isn't a release date set for their upcoming album baseball-themed album, they can however already preview the rough mix of on of the songs, “Pasttime” which features lead vocals by Scott.
Go listen to it here

As many of you probably already noticed, we have updated our forum software to version 3.0 of the phpBB software. While i tried my best to make sure everything from the old board is still there, i can never be sure. so if you have any problems with the site(login in, pm's, post, search, uploads, ideas, improvements etc...) please let me know by email or post your comments here.

The Lowe Beats (Nick Lowe tribute band) is coming back together to do two shows in February to commemorating Yep Roc's 30th anniversary re-issue of Nick's first solo album "Jesus of Cool".
The band includes
Scott McCaughey - vocals
John Ramberg - guitars
Jim Sangster - guitars
Hugh Jones - bass
Graham Black - drums.

The Lowe Beats live at a venue near you:
Feb. 22, Tractor Tavern, Seattle
Feb. 23, Dante's, Portland

Merry Christmas

And a

Happy 2008

THIS SATURDAY, DEC. 8... At the new East End Club (formerly the Rabbit Hole, 203 E. Grand):
WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY... do not miss these brilliant knuckleheads, together, double dynamite! If you don't know their stories, well, I really don't know where you've been (to quote somebody or other). Opening this show will be the NEVADA LUNATICS (Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon), debuting some of our new songs about baseball. Really. For more info, check out: www.myspace.com/eastendpdx, www.wrecklesseric.com/

Some videos have surfaced from the shows last weekend:
On YouTube these two from the fellows are availble:

-The Little Things

-Rock 'n roll Pest Control!

and over at synchronicitylive.com you can check out the entire show of the Fellows and some of The Tripwires

-The Tripwires @ The Tractor Tavern

-The Young Fresh Fellows @ The Tractor Tavern

Friday November 9 - The Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

Tipwires:

Break it all
Lesson pony
arm twister
monument
I don't care
zig zag
I hear this music
South Charleston Place
I was afraid
Dismantled
sold your guitar blues
grizzly bear
big electric light

Young Fresh Fellows:

Have Love Will Travel
Rock N Roll Pest Control
Suck Machine (new song?)
White Wine Saturday Morning (made up on the spot)
Universal Trendsetter
Guilty Ones (new song?)
Taco Wagon
Picture Book
Sitting On A Pitchfork
Sentimental Journey
Final Tractor (new song?)
Hang out Right
Why I Oughta
Sharing Patrol
I Got My Mojo Working
I Don't let the Little Things Get Me down
99 Girls
Shake Your Magazines (new song?)
When I'm Lonely Again
One day you die
My Friend Ringo

Encore:
She's a Mod - Done by the Tripwires
Backroom of the Bar
Ain't It Allright
Strychnine
How much about last night do you remember
she's a book


Saturday November 10 - The Towne Lounge, Portland, OR

Tripwires:
Friday
Lesson Pony
Arm Twister
Monument
South Charleston
Johnny Get Gone
I Don't Care
Never Ever
I Was Afraid
Ned Beatty
Dismantled
Sold Your Guitar Blues
Grizzly Bear
I Hear This Music
Zig Zag
Big Electric Light
Crawling From The Wreckage

Minus 5: (Not in order) (w/John on guitar, Jim "jimmy talent" Talstra on bass and Ezra Holbrook on the drums)
Dear Employer
Little Black Eff
Lonely Coffin
Out There On The Maroon
Albuquerque
The Night Chicago Died, Again
Twilight Ditillery (with John Wesley Harding)
Time Bomb High School
Teenage Idol
With A Gun
Aw Shit Man
You Don't Mean It
Strychnine
Mary Lou
Original Luke
I'm not bitter

encores:
Ghost Tarts
Cigarettes Cofffee and Booze
Sometimes good guys don't wear white (jim sangster on bass)
She Belongs to Me (with JWH)
Strychnine
Ballad of John & Yoko (with JWH)

Return of the Tripwires:
She's A Mod
Break it All
Have Love, Will Travel (with Michael Maker)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin has a lot on his plate, what with his rush to alter existing media-ownership rules in favor of giant media conglomerates. He'll be in Seattle on Friday for the sixth and final public hearing on media ownership, which will examine the prudence of relaxing current stipulations. Jet lag is tough, but the crowd Martin will encounter here is likely to be even tougher.

The Seattle proceedings were announced at the last minute, giving citizens little time to prepare arguments. Many question whether Martin is sincere in his assessment of public opinion — which, when it comes to further media consolidation, is decidedly negative.

Scott McCaughey adds his many talents to the new Breakup Society album, "Nobody Likes A Winner". Scott does lead vocal on the track “By A Thread” and adds keys, guitar and harmonies to several other numbers.

The album will be released November 13 through Get Hip Records.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Nobody Likes A Winner
2. The World Will Change Our Love
3. How Failure Saved Me From Myself
4. Strictly Biological Heart
5. 13th Angry Man
6. This Little Tragedy
7. Another Candlelit Night
8. By A Thread
9. No One Wants To Be Remembered
10. Lower Expectations
11. The Day Before The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life
12. I Didn't Mean To Wreck Your Day
13. Forget The Past
14. This Doesn't Matter

On November 12th "Makes You Look Around", The Tripwires debut album will finally hit the shelfs of the music shops. (Though you can order your copy already Nov. 8th at www.paisleypop.com.)
The Tripwires is the new band of Minus 5 guitarist John Ramberg, formerly know of "The Model Rockets". Another famous face in the band is Jim Sangster, bass player from the Young Fresh Fellows. While his Brother Johnny plays guitar and Mark Pickerel keeps the beat steady on the drums.
The Tripwires will play two record release parties, one in Portland and one in Seattle along with the Fellows and The Minus 5.

The Tripwires:
Nov 9 - The Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA (w/The Young Fresh Fellows)
Nov 10 - The Towne Lounge, Portland, OR (w/The Minus 5)

From "The Village Voice" interview with Steve Wynn

....
And the recording project after that:
Steve Wynn: “I’m doing a baseball record. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, a record entirely about baseball, touting specific players or incidents, things like that. I’ve been talking about this for a long time now, thinking of ways to do it, and I met up with Scott McCaughey from R.E.M., Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus Five. We met up about half a year ago and I told him about it and it turns out he’s as big a baseball fan as I am and he flipped out, so we’re going to get together, Scott and myself and Peter Buck and Linda (Miracle 3 drummer Pitmon), and do the record in December in Portland because Peter’s got a studio there. It’s pretty convenient. And again, we’re going to write a lot on our own before we get together and then collaborate once we’re there. I’ll probably come back from Slovenia and watch the World Series and write during the entire Series.”
...

You can read the rest of the interview here.

The United Nations calls it "the world's greatest humanitarian crisis." The US calls it genocide.

The people of Darfur have suffered for 4 years in a crisis that has left over 400,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced from their homes.

There is something you can do to help them: GO TO A CONCERT on November 10.

MySpace has brought its bands together to help send aid to the people of Darfur.
Join us('The Minus 5') at our show in Portland, Oregon at The Towne Lounge and a portion of your ticket purchase will go directly to the ROCK FOR DARFUR cause.

More than 30 other bands have united with Rock for Darfur shows that span the globe—all on November 10. So if our show isn't in your neighborhood, then go to "http://myspace.com/rockfordarfur" to find one that is.

Help us send a strong message to the world that this crisis must end now.

For more information on the conflict in Darfur, "http://myspace.com/rockfordarfur"

Scott & Peter

Rest of the World
In A Lonely Coffin
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
John Barleycorn Must Live
With A Gun
Teenage Idol (Ricky Nelson)
Moonshine Girl
Desperate for Someone
Out There on the Maroon
Cigarettes, Coffee and Booze
The Old Carving Knife (from forthcoming Tuatara lp)
Aw "Shucks" Man

With Mark Olson (Jayhawks) and Tim Easton

I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash)
Dear Employer
11 Months and 29 Days (snippet of Johnny Paycheck hit)
Carmelita (Warren Zevon)

With Tim

Hang Out Right

Mark comes back

Ballad of John & Yoko (Beatles)

The last time Scott McCaughey visited Lexington, he stood before 10,000 people at Rupp Arena.

The jovial Seattle songsmith will be the first to admit that they weren't entirely there to see him. The feverish October 1995 turnout was for R.E.M., the Georgia alt-rock institution of which McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) has long been an auxiliary member. McCaughey played keyboards, sang a bit, added some rhythm guitar here and there, and generally grinned like a kid having the time of his life, all night long.

Scott McCaughey is involved in so many music projects, it's amazing he has time to finish them all.

The Seattle singer and multi-instrumentalist formed acclaimed alt-rock band Young Fresh Fellows in 1983. A friendship with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck led them to start up The Minus Five (initially a loose collective), in 1993. Buck invited McCaughey to tour with R.E.M. a year later; he's been an adjunct member ever since.

The pair are also regulars in experimental group Tuatara - which just put out "East of the Sun" (Fast Horse) - and Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3.

On 2006's stellar "The Gun Album," The Minus 5 has crafted its strongest effort yet with guest appearances from Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Colin Meloy (the Decemberists), Sean Nelson (Harvey Danger), Ken Stringfellow (the Posies), John Wesley Harding and others.

I caught up with the jovial McCaughey (pronounced "McCoy") at his home in Portland last week.
Q: This is your first Inland Empire appearance. I was surprised to see The Minus 5 on the bill.
A: From looking at the concert program, they seem to book mostly tribute bands and we do mostly originals, but we're a class act and hopefully people enjoy it. We'll try to keep my obscene stage patter to a minimum (laughs).
Q: For the most part, the latest CD is more accessible than previous efforts. Was that a conscious decision?

A very long and interesting interview is up at Namedropper Media. Scott talks about Ian Hunter, Led Zeppelin, his first album he bought, future recording and tour plans with his various band and a whole lot more.

All picture and setlist scan by Geoff Vickers

The Fellows played an early set at the Seafair festival in Seatlle yesterday , while the hydroplane boats were racing on Lake Washington, the small crowed enjoy a pretty great set of old and brand new songs.

It's been awhile since the Minus 5 put a show together, but all you Northwesters are in luck, The Minus 5 comes out of hibernation for a couple of shows.
First up is the show at McMenamin's Edgefield in Troutdale,OR on the 22nd of August. where they are playing after Wilco, so who knows what will happen during those two sets. At the end of the month the band goes over to California for a double header. First on August 31 the play the Lake Arrowhead Village in Lake Arrowhead. Lake Arrowhead Village is located in Southern California, less than a two hour drive east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Bernardino mountains. The best part of the show is that it is a FREE show and it starts at 5:30 p.m. sharp. A perfect opportunity to bring out the entire family. The day after they play Spaceland in LA. A familiar place where many Minus 5 and RH&The V3 gigs took place.
A week after the band meets again in Portland at Dante's for the Northwest Music Fest on September 8, with The Blakes, Loch Lomond, Patterson Hood of The Drive By Truckers and Richmond Fontaine on the same bill.

Aussie rockers "You Am I" get praised in the latest issue of "The Stranger" by a who's who of Seattle musicians—members of Soundgarden, the Presidents of the United States of America, Mudhoney, the Makers, The Young Fresh Fellows and the Posies, among others.

Here is What Scott and Kurt had to say:

Scott McCaughey—the Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus 5, R.E.M.

I think Kim Thayil of Soundgarden first told me about You Am I. First time I saw them was at CBGB—the Fellows might have been on the show or I might have just gone to see them on a night off, I can't remember. I was blown away by the songs and the energy. I figured they were destined to near-immediate hugeness. I guess it never quite materialized over here and it's hard to fathom. The latest album [2006's Convicts] shows how much they still have to offer—killer songs with the early Replacements often coming to mind and still slipping in that masterful Ray Davies melodic flair. What's not to love?

Kurt Bloch—Fastbacks, the Young Fresh Fellows, Sgt. Major

They were playing on a Sunday night, I think, at the Off Ramp... I suppose no one had even heard of them around here at that point, 1994, but if they were friends of Soundgarden and from Australia (home of good times and all things rock), they'd be worth a try. And they were! I recall Live at Leeds–era Pete Towns-hend fronting AC/DC's rhythm section, with total kill songs to boot.

You can read the original story as posted in The Stranger here. For more info on You am I go to their site.

The implied purpose of most supergroups is that the resulting new band consolidates everything you like about each member's respective band into a musical juggernaut that everyone can like. Very rarely does that work as advertised, however, which is probably why Tuatara works where so many like groups have floundered. The members of Tuatara—who include R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Minus Five frontman and Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey, and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin—play against type, rock guys making spacious instrumental music intended for film soundtracks.
...

DeSoto records finally released their kid-friendly music compilation called "Play". Young Fresh Fellows Donated the track "Picnic". You can Order a copy of the CD in the web store of DeSoto records, or download it straight from iTunes.

Tracklist:
Anna Oxygen: Born to Shake
Channels with Damon Locks: Always Check for Holes
Georgie James: The Grizzly Jive
Sgt. Major: Nellie the Elephant
Mudhoney: I Like to Make Noise and Break Things
Mock Orange: Holiday Dinner Song
Mirah and Tara Jane O'Neill: Green Up Time
Young Fresh Fellows: Picnic
Mary Timony: Clap Your Hands
Soccer Team: I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again
Supersuckers: Rubber Biscuit
The Cassettes: Truck on (Truck)
Ben Davis & The Jetts: Bouncin' Party
Visqueen: Centerfield

Compilations CDs will forever be known as the tombstones that speckle the audio graveyard of unsold and ignored music. Most are haphazardly assembled collections that hold no central theme, like a poorly put together mix CD without the personal touch.

Released by local label Arena Rock, Bridging the Distance (in stores April 17, with a digital version including six extra songs available online) is a complete exception to the idea that compilations are a waste of record store shelf space. Benefiting local nonprofit organization p:ear, the album is made up of some of Portland's finest bands, all of which take on the brave task of covering classic songs. The tracks are a vibrant example of the rich variety of music, and generosity, our town has to offer. In their own words, a few of the bands that took part in the compilation explain themselves.

From Yeproc:
My pal Scott Ferril in Minneapolis has completed this cool little video of "Aw Shit Man."

Best,
Scott McCaughey

1 June Racecourse "Wychwood Festival" Cheltenham, UK
2 June Primavera Sound Barcelona, Spain
9 June Ha! Gent, Belgium
10 June Paradiso Amsterdam, Holland
11 June Tivoli Helling Utrecht, Holland
13 June Debaser Stockholm, Sweden
14 June Sticky Fingers Gothenberg, Sweden
16 June Norwegian Wood Oslo, Norway
17 June TBC Finland

Tuatara is back after a long silence, the band recorded around 28 songs last year, and the first batch of them will be presented on June 2007. "East Of The Sun" is the first part of a double disc with the second one being released in October 2007. While all the pervious Tuatara albums where instumental only, this time the songs feature lots of guest vocals including: Mark Olson and Gary Louris of Jayhawks fame, Dean Wareham from Luna, Victoria Williams, Mark Eitzel of American Music Club, John Wesley Harding, Jessy Greene, Adama, Coleman Barks and Scott McCaughey.

No reason to wait till June to hear the record, it is already streaming from the Fasthorse Jukebox

More Info:
Tuatara home page
MySpace
Fast Horse Recordings

Tuatara is celebrating ten years as a band with the release of our fifth studio album titled "East Of The Sun". The album will be released in June of 2007, but you will be able to hear various songs from the 15 song album posted here on our My Space page, and also on the jukebox page of our regular website: Tuatara.com.

We recorded and mixed the album at Studio Litho in Seattle, our home base so to speak. Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and myself wrote the music, and then we sent the instrumental tracks to the various singers who wrote their own lyrics and then sang them. I was producing the sessions and playing drums, keyboards, and percussion, which kept me quite busy for most of the last half of 2006!
...

This is not my first "Live At The Croc" compact disc experience. Who could forget the Minus-5-doing-MC5 "High School" mayhem (for "the kids") from The World of Dr. Illteams collection? Or the Young Fresh Fellows' "John Agar's Revenge" from Bite Back: Live At The Crocodile Cafe? Commander Anderson indeed finds his finger on the Two-Guitars-Bass-&-Drums button and presses it with purposeful confidence, and it sounds like THAT. After Sgt. Major Kurt Bloch jackboots it into hyperdrive with some slapback tube sauce and bootleg Tang crystals...

Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas is the new EP from Robyn Hitchcock, the auteur of the highly-acclaimed album Ole! Tarantula, contains six live unreleased tracks including the Soft Boys classic, "Give It to the Soft Boys," Hitchcock solo gems like "Sometimes a Blonde," and the Venus 3's "(A Man's Got to Know His Limitations )Briggs." Also included is two videos for "Adventure Rocketship" from Ole! Tarantula - one live action video and a wistful stop motion animation rendering. In addition to the these extras overflowing from the Ole! Tarantula sessions and tour, keep an eye out for a documentary profiling the psych-popster to air on the Sundance channel which will debut at the SXSW film festival.

...

Scott McCaughey did another solid opening set in Birmingham. As in New Orleans, he played mostly keyboards and was accompanied by drummer Joe Adragna (of the band The Junior League). Although tonight was just their second time performing together, to their credit, Scott and Joe changed up the set a fair bit. Tonight, one of the nuggets we got was The Old Plantation off the Down With Wilco record.

And the Hank Williams cover was also a nice surprise. I can't remember if Scott mentioned Joe telling him that Hank Williams died in Birmingham (which turns out not to be true) or if Joe said that he just spent one of his last nights in Birmingham, not far from the Alabama Theatre (which is true). Either way, it was a neat rendition of the song.

At any rate, the "Minus 2" set went this way:

The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
My Life as a Creep
Cemetery Row
The Old Plantation
Daggers Drawn
Original Luke (Scott on baritone guitar)
I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (Scott-guitar) [Hank Williams]
Rifle Called Goodbye
Aw Shit Man (Scott-guitar)

-Paul
Via ViaChicago.org.

Tonight was the first show on this tour that I've gotten to see with Scott McCaughey opening, and since I haven't really seen a lot written about Scott's opening sets, I figured I'd at least post what he played tonight.

It was a treat to hear some songs off the Down With Wilco record, especially Daggers Drawn. And it was totally awesome to hear his version of So Much Wine. Apparently Scott's been playing with different local people each night, so his sets have been changing at least a little bit from night to night. At tonight's show, he had Joe Adragna (of a New Orleans band called The Junior League) with him on drums and background vocals. Scott played mostly keyboard, somewhat surprisingly. On a few numbers, he also played baritone guitar.

Anyway, here was his set:

Rifle Called Goodbye
Twilight Distillery
Daggers Drawn
My Life As A Creep
Original Luke (Scott-guitar)
So Much Wine (Scott-guitar) [Handsome Family]
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
The Days of Wine and Booze
Aw Shit Man (Scott-guitar)

-Paul
Via ViaChicago.org.

NEW YORK, Jan. 18 -- Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death ... and Insects, a Sundance Channel original production, debuts on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 10:00 pm et/pt. Directed by John Edginton (The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story), the hour-long documentary follows British singer/songwriter Hitchcock and band The Venus 3, featuring Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Bill Rieflin (Ministry, REM), and Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, REM, The Young Fresh Fellows), as they spend a week in July of 2006 recording an album of new material at Hitchcock's house in West London. The film captures Hitchcock at work as he adds to his stockpile of wonderfully wry and twisted rock songs. The musical equivalent of black comedy, Hitchcock's songs express a fundamentally dark worldview, energized by droll wit, surreal imagery and a dynamite vocabulary

Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus Three:

Main Set
Adventure Rocket Ship
City of Shame
Ole Tarantula
Sally Was A Legend
New York Doll
The Afterlight
Somewhere Apart
The Underneath
Television
Vibrating
Flesh Number One
Creeped Out American Girl
The Authority Box
Driving Aloud
Madonna of the Wasps
Jewels for Sophia

Encores (with Morris Windsor)
Queen Elvis
See Emily Play
Kingdom of Love
Queen of Eyes
Listening to the Higsons

Thanks to Dime.

Robyn and the venus 3 were joined in Oxford by Mike Mills and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. in the encore.

Adventure Rocket Ship
Afterlife
Sally Was A Legend
Ole Tarantula
City of Shame
If You Were A Priest
NY Doll
Somewhere Apart
Flesh #1
Television
Not Dark Yet
Authority Box
Creeped Out
Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)
Madonna of the Wasps
Jewels For Sophia
Kingdom of Love

1st Encore (enter Michael Stipe & Mike Mills who played Peter Buck's rickenbacker)
Electrolite
Arms of Love
I'm Gonna DJ (new REM song, Mills switched to bass, Scott on guitar)
Listening To The Higsons (Buck on drums, Rieflin bass, Scott guitar, Stipe backing vox, Robyn ditched his guitar)

2nd Encore (with Mike Mills)
Give It To The Soft Boys
Eight Miles High

You can download the torrent of this gig here at dimeadozen.

What a fantabulously wonderful night last night, even my husband declared it's one of the best gigs he's been to. It was a bit short as this venue has a strict 10pm curfew as it becomes a nightclub and people were already queuing outside to come in, so they did all the encores in one sitting to save from wasting time in leaving the stage etc. and there were some huddled discussions about what they could fit in with Bill who appeared to be the only one wearing a watch and was giving them sound checks.

Scott McCaughey (with occasional assistance from those more qualified) will perform the opening set on the mid-sized chunk of Jeff Tweedy's forthcoming southeastern U.S. jaunt. Most likely billed as "McCaughey Minus 5",
the dates are:

JAN. 20 -- Dallas TX, Granada Theater
JAN. 21 -- Marfa TX, Liberty Hall
JAN. 23 & 24 -- Austin TX, Hogg Auditorium, UT
JAN. 26 -- New Orleans LA, House of Blues
JAN. 27 -- Birmingham AL, Alabama Theater
JAN. 29 -- Atlanta GA, The Tabernacle

We reported about this a year ago, seems there is finally a date set for it

from DeSoto Records:

Well, we've been working on this children's compilation record for going on three years and I'm happy to report that it finally has artwork (by the incredibly talented Ian Nagy) and a release date! It is packed with wonderful, upbeat songs that we find as enjoyable as our five-year-old Nick does: you'll laugh, you'll dance, you'll get down on the ground (thanks for the lyric, Mary Timony!). In stores and online here, April 17, 2007!

Bands on PLAY include: Anna Oxygen, Young Fresh Fellows, Mock Orange, Visqueen, Channels w/Damon Locks, Soccer Team (featuring our own mailorder guru Melissa Quinley and Ryan Nelson of Beauty Pill/The Most Secret Method fame), Mirah w/Tara Jane O'Neill, Sgt. Major, Mary Timony, Mudhoney, Supersuckers, Georgie James (John Davis, formerly of Q and Not U, w/Laura Burhenn), The Cassettes, Ben Davis.

YepRoc Records just announced 7 new dates for Robyn Hitchcock with the Venus 3. The tour mainly focus on the South with stops in Nashville, Birmingham, Greenville,...


18 March: Belcourt Theater, Nashville, TN
19 March: The Nick, Birmingham, AL
20 March: Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta, GA
22 March: Handlebar, Greenville, SC
23 March: Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC
25 March: Ram's Head - Matinee, Annapolis, MD
26 March: World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA

Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 are the musical guests on NBC's Late Night With Conan O'Brien at 12:35 pm (ET) tonight. They will be performing their latest single, "Adventure Rocket Ship."

And on Saturday the 25th, they will play an exclusive In-Store performance at Easy Street records(Queen Anne) in Seattle at 3pm. Later that night they will finish up their North-American tour at the Crocodile Cafe.

Various dates have gone on sale now at some ticket sites in the UK. The scheduled tour would take place from January the 8th till the 21. So far 3 dates been announced:

January 8th: Waterfront, Norwich

January 9th: Carling Academy 2, Birmingham

January 11th: Carling Academy Islington, London

January 12th: Fleece, Bristol

January 13th: Manchester University, Manchester

January 14th: The Boardwalk, Sheffield

January 18th: The Classic Grand, Glasgow

For more info and updates see this thread in the forums

* Thanks to Mathijs, Lucy and Sabine for the info

Last week the Australian/New Zeeland tour of Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 ended, here are a few interviews and reviews: The Sydney Morning Herald, Review of the Sydney Show, dB Magazine, The Beat and The New Zeeland Herald.
The Katoomba show from October 19th is now available on DimeADozen.
...

The boys left Tokyo earlier this week after playing a few great concerts there. You can see some pictures and read some reviews about it here in Tadd IGARASHI blog. You can also read some updates with pictures that Mathijs posted in our forum. Mathijs also was able to record all the shows he went too in Tokyo and will upload them to DimeADozen in the coming days and week. It will also include a DVD from the fan boat party that took place on the last day.
First show is now up at dime.

If You Were a Priest
Sally Was a Legend
Tarantula
Queen of Eyes
Adventure Rocket Ship
N.Y. Doll
I Often dream of trains
Vibrating
Birdshead
Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)
Beautiful Queen
Somewhere Apart
Creeped Out
Madonna of the Wasps
(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs
Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)
Encores
Aw, Shit Man
Cigarettes, Coffee, Booze
give it to the soft boys
Queen of Eyes
Acid Bird
8 Miles High
Destroy You

thanks to Thanks Alot we can enjoy the Minus 5 set from Dante's in Portland earlier this week. Along with the usualy songs from the setlist, they also play a nice version of Secret Agent Man.

PURGe blogger went all the way from Pittsburgh to Spain for the Azkena Rock festival, you can read his lengty review, with a great read about the fellows in his blog.

And Scott busy as always, guested during a secret Decemberist gig on their cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “Wooden Ships.” Read the full recap here.

The Minus 5 that will roll into Portland for a show at Dante's may not resemble the group that would have played in town a decade ago.

Back then, The Minus 5 was a true side project for frontman Scott McCaughey, who spent most of his time in the critically acclaimed band the Young Fresh Fellows.

It gave singer/multi-instrumentalist McCaughey a vehicle for songs that were too introspective and restrained to fit the exuberant power pop of the Young Fresh Fellows.

Over The Sea
Mary Lou
Dear My Inspiration
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
Out There On The Maroon
Secret Agent Man
I'm Not Bitter
Courage Is The Smallest Bird
Hillbilly Drummer Girl
Lies Of The Living Dead
With A Gun
This Rifle Called Goodbye
Twilight Distillery
Timebomb Highschool
Lyrical Stance
In A Lonely Coffin
Aw Shit, Man
Strychnine

The Minus 5 were in fine form, and there was a camera crew on hand to capture their show (along with Kurt, Mary, Jennifer and I bouncing and singing along maniacally) I never did find out who or what they were filming for, but if anyone does, I wouldn't mind seeing it.

I snagged a setlist. It's kind of innacurate order-wise but it's fairly close.

Over the Sea
Aw Shit Man
Rest O World

For thos who will be attending the concerts of Robyn and The Minus 5, here is the complete itinerary



06 Oct - FAB acoustic gig
Robyn and Minus 5
http://www.fab-web.net/

07 Oct - FAB
Robyn and Minus 5 with Morgan Fisher
http://www.fab-web.net/

08 Oct - FAB
Robyn and Minus 5 with Morgan Fisher
http://www.fab-web.net/

09 Oct -
Bob Dylan Summit - Robyn and Scott with other Japanese artists
http://www.flying-dc.com/bds/dylan.html

10 Oct - Fan party on the boat/Tokyo Bay
Robyn and Venus 3 with Glenn Tilbrook
http://www.mplant.com/robyn/boat/index.html

You can find an amusing comic/storyboard for the Adventure Rocket Ship song here

"I didn't really think I was starting a band."

Call these the famous last words of Scott McCaughey: founding frontman of the dead-but-not-buried Young Fresh Fellows, R.E.M. sideman-extraordinaire for more than a decade, supporting cast member of Tuatara and backing musician for Robyn Hitchcock — in short, a busy, busy man who has somewhat accidentally led a rotating cast of musical characters through seven full-length albums, a handful of EPs and countless tour dates under the catch-all moniker of the Minus 5.

Young Fresh Fellows
Azkena Festival
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain 8-31-06

Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control
Middle Man of Time
I Don't Let the Little Things Get Me Down
Taco Wagon
Picture Book
How Much About Last Night Do You Remember?
99 Girls
Still There's Hope
Two Guitars, Bass and Drums
Equator Blues
I Got My Mojo Workin' (And I Thought You'd Like To Know)
Hillbilly Drummer Girl
My Friend Ringo
Fan Club
Backroom of the Bar
Ain't It Alright (NRBQ)
Sittin' On A Pitchfork
Your Truth, Our Lies
Topsy Turvy Theme
Young Fresh Fellows Theme
Strychnine

Pictures can be found here and here on flickr
*EDIT 17 September 2006
Even more pictures here (thanks to Karen Hoffmann)

So. The need machine. eh... I said they were like Spinal Tap, minus the funny. Fitz said if it were 1982 they would have been really innovative.

The Paul Lynde Fan Club. There's really only one word: awesome. Actually, say it about 5 times and you'll get the awesomeness that is the Paul Lynde Fan Club. They play in a straightline (dead moon style) with the drummer as the lead singer. They have songs about Diebold, Freaks and Geeks, Yoda, and one called Nuge On (Get Your). It was their CD release party, so we bought the record and tried to convince the band to come to Portland.

The Fellows. Last night marked the first time I ever saw Tad's Wok live. By the end of the night, he had some red marks on his face.

"Little kids bring zucchini and stay all day" is one of the best lines in rock

Robyn Hitchock and the Venus 3

OLÉ! TARANTULA:
1. Adventure Rocket Ship
2. Underground Sun
3. Museum of Sex
4. Belltown Ramble
5. Olé! Tarantula
6. (A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs
7. Red Locust Frenzy
8. ‘Cause It’s Love (Saint Parallelogram)
9. The Authority Box
10. N.Y. Doll

Release dates:

US on October 3 through Yeproc Records [CD & LP]
Europe on October 2 through Proper Records [CD]
Japan on September 13 through Oak Tree Records [CD]

The Japanes record comes with an extra track: Embryo Twirl.

9 August - Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre, Seattle, WA

Hillbilly Drummer Girl [Young Fresh Fellows]
In a Lonely Coffin
Out There on the Maroon
I'm Not Bitter
Got You
Hotel Senator
Cigarettes Coffee and Booze
With A Gun
...

Some good soul was so kind to tape the Minus 5 show last weekend at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. You can download the show here. It's a very good audience recording. Please don't make any MP3 version of this recording available for download or sharing.

The John Wesley Harding show from the same night is also recorded, but by John request this can only be shared after the new album comes out(7 new songs were debuted), so we will have to wait till early next year until this recording surfaces.

John Wesley Harding, Robert Lloyd & Minus 5
5 August 2006 - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

01. Top of the Bottom @
02. The People's Drug *
03. In Paradise *
04. The Red Rose and the Briar
05. Sleeper, Awake
06. Do Not Fear the Dark
07. Here Comes the Groom *
08. Save a Little Room For Me *
09. Still Photo *
10. Humble Bee *
11. My Favourite Angel (false start)
12. My Favourite Angel !$
13. Love or Nothing !$
14. Oh! Pandora !$
25. Daylight Ghosts !$
26. Congratulations (On Your Hallucinations) !$
17. Someday, Son !$
18. The End !$
============
19. Twilight Distillery !^


Wesley Stace (vox, guitar)
* w/ Robert Lloyd (mandolin, accordion, keyboard)
@ w/ Lloyd, Peter Buck (bass, guitar), Scott McCaughey (backup vox, guitar)
! w/ Lloyd, Buck, McCaughey, Kurt Bloch (guitar), Bill Rieflin (skins)
^ w/ John Ramberg (backup vox, guitar)
$ First time played

In A Lonely Coffin
The Forgotten Fridays
Out There on the Maroon
I'm Not Bitter
Cigarettes Coffee and Booze
Hillbilly Drummer Girl [Young Fresh Fellows]
With A Gun
Got You
My Life As A Creep
Courage is the Smallest Bird
Carmelita [Warren Zevon]
Hotel Senator
Lies of the Living Dead
Time Bomb High School [Reigning Sound]
Aw Shit Man

The Tripwires, the new band of John Ramberg(vocals/guitar), with Jim Sangster from the Young Fresh Fellows and Sgt. Major on Bass, Johnny Sangster on guitar/ vocals and Mark Pickerel on drums finally have a website: www.thetripwires.com. You can find some links about the members, see some pictures and find out where they play next. They also have a track "I hear this music" up for download. And at their myspace website you can listen to 3 more. So check them out when you can, and hopefully we see a CD release pretty soon.

Scott & Peter

Aw Shit, Man
There Is No Music
Ambiguity Song (Camper Van Beethoven cover?)
Backroom of the Bar
Old Carving Knife (apparantly, a new Tuatara song)
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
Cigarettes, Coffee, and Booze
Odds n Ends
World Of Eggs
Find A Finger
All The Time
I Wish I Was Your Mother

The Young Fresh Fellows will play on Saturday August 19 at The Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. Opening bands will be "Paul Lynde Fanclub" and "The Need Machine". Later in the month the Fellows will also be playing the Spanish "Azkena Festival" in Vittoria, Spain.

“What makes this record for me is the musicians I was able to gather,” says Robyn Hitchcock of Olé Tarantula, a surreal vision and Technicolor celebration of life — from its inception and the whole catastrophe of it — till its groovy decay and inevitable last breath.
“To me, the whole record is sadness cloaked in fun. But under that fun, more sadness,” says Hitchcock.

Such seeming contradictions are what make Hitchcock a credible narrator to his incredible kingdom of song, the one he’s built on a foundation of dreamlike, whimsical, tragic comedy and set to gorgeous and slightly askew melodies for the last 30 years. In Hitchcock’s universe, adventure rocket ships, exploding, twist-off heads and crawling things are the norm, as are supersonic harmonies and an ever-present chiming guitar sound. Through the years, those heavenly refrains, the harmonicas and the hilarity conspired and drew a blueprint for alternative pop as we know it. Is it any wonder he attracts stellar company when he settles in to make a record?

A few more gigs have been added to the summer schedule of the Minus 5, the boys will open for Los Lobos while they visit the Pacific Northwest during their current world tour.
Dates are as follows.

9 August - Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre, Seattle, WA -- SOLD OUT!
10 August - Cuthbert Amphitheatre, Eugene, OR
11 August - Bite of Oregon, Portland, OR*
*Festival date

Another date has been added to the Japanese tour in October. The Minus 5 and Robyn Hitchcock will now also play on the 6th at the FAB Club in Tokyo. Note that this will be an acoustic gig.

After Japan Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus 3 will fly to Australia and play a couple of dates there

October '06
Friday 13 Fly By Night - Fremantle - WA
Saturday 14 The Gov - Adelaide - SA
Monday 16 The Spiegeltent - Melbourne - Vic
Tuesday 17 Melbourne Uni - Vic
Wednesday 18 The Basement, Sydney - Vic
Thursday 19 The Clarendon, Katoomba - NSW
Friday 20 The Rose, Torquay - Vic
Sat 21 St Andrews, St Andrews - Vic
Sunday 22 The Northcote Social Club, Northcote - Vic

My sister and I arrived back early this morning from Colchester. We finally got see, not one, but two Minus 5 shows. Our first ones and we had a wonderful time - the shows were fabulous.

Because we were staying over, we managed to have a few drinks, well a lot of drinks actually, at the Dingwalls show. The set list included Ghost Tarts of Stockholm, The Town that Lost It's Groove Supply, Hotel Senator, My Retrival of you, Rifle Called Goodbye, In a Lonely Coffin, Out There on the Maroon, I'm Not Bitter (my favourite), My Life as a Creep, With a Gun, Courage is the Smallest Bird, Where Will You Go, Dear My Inspiration, You Don't Mean It, All the Time, Mary Lou, Lies of the Living Dead, Days of Wine and Booze, Aw Shit Man - and Teenage Kicks was indeed played too at some point.

There are 2 people here who won't forget this day.

Another sunny day in scorching scandinavia. I take advantage of the buffet breakfast to sneak a cheese roll and hard boiled egg into my bag for the train trip and then head out for a quick walk around time, stopping for a hoover cake and espresso at the 'old biddies cafe' in the Haga.

Arriving at the station i realise i have no money, so i change my danish remnants for swedish so i can have another espresso while i wait and also treat myself in the buffet car as we hurtle towards Norway. It's all planned. Sally had skipped sweden to cruise from copenhagen to oslo and will have found a place to eat, the train gets in around 4.45pm, so it'll be off to the hotel, meet sally, then food and gig. Perfect.

I went to the Wireless Festival in Leeds yesterday - predominantly to see the boys and my husband was keen to see The Who.

We had a fabulous day, the boys were on the second stage which was inside a big marquee, but the sound and lighting looked rather better than the main stage. We could see them setting up at the side of the stage when previous bands were on and Bill was setting up his own drum kit, then Scott and Peter were wandering in and out of the tent and onto the stage etc. and they watched Bob Mould from the side of the stage.

Robyn Hitchcock & The Minus 3
London - Wireless Festival - Hyde Park
June 22nd 2006

01 - If You Were A Priest
02 - Acid Bird
03 - Ole Tarantula
04 - Adventure Rocket Ship
05 - Sally Was A Legend
06 - Beautiful Queen
07 - Queen Of Eyes


This set was recorded by Matthijs van Geldere and is being shared on the torrent site dimeadozen.org

Cigarettes Coffee and Booze
My Life As A Creep
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
Myrna Loy
Wouldn't Want To Care
One Bar At A Time
Desperate For Someone
Moonshine Girl
That Smell (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
With A Gun
I Still Miss Someone
Aw Shit Man

Scott and Peter at Mississippi Studios opening for Tim Easton

Here are a couple of solo dates Scott will be doing in the next couple of days and weeks. On June 1 Scott will be doing support for Tim Easton at the Mississippi Studios in Portland.
On June 16 he will be performing in San Francisco's 12 Galaxies at "Parkerpalooza" which features Kelley Stoltz (with special guests Spiral Stairs and Scott Mcaughey), Oranger, Enablers, Scott Mcaughey, Ezee Tiger and Cheetah Speed (ex Zen Guerilla).
And on August 4 he will be the support for John Wesley Harding at the Mississippi Studios.

-A second and final Minus 5 date in the UK has been added, they will perform at the "Colchester Arts Centre" in Colchester on July 11. We reported previously The Minus 5 will play Dingwalls in London on July 10, and this is right after the tour of the Minus 3 backing up Robyn Hitchcock.
-Robyn and the Minus 5 will also going to Japan later this year, playing two shows in Tokyo on October 8 and 9 at the Fab Club.
-On August 5, The Minus 5 will be opening for John Wesley Harding at the Tractor Tavern
in Seattle.
-And last but not least, the Young Fresh Fellows will be playing the Azkena Festival in Vittoria, Spain on August 31. And It’s really confirmed this year.

After the "Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus 3" tour "The Minus 5" will perform in London. John Ramberg will fly over for this show and join the band for their show at Dingwalls, which was the scene of a legendary concert in 2001 by the Four Croakers (Scott McCaughey, Ken Stringfellow, Robyn Hitchcock and Mike Mills.) There might be a second date added on July 11, but that still has to be decided upon.
More info on the Japanese tour of Robyn Hitchcock and The Minus 5 will follow later. Also stay tuned for a possible Robyn Hitchcock and The Minus 3 tour in Australia.

Two evenings with Bill Rieflin and Peter Buck: Last week at the Tractor, the two full-time members of R.E.M. powered the Minus 5, fronted by former Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey, through a set of non sequitur originals and garage-rock classics. The energy level was a notch or two below a furniture-breaking party, but it was probably the best frat-rock being played anywhere in Seattle that night.

This past October, the pair joined to create a much different sound when Rieflin's Slow Music sextet played three sets at the Crocodile. Rieflin, a veteran of the Telepaths and the Blackouts, not to mention industrial rockers Ministry, gave up his seat behind the drum kit to Matt Chamberlain to explore echoing piano chords and synthesizer textures, while Buck's folky clangor gave way to something more subtle, and King Crimson/Bowie vet Robert Fripp added "triggered sounds" to his trademark guitar whir. The sense of open space in the music recalled—without sounding like—'70s Miles Davis, or the long, inexorable build of an Art Ensemble of Chicago performance.

Seems they will be playing in October in Japan, according to the Music Plant website. Two dates are listed, October 7 in Nara and October 8th in Tokyo. Both those dates will be with Robyn Hitchcock.

Mississippi Studios is a cool place. Think about seeing a concert in your living room with about 100 of your friends. Its got a very small stage and an eclectic mix of theater chairs, benches, church pews, and bar stools. PBR is just two dollars and out in the backyard they show popeye cartoons on the side of the building next door.

When not busy with his band Young Fresh Fellows or his other band R.E.M. or his other band Tuatara, Scott McCaughey keeps himself busy with his side project, The Minus 5.

For each of its seven albums, he has recruited an entourage of rock elites, including most recently Jeff Tweedy, Colin Meloy, Sean Nelson, Ken Stringfellow, Kelly Hogan, Glen Kotche, John Wesley Harding and on and on and on.

Basically, those who cannot get enough of making music have found their way into the studio to try to keep up with the restless McCaughey (pronounced "McCoy").

Then there's the touring. Again, McCaughey keeps it real by recruiting rock veterans from his private cabal, most often Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Bill Rieflin (Ministry, KMFDM) and John Ramberg (Model Rockets).

by John Kenyon - PopMatters

It was 1989, and the Replacements seemed poised for stardom. The band's second major label disc, Don't Tell a Soul, was slick and radio ready. They were on MTV, occasionally on the radio. Finally, the only band that mattered was about to break through.

With that in mind, it seemed unbelievably cool that, in the liner notes for the disc, in small type at the very bottom, were the letters "LLYFF." Newcomers who liked the cut of Tommy Stinson's jib in the video for "I'll Be You" probably thought it was some sort of record company code. But for longtime fans it was a code of another sort: "Long Live Young Fresh Fellows." That band of Seattle goof-rock misfits had accompanied the 'Mats on a recent tour, following the ultimate endorsement issued by Paul Westerberg two years earlier, telling Creem: "If you think we're good, they're the best band in the world."

from robynhitchcock.com

June
22 Hyde Park Wireless Festival London
23 TBA
24 Cannon Hill Park 'Open Air MAC Theatre' Birmingham
25 Harewood House Wireless Festival Leeds
July
4 Loppen Copenhagen
5 Tredgarn Accelerator Festival Goteborg
6 Rockerfeller Oslo
7 Peace & Love Festival Accelerator Stage Borlange, Sweden
9 Oxfordshire Folk Festival Cornbury

Now that the tour is over, new dates are coming in. The way it looks, there will be another European tour of Robyn Hitchcock with the Minus Three. And this time they will not limit themselves to the UK, but seems they will go as far as Scandinavia, with one date already confirmed, July 6th Rockefeller Music Hall, Norway. And possibly 2 more dates in Sweden to follow. In the UK they will not only play the Wireless Festival, but now also The Cornbury Festival have confirmed them for Sunday July 9th.

Last week Scott was interviewed backstage at their Philadelphia show for the Philly-based internet radio station Y100Rocks.com. The interview will air this Tuesday(April 4th) afternoon at 3pm ET, and you can listen to it here

And here are some pictures that people send me in the last few weeks of the Minus 5 tour.
Thanks to all contributors

In A Lonely Coffin
The Forgotten Fridays
Out There On The Maroon
I'm Not Bitter
Cigs, Coffee & Booze
Courage Is The Smallest Bird
Little Black Egg
...

REMhq

R.E.M played a blistering version of "Country Feedback" near the end of the Minus Five's show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens tonight. Mike, Michael and Bill joined Peter on stage after a brief intermission in the Minus Five's set and, along with Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin who played percussion, treated the crowd to the "Out of Time" track which has become a live fan favorite over the years. Mike played keyboard while Bill played bass.

In A Lonely Coffin
The Forgotten Fridays
Out There On The Maroon
I'm Not Bitter
My Life As A Creep
Dear My Inspiration
With A Gun
...

1. Ghost Tarts Of Stockholm
2. The Town That Lost It's Groove Supply
3. Out There On The Maroon
4. I'm Not Bitter
5. Hotel Senator
6. Twilight Distillery
7. Retrieval Of You
...

Alan Sculley - Flagpole Magazine

The Minus 5 that rolls into Athens for a show this week at the Georgia Theatre may not resemble the group that would have played in town a decade ago. Back then, the Minus 5 was a true side project for frontman Scott McCaughey, who spent most of his time in the critically acclaimed band the Young Fresh Fellows. The Minus 5 gave singer/ multi-instrumentalist McCaughey a vehicle for songs that were too introspective and restrained to fit alongside the exuberant power pop of the Young Fresh Fellows.

In recent years, the Young Fresh Fellows have gotten together only for occasional live shows (although McCaughey says there is talk of making a new Fellows album). As a result, the Minus 5 has undergone a personality makeover that McCaughey says has blurred the once clear musical distinction between the two bands.

By ED MASLEY - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

There's always been a playful "Let the Bad Times Roll" philosophy guiding the records once-and-future Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey has written for The Minus 5, a pop collective he started as a side project with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck in 1993.

But there may be a darker-than-usual vision at work on the Minus 5's new album. And it goes beyond the handgun on the cover or the gunplay in the lyrics. The opening track of the self-titled effort, a devastating breakup ballad titled "Rifle Called Goodbye," sets the stage for a brutally honest account of relationships going to hell, from the furious blues-punk attack of a track whose title can't be printed here to "My Life as a Creep," in which he wraps the album's sweetest melody around the lyric "I just hope one day you understand I'm not supremely evil and I can be better than I am."

Washington Post

To those who were turned away at the door at Iota, where the Minus 5 played to a sold-out crowd Saturday: Not to be cruel, but it was a night of insanely infectious power pop delivered by a quartet that played together as tightly as a fitted bedsheet. Beatlesque harmonies, melodies played under melodies -- and a killer rhythm section more familiar with arenas than honky-tonks: drummer Bill Rieflin from Ministry and REM bassist Peter Buck.

And the cult favorite Silos opened.

You should have got there earlier.

Singer-songwriter Scott McCaughey, who founded the Minus 5 in 1993 as a side project from Young Fresh Fellows, played his electric guitar and sang "My Life as a Creep," "Days of Wine and Booze" and "Retrieval of You" (aka the "D.J. Minimart" song) with old-fashioned rock-and-roll fervor. Guitarist John Ramberg seemingly could do no wrong as he blended furious riffs from the poppy '60s with those from the post-punk '90s. Rieflin kept the beat fast and fun, and Buck was the calm in the storm, playing basic, dynamic rock bass with an unwavering grin that was as infectious as the music.

The night got off to a swift and powerful start with the Silos, the seminal alt-country band founded in the mid-1980s by singer-songwriter Walter Salas-Humara. The trio was made up of just bass and drum and Salas-Humara on electrified acoustic guitar and vocals, but the sound filled the room with catchy melodies and thoughtful lyrics.

-- Buzz McClain

According to the eFestivals site, Robyn Hitchcock and the Minus 3(Scott Bill and Peter) will return to the UK to play the Wireless Festival on Thursday the 22nd June in London and in Leeds Sunday 25th June.

Other acts performing the same day in London are David Gray, KT Tunstall, Violent Femmes, Fun Lovin' Criminals, The B-52's and Missy Higgins. In Leeds they will join The Who, Flaming Lips, Super Furry Animals, The Zutons, and Eels.

More date will most likely follow.

Thanks to Mathijs for the news

AUSTIN, Texas - Scott McCaughey is feeling sinister.

Taking to an outdoor stage on a sunny afternoon at the South by Southwest Music Festival, the leader of the Minus 5 is dressed in black, from cowboy hat down. The frizzy-haired, 51-year-old rocker smiles from behind dark shades and a devilish Van Dyke. The words emblazoned on his guitar strap - Doctor of Evil - suggest he's up to no good.

McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) will bring the Minus 5, including R.E.M.'s Peter Buck on bass, to World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

In Texas, he performed before a multigenerational crowd in the backyard of the Austin roadhouse Threadgill's, at the Roky Erickson Ice Cream Social, held to honor the leader of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, who, McCaughey proudly says, once autographed his Les Paul.

Another recording of this tour made it out in the open. This time the Cleveland show of last week got posted on etree this time. Thanks to taper Benjamin Galizio. Highlights are a version of 'Boeing Spacearium' and a cover of Neil Young's 'Don't Be Denied'.

23 March 2006 - Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
Setlist:
Dear My Inspiration
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
Twilight Distillery
Boeing Spacearium >
Courage Is The Smallest Bird
...

The Minus 5 are well underway in their tour through the US, and now that John Ramberg joined the band again they are back in full rocking mode. As you can judge by the setlists and live bootlegs on Dimeadozen.

Dogstar provide us with the set list for 400 Bar in Minneapolis

In A Lonely Coffin
Dear My Inspiration
You Don't Mean It
Out There On The Maroon
Hotel Senator
Forgoten Fridays
Where Will You Go?
The Days Of Wine and Booze
...

As modest as he is, Scott McCaughey would be the first to tell you that he's nothing special. Certainly, it can be argued that there's plenty of musicians around that can somehow re-create the melodies swirling about in their noggins well enough for other people to appreciate them, too. But how many musicians do you know of serve as sidemen in one of the world's most popular bands almost as an afterthought to fronting three critically acclaimed groups of their own? I know of just one.

For someone old enough to remember the Topsy Turvy days with a smile, it's sobering to think that McCaughey, utility infielder for Athens, GA/Seattle, WA barnstormers R.E.M. and an eternally Young Fresh Fellow, has been making brilliant records for almost 25 years now; even he would have trouble counting them all.

When McCaughey finally decides to sit a spell (in about 30 years), his new endeavor - the self-titled Yep Roc CD The Minus Five (aka The Gun Album) - will probably be near the top of the huge pile of discs at his feet. With R.E.M. on a year-long hiatus, McCaughey, Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin and John Ramberg have seized the opportunity to reassemble as the Five, with a fantastic, Beatles-meet-Buffalo Springfield-meet-the Byrds disc in tow that features a wet-dream team of guest contributors.

Just off the plane from a UK jaunt with Robyn Hitchcock, McCaughey recently rang me up to tell me all about it. The Minus Five has always seemed to me to be Seattle's version of the Golden Palominos. It kind of started that way, for sure. I guess we've had less trade-off on the lead vocals than the Palominos, because I've mostly sung 'em. Though I do try to get other people to sing a song now and then, I succeed about once per album. It started out with me recording with whomever - my friends, people I'd meet on the road - but it's more like a real band now, with other people added in here and there.

The Minus 5 didn't show at Opal Devine's by 4 pm and the Gram parson's Tribute was long over, so we left. If they showed up later well, then we just missed them.

We did manage to get into the Continental Club last night.

Set list, with probable errors as I've had about 5 hours sleep.

In a Lonely Coffin
Out there on the maroon
Hillbily Drumer Girl
Little Black egg
Cigarettes Coffee and Booz
My Life as a creep
Twilight Distillery
Hotel Senator
With a Gun
Dear Employer
I'm Not Bitter
Lyrical Stance
Days of wine and booze
I Still Miss Someone
Aw Shit Man
Lies Of The Living Dead
Strychnine

They had to quit at 2:15 a.m. when the bars close. John Ramberg was not there due to a death in the family. They had various other guitarists and vocalists help out during the show. Don't know all the names - Steve Wynn (Winn?) was one. Someone from Elf Power too.
-Lucy

Brewery Records has just released a Nick Lowe tribute CD, LOWE PROFILE: A Tribute to Nick Lowe, a 2 disc release that covers songs from his Brinsley Schwarz years, his recordings with Rockpile, and his solo releases, up through and including his last release, The Convincer.

The Lowe Beats (Scott McCaughey Nick Lowe cover band) recorded "Don't Want The Night To End" for this release and according to the review in Harp Magazine it is one of the stand out tracks. If you go to the Brewery Records site, you can hear samples of all the songs from this album.

Other bands on this release include Steve Wynn, Don Dixon, Dave Alvin, Rick Shea & Christy McWilson and many others.

The album includes a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes by executive producer, Walter Clevenger, and an introduction by music critic and author, John Borack.

Over the last few days the Minus 5 got some good press, check out a nice write up by Marty Hughley in the Oregonian.

Chris Castaneda contributed an article about The Minus 5 in the "Chicago Interview." But he is so nice to publish his entire interview on his personal blog, be sure to check it out it's really worth it. Another lengthy feature can be found at Neumu, just scroll down to somewhere in the middle of the page.

Meanwhile Scott himself wrote a column(a piece about the record that changed his life) in the new Harp Magazine, which is in the newsstands right now. Alternatively you can also read it online. Be sure to browse around the Harp site, as there are some more pieces about Scott and the Minus 5 from previous magazines.

The Minus 5 will play one more gig at the SXSW festival, they will play a couple of tunes at Opal Divines in Austin on March the 16th. The Minus 5 is part of the "Gram Jam!", a tribute to Gram Parson organized by Amoeba Records.

And here are some more reviews of the record: The Pitt News; Harp Magazine; SF Weekly and Stylus Magazine.

From tomorrow on till the 10th of march i'll be on vacation.
so don't expect many updates, but in the meantime, please visit our forum
and keep your mails about the gigs coming.

I was fortunate enough to catch The Minus Five w/Robyn Hitchcock at The Key Club in Los Angeles last night. After a one-half hour set by an acoustic soloist from Ireland called Shane, Mssrs. McOi, Buck, Rieflin, and Ramberg hit the stage full-throddle. I don't have a complete set list, but many songs from the new album, "The Minus Five (a.k.a. The Gun Album)" were delightfully represented, including the rowdy set-closer 'Aw Shit Man'. Other songs I remember off the top of my head were 'The Days of Wine & Booze,' and 'Lyrical Stance'.

Not a complete setlist, but atleast these songs where played

Lyrical Stance
The Town That Lost it's Groove Supply
Twilight Distellery
I'm Not Bitter
Aw Shit Man
Days of Wine and Booze
The Forgotten Fridays
Courage is the Smallest Bird
Lies of the Living Dead
Ghost Tarts of Stockholm
Over the Sea?
Out there on the Maroon
My Life as A Creep
Cigarettes Coffee and Booze
-Steve

If you gonna attend any of the upcoming shows, feel free to mail me a review and/or setlist.

The new Minus 5 album has been out for 2 weeks now, so it's the perfect time to sit down with Scott McCaughey and ask him to clear up a few things about this album.
Meanwhile the Minus 5 is ready to hit the road in the US, next week they will start with a small tour on the west coast and play in Callifornia, Oregon and end it in Seattle, Washington. After that they take a few days off before starting a 3 week tour that begins at SXSW festival in Austin.


- You recorded most of the record with the "In Rock" line up, but like on previous Minus 5 records there are a lot of guests. How did they record their parts? Did they come over to the studio, did they send in their submissions, or did you go on the road to record with them?

A little bit of all these ways!
The tracks with Wilco (With A Gun and Hotel Senator) were recorded at Soma Studios in Chicago (on day off during R.E.M. tour), same place where we did Down With Wilco album. Peter and Ken came by too.
I recorded John Wesley Harding and Kelly Hogan's vocals on Twilight Distillery in their motel room when the Love Hall Tryst tour was coming through Portland.
Sean Nelson came over and did his ...

Yesterday The Minus 5 played "The Afternoon Show" at KEXP, it was the first time the full band was at present in the studio. The guys played a couple of songs of the new album and also 2 older ones. The show can be heard at KEXP.org for the next two weeks in the streaming archive (fill Feb 17, 5 pm in the listen by time option.)

The Minus 5 will be playing live on KEXP in Seattle on Feb 17 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.

KEXP can be heard locally on 90.3 FM or online at www.kexp.org.

you thought it was all over, it is now.

We were all sworn to secrecy.

a secret venue somewhere secret (did i mention it was a secret?). It was only a small shindig and friends, family and people who know such people were invited along with their door money going to Medicins Sans Frintiers.

The evening started with Robyn and niece, Ruby Wright doing some guitar and saw numbers, so 'Trains' was played virtually as an instrumental, just an oddly whispered last verse that floated over Ruby's saw. Then it was 'Trams Of Old London'. Scott joined them for a soft rendition of 'Back Room Of The Bar' and that was it as the 18th day took to the 'stage' for a very short set.

Payback!

back in '88 Robyn embarked on a tour of the "toilets of southern england" and my friend and I would trundle along and try and find the venues in daylight hours. shortly afterwards the band would arrive, see our huddled forms and realise that's where the gig was.

... i'm wandering into Exeter town centre with a vague map of the venue and trying to remember what the website said... up an alley, behond the bike sheds.. something like that. There's a nice hotel and i notice there's a white van outside that looks a bit like the one the band are using. Then i see Hessu wander out, followed by Peter, so i wave and wander over. I chat about the Bristol gig, Peter said it was good. I also ask if 'Higsons' is likely tonight and Peter reckons it could well be and he'll see what he can do. I leave them to it and wander off to get coffee and find the gig...

from yeproc.com

Hey there, dear jurors, this is your pal and plaintiff Scott McCaughey speaking at you from The Big Smoke, London, England. The poor little whale didn't make it, but we carry on with sadness in our hearts. Speaking of sadness, there's a new Minus 5 album coming out any day!!! Well, February 7th, in fact, though technically I believe you can order it now, as people have been walking up to me with copies to sign as I play the bass with Robyn Hitchcock around the UK. An Italian interviewer said that on the record the characters in the songs seem to be 'flirting with disaster'... I said, 'Flirting? They're already married!' Feel free to court lovely disaster yourselves by acquainting yourself with a lovely album by me and my incredibly talented friends. You know who they are, and they know who you are!

Thanks for listening, and have a lovely day,

Sir Scott, MBE

Tim Keegan joins in for this gig, but the biggest surprise happens during the encore when Robyn starts "Listening to the Higsons" with Peter Buck on drums, Bill on bass, Scott on electric guitar and Tim Keegan on acoustic guitar.

Setlist (not complete):

If I Were A Priest
Acid Bird
Creeped Out
Ole Tarantula
Adventure Rocket Ship
Birdshead
...

Same as it ever was...

I've been here before, so i know where the venue is...

except...

it's not there!

well, it is, it's just that instead of an industrial wasteland there's now a bustling entertainment centre and a huge hotel!! my friend and i walk around and eventually ask someone, who, luckily, is going to the gig. Due to this and other delays, i get in as 18'th day are on, so lurk around, slowly weedling through the crowd to get to the 2nd row, where i spy some familiar faces at the front.

The gig is another different one... still no Morris Windsor, but there is an extra guitar onstage and it looks like it might belong to... well, more of that later.

The Japanese label Oak Tree Records will release "The Minus Five"(aka the gun album) with two extra tracks.
First bonus track is "All The Time" which is a McCaughey original and performed by Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, John Ramberg, Bill Rieflin and Tucker Jackson. Recorded, mixed and produced by Kurt Bloch and Scott McCaughey.
The second one is "Teenage Idol", a cover of the Ricky Nelson song and performed by Scott McCaughey, Jimmy Talent, John Moen and Brian Berg (aka the Bison flavoured Minus 5).Recorded/mixed/produced by Brian Berg.

not a great start... i'd done a recce earlier to find the gig and failed, got the wrong emtrance, so i bumble around until i have to ask..

once inside it all looks familiar, the front row at least. on a hunch i ask if they're from here and they are.. here and murmurs. i won't give names away, but hello guys!

the set was much the same as Birmingham, which is no complaint. The biggest difference was no Morris on vocals/percussion/drums for the end.

Tonight the troublesome 12 string wasn't even tried and Peter's amp worked first time, which is more than can be said for Robyn's.

Here are some pictures from the Young Fresh Fellows at the Book Records "Dial a Fight" Gig.
Thanks To West Seattle Zach.

from the yeproc mailing list:

We've also got a super waycool Minus 5 contest brewing up for you, in honor of the Feb. 7 release of The Minus 5 (a.k.a. The Gun Album). If you know anything about Scott McCaughey, you know we could hardly find a better person for this contest: Join the Minus 5 mailing list between now and March 10 and you could be the subject of a Minus 5 song! That's right, Scott will write a song about you! Stay tuned for more details, but go ahead and sign up for the Minus 5 mailing list now, and you'll get all the particulars as soon as they're particularized, and be eligible for the contest. You can also pre-order the CD now at yeproc.com and you'll get a bonus CD-R with two otherwise unavailable songs.

www.yeproc.com

The Minus 5 will be out to promote their new self-titled album, which is due out on YepRoc records February 7th.
They will start the tour at the Yep Roc Records Showcase during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, and then go through Nashville, Chicago, New York and a lot of other places to end all the way in the south in the Georgia Theatre in Athens.

The Minus Five - The Gun Album The Minus Five — "The Gun Album" {7.9}

By Chris Estey - threeimaginarygirls.com

The Minus Five is a project of Seattle longtime legend* Scott McCaughey, who you can at times see taking Metro to his local gigs, as I did a couple summers back (when he opened for Jon Langford at the Sunset Tavern). I had no idea that the scruffy dude I was sharing the #15 with had accomplished so much, including playing with the iconic Young Fresh Fellows since 1983, forming The Minus Five a decade later, and recording and touring with REM. More importantly, I didn't really know how great a songwriter he was till I saw him open for Langford — and this album is even more convincing of his talents than that wickedly good appearance was.

I hope the Young Fresh Fellows are happy. I'm never going to be able to go to another rock show ever again. Nothing I could see would even come close to the amazing rawk show I saw the other night.

First up was Llama. I had high hopes for them, seeing how this was the first Scott Sutherland band I've seen since the Model Rockets broke up. I hate to say it, I wasn't too impressed. The songs were okay, and the playing was good.... I just didn't find 'em all that interesting

Girl Trouble, however, were awesome! I wish we would have picked up their CDs at the club, since they'll be hard to find here in Portland. For awhile there, I thought the lead singer might be Rob Morgan of The Squirrels... but I was wrong. Although I couldn't hear the vocals too well, the onstage antics made the show entertaining. The lead singer began the set fully clothed, and ended the set topless. At one point he had a bag of small toys that he was throwing in the audience. Jason got a small snowman kalidascope. They ended the set with "Walkin' the Dog" ala the Sonics, with the lead singer standing in the audience. Coming back to the stage, he knocked over Jason's water glass, but it was all in the name of rawk.

So, last night -- there aren't too many nights where you can say you've seen the Worst Funk Band In The World play for 2 hours straight. But those nights? Those are the best nights.

The first act was LLama, Rusty Willoughby's new band -- I actually dug them quite a bit, despite not really being into Flop. They got a new record out on Book -- I'm thinking I should have picked it up the previous night at the Dial-A-Fight, but whatchagonnado. After that were Girl Trouble, and I have to say I wasn't a fan. But the kids seemed to like them.

But THEN. The FELLOWS. Tad didn't have his wok, but he did have a pipe! And the Caramel obsession from the last night had carried over to hilarious results (Scott falling over and rolling on the floor laughing at Tad; later, Scott asking "Does this even HAVE a punchline?" "NOOOOOO PUNCHLINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" "Really, 'cause I need some sort of payoff for this." "Nopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee").

I went to the Book Records Dial-A-Fight last night and it was pretty awesome. I ended up having to leave early (I go to work early in the morning, so...), but I DID get to see the Fellows. It was a real short set, about 15 minutes (after all, there were like 80 zillion bands), and right after the Chris & Tad show (which I came a little late to -- didn't realize they were STARTING at 9pm, though it was doors at 9...), which was pretty loose, fun, and awesome.

Finally we present you the last video of the Young Fresh Fellows, a few months ago we put up the first 3 videos of them, but now we can also offer "Barky's Spiritual Store" from”Let The War Against music. The video was made by Skizz Cyzyk and you can read all about the making of that video here

The video is available in the Download section with the other videos.

Thanks to Skizz for video.

The Young Fresh Fellows will get together on stage once more this year. They’ll be playing on December 29th at the Sunset in Seattle during the Book Records "Dial-A-Fight!" concert.

Yeproc Records has finally released a picture of the cover of the new Minus 5 Album, so if you can't wait till February, check it out here.

This is the new Minus 5 album. Against all odds, it is perhaps the seventh full-lengther in a career marked primarily by catastrophe, shame and fisticuffs. (Leave triumphs to those that beseech them.)

Great Show, Scott and Robyn came out with their acoustic guitars, Scott was wearing some orange trousers and a black shirt, regular glasses and his Russian hat, Robyn had a nice flashy shirt on, brightened up the stage.

Once more, here we are, sitt now careens on the serpentine mountain road that takes us from Gijon to Madrid. Last night was the 5th and final night of the Minus 5 World Tour of Spain, 2005.