Seattle Weekly plays Jukebox Jury with the Minus 5.
by Laura Cassidy | Seattle Weekly
Back in the early ’80s, well before Mudhoney or even Nirvana, the Young Fresh Fellows put Seattle on the map. Prior to the band’s relentless and often unrewarding tour schedule, pop music rarely made the trip up to our little town; but when college radio stations across the country latched on to the Fellows’ The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, and the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg championed the group’s hook-heavy melodic sound, eventually, Seattle became a destination and not just three syllables synonymous with rain. But it’s not just nostalgia that keeps Fellows frontman Scott McCaughey on the shortlist of Seattle’s most favored musicians. He continues to charm the socks off of everyone within shouting distance with his weirdly wry pop-rock send-ups. Aside from the irregular YFF “reunion,” occasional collaborations with Wilco, and a regular touring and recording gig with R.E.M., the Minus 5 are McCaughey’s main M.O., and the band’s adroitly titled In Rock (Yep Roc), their sixth release, is out this week. By turns (and often all at the same time) hard-edged, surf-inspired, harmonic, twangy, modest, and bold, In Rock seeks not to reinvent the wheel but to keep the cogs nicely greased. McCaughey, drummer Bill Rieflin, and guitarist John Ramberg—the Minus 3, if you will—sat for the Jukebox on a chilly recent Tuesday night in McCaughey’s backyard studio.
The Nerves: “Hanging on the Telephone” (1976) from Nerves EP (Nerves)
McCaughey: Ah, the Nerves. They had a four-song 7-inch or something. That’s the only thing they ever released in their time.
Rieflin: So, which one of these guys started Blondie?
Seattle Weekly: Yeah, Blondie covered this song a few years later.
McCaughey: They probably opened for Blondie, ’cause they really didn’t have a record out and they just packed in a station wagon and started driving around the country . . .
Rieflin: Like Forever Friends?
SW: You mean Friends Forever. This, along with the Undertones, is what I imagine imprinting Scott McCaughey.
McCaughey: Oh, I’m a huge Under-tones fan. [Nerves guitarist] Peter Case went on to form the Plimsouls and [Nerves drummer] Paul Collins had the Beat. I got into the Nerves when I started listening to the Beat and found out there was this band the Nerves, and I went back and found their single.
FM Knives: “Cassevettes vs. the Money-goround” (2002) from Estrogen EP (Smart Guy)
SW: When I played their full-length for my friend Steve, he insisted they were covering a Young Fresh Fellows song.
Rieflin: They didn’t actually do a cover though?
SW: No.
Rieflin: It was on a Fellows’ tribute though, so they get all the money.
McCaughey: Yeah. All that money.
Rieflin: Well, that kind of chord progression, you know, E minor, A minor—
McCaughey: It’s not far from many songs I’ve penned, I’m sure.
SW: They get a lot of comparisons to the Buzzcocks.
McCaughey: I was gonna say, he’s almost singing with a little bit of an English accent—Pete Shelley for sure. What a great name, the FM Knives. They’re around now?
SW: Yeah, in Sacramento. I think they fight all the time and break up on a regular basis.
McCaughey: On the last Fellows tour, we had a show in Sacramento; our roadie thought we had the night off and he was like, “Where are we going?” and we said, “To that show in Sacramento.” And he was like, “What?” He was so bummed out. He was our roadie, but, well, he was our entire crew. He walked into the place and had, like, five shots of tequila, and I was like, “Just take the night off.” I don’t remember what the point was.
Les Georges Leningrad: “La Chienne” (2003) from Deux Hot Dogs Moutarde Chou (Blow the Fuse)
SW: This is a contemporary band from Montreal. I just wanted to throw it in there to see what you guys thought.
McCaughey: This is my favorite track so far, actually. It sounds to me like, if they played more guitars and it was, like, 20 years ago, they’d be like the Bush Tetras or the Delta 5 or something.
Rieflin: With a lot more morphine involved.
McCaughey: Or if the Young Marble Giants took loads of acid and used rubber bands on their guitars. If you hear the demos we do with Peter [Buck, of R.E.M. and the Minus 5], that’s like the exact drum program we use. That’s got to be, like, a super old drum machine from, like, the ’70s or something.
Rieflin: She’s swearing.
SW: La chienne, that’s dog, right?
Rieflin: Well, a female dog . . . I’m only going after what my mother always called me. She wasn’t French so I don’t think she got the pronunciation right.
McCaughey: Unless she was calling you scheisskopf.
Death Cab for Cutie: “The New Year” (2003) from Transatlanticism (Barsuk)
SW: Obviously, I put this on because Ben [Gibbard, of DCFC] contributed to the latest Minus 5 record.
McCaughey: Yeah, he played drums with one broken arm.
Rieflin: That’s ’cause I had two broken legs, as it were.
McCaughey: You weren’t around, and I called a bunch of people, and—of course, this was really last minute—I decided, “I gotta put drums on this tomorrow so we can put it on the record the next day.” I called Jason Finn and probably Dan Peters, I don’t know who all, and I was like, “What am I gonna do? Well, I think Ben is a pretty good drummer, maybe I’ll call him.” And he says, “Yeah, I’d love to do it, but I broke my arm yesterday.” So he shows up with a fucking cast on. We had it all recorded, I just needed drums on it, and he played ’em. It was great.
Rieflin: He used his broken arm?
McCaughey: Yeah. He had a cast on, and I guess he did the light work with that arm or whatever. I don’t think he was playing snare with it, you know, but . . .
Rieflin: I did the last five dates of Ministry’s Lolapalooza gigs with a broken hand.
McCaughey: Oh yeah, I remember that. You know, [DCFC’s] Chris Walla e-mailed me about two years ago, and I’ve been trying to e-mail him ever since, and he, like, refuses to return my e-mails.
SW: Really?
McCaughey: You know, Ben’s good with the e-mail. But that Walla, he’s a real bastard.
SW: I think he’s sort of antitechnology.
Rieflin: But he’s an engineer.
SW: I know, but like, antitechnology with life and stuff.
McCaughey: I really want to record with him at that studio [Hall of Justice] some time, though. We’ve talked about it for years; we’ve just never got around to doing it. I think their latest record is so great. I mean, all the records are great, but I think they took it to another . . .
Rieflin: Don’t say it.
McCaughey: What?
Rieflin: Don’t say the “L” word.
McCaughey: They took it to another tier.
Rieflin: Another layer.
McCaughey: They took it to another rice paddy. I think the lyrics are awesome, which is amazing considering how many he had to write last year, what with the Postal Service.
Rieflin: It’s really good, given that he’s writing in English. He doesn’t have that poetic sense of Belgian French.
McCaughey: This is just a really great song. Is this the one they played on Conan?
Rieflin: No the other guy: Craig Kil—Gilchrist. Cookie Gilchrist.
McCaughey: The Craig Gilchrist show.
Rieflin: Wasn’t Cookie Gilchrist a running back for the Buffalo Bills in the AFL, early ’60s?
Angels of Light: “Evagaline” (2001) from How I Loved You (Young God)
Rieflin: I thought at first that this was something off the first Minus 5 record. I mean, I know it isn’t . . .
McCaughey: Are you sure?
Rieflin: I know: It’s off the second Minus record. Well, my copy has this on it.
McCaughey: You have the Japanese version?
Rieflin: No. Actually the Croatian. There were two extra tracks. Who is this?
SW: Angels of Light.
Rieflin: Oh, of course. Which record is this on?
SW: Not one that you’re on.
Rieflin: It’s the one I’m not on. That’s why I don’t know it. I never listen to records I don’t play on. Ah . . . Michael Gira. The Swans. Yeah, this is cool.
SW: You seem to play on just about every other record of his.
Rieflin: Yeah, Michael’s asked me to play on the new Angels record. It’s interesting because I only set out to do a few things in my life, and one of them was to play with the Swans. I heard the first Swans record and I thought it was one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.
McCaughey: I remember when you were talking to [Wilco’s Jeff] Tweedy and you were like, “The Swans are the best band ever; the best show ever,” and all this stuff.
Rieflin: Yeah, Tweedy and I really bonded on the Swans. Michael and Jarboe [also of Swans] came and stayed at my house when I was moving out, and we recorded Drainland. It was a solo record of his; he and Jarboe and I made that record in an empty house that I was moving out of.
SW: Here in Seattle?
Rieflin: Yeah. There were two weeks of terrible weather, there was a week of flooding—it was horrible. And then I went to work on the first Angels of Light record in Atlanta, and I was incredibly ill. Every time I work with Michael, the situation’s uncomfortable. And that creates great music.
McCaughey: Or great pain?
Rieflin: It creates great discomfort.
For some reviews of the record see here:New York Daily News(scroll a bit down), CMJ New Music Report and Orlando Sentinel
Free FOOD and BEER!!!!
The band's new CD is vibrant and energetic with its hooky Beatle-esque twists and guitars.
By Jim Abbott | Sentinel Pop Music Critic
Posted February 20, 2004
*** The Minus 5, Minus 5 In Rock (Yep Roc): Scott McCaughey's loosely organized collective last surfaced a year ago with Down With Wilco, a well-timed collaboration in the wake of that band's brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Minus 5 In Rock shows that McCaughey's side project -- a diversion from Young Fresh Fellows and his work with R.E.M. -- doesn't need anyone else's buzz.
A few more transcendent songs wouldn't hurt, but In Rock is still more vibrant and raucously energetic than the country-tinged Wilco. There's Beatle-esque harmonic twists and exuberant guitars that recall the Animals and other 1960s touchstones.
If the influences sound vintage, it's worth noting that new In Rock isn't really new at all. Except for four tracks recorded last year, it's a reissue of an album released four years ago by Book Records, which produced only 1,000 copies.
A memo to the Grammy producers: If someone is going to imitate the Beatles, please consider the Minus 5's "The Girl I Never Met" over anything that Sting, Vince Gill and Dave Matthews might do.
Obviously, the Minus 5 collective -- which includes R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and cameos by Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding -- doesn't have the star power of the Grammys faux Fab Four.
But it's worth the sacrifice for the cascading harmonies and easy acoustic guitar on McCaughey's "The Girl I Never Met," which sounds like the best Rubber Soul outtake you could ever imagine.
Elsewhere, threads of cheesy organ are threaded through positively groovy up-tempo songs such as the anthemic "Dear My Inspiration." McCaughey spends the first 60 seconds of the two-minute song searching for love and the second half proclaiming "It's you! It's you! It's you! It's you!"
The well-worn "Gloria" guitar riff is regurgitated for "Lies of the Living Dead," which adds maracas to the garage mix. That song, along with the redundant "Dr Evil: Doctor of Evil," marks a stretch where the songwriting doesn't elevate the nostalgia. The organ in the latter sounds like a Doors ripoff.
If McCaughey had eliminated about half these songs, In Rock might be exceptional. As it is, the hooky songs share too much time with lesser fare -- and that's not a plus.
Copyright © 2004, Orlando Sentinel
- Seattle Weekly is doing a nice "Jukebox Jury" feature!
- Minus 5 review and photo to run in the NY Daily news on Saturday (2/21)
- Pre-order the never-before-(officially)-released release from Minus 5 and get the unofficial original release too! As a bonus for pre-ordering In Rock by The Minus 5 before the street date of 2/24/2004, we'll include a second copy, one of the original ones sold at shows and to some lucky members of R.E.M.s fan club. Two tracks unavailable on the "new" one are on the "old" one and four new tracks not on the "old" one are on the "new" one. I have to stop now, my head hurts.
Maybe it will be easier to understand if you read M5 leader Scott McCaughey's explanation. Or maybe not:
"The Minus 5 "In Rock" (original version) was released Oct. 14, 2000, sold at our show at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle that night. The Book Records label was the culprit. No one knows who is behind this label or why. The address of the label is 17 Library St., Binding, USA. 1000 copies were pressed, and mostly sold at shows, with a few made available by mail order through the R.E.M. Fan Club. We really had to do the release pretty undercover, as we had a finished Minus 5 album waiting to be released by Mammoth Records, which was concerned that In Rock could undermine the impact of a new album, or at least confuse people. The early In Rock includes '60s garage classic "The Little Black Egg" and the Buck/McCaughey composition "Myrna Loy" (different version than the one that appears on I Don't Know Who I Am album). These were left off the "redux" issue for no particular reason -- and four new songs ("Bambi Molester", "Forgotten Fridays", "Cosmic Jive", "Where The Wires Meet The Skies") were added. "The Girl I Never Met" is a different mix. "Dr. Evil" has a different intro. New one is remastered/resequenced as well. Definitely! Once we started playing these songs, Peter Buck switched over to bass and has pretty much refused to abdicate that throne. He'll still play 12-string and such on Minus 5 albums though. This album really represents when the Minus 5 became more of a band, and less a studio collective (though there is always opportunity for that approach as well)."
Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner opened with a set of songs from his recent solo album. He played acoustic guitar, and Johnny Sangster played electric guitar. Steve's solo material is nothing ground-breaking, just good singer-songwriter stuff that's not at all like Mudhoney.
Eddie Spaghetti followed. He commented that there were so many great guitar players in the room, but he couldn't get anyone to play with him. He rocked anyway. And he promised to rap at the end too, but what he really did was bring smiles to everyone's faces with his version of Hey Ya! Sounded good, too. If you ever get to see him, don't let him get away without playing that one!
Then the Minus 5 took the stage, all dressed in black suits and back to the "regular" lineup of Scott, John, Peter, and Bill. The rumored special guests never showed, but they weren't missed.
Peter was sporting a big bushy beard and glasses that made him look like Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting" or Salman Rushdie with more hair. Scott had been sucking down beers and smoking cigarettes (he doesn't usually smoke), so I knew he was feeling extra good and it was going to be fun.
The sound was cranked up unusually loud (especially Bill's drums), but still clear and not painfully loud, so it sounded great.
The setlist is here. I know there were some changes, but I didn't take notes, so I can't give the exact order. They didn't play Twilight Distillery, but they did throw in Days Of Wine And Booze, plus a cover of the Beatles' You Can't Do That (with lead vocals by John). Other covers included Lodi (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and Strychnine (the Sonics).
Scott said they were playing One Bar At A Time live for the first time ever. He added some kind of weird guitar freak-out in the middle, then commented afterwards, "One member of the band was completely retarded on that song." They also played Wouldn't Want To Care for the first time, and did so without any retarded parts.
Scott had been switching back and forth between whiskey and beer, and eventually it started to catch up with him. He still played and sang fine, but between songs he was a little goofy and seemed to be slowing down, so a few songs at the end of the setlist weren't played. He threw a glass and broke it (and immediately said, "oops, sorry"), I think after Strychnine. After that, they played Mary Lou, which John sings, so Scott was free to roll around on the stage. Peter grabbed Scott's hat and put it on for a while, then stuck it back on Scott.
They finished with Over The Sea, without the little instrumental bit of Beyond The Sea at the end. Scott moved back and forth between his microphone and an extra one, finally knocking one mic stand over. At the end, he emptied two beers into the audience, Peter dropped his bass into the drum kit, and they all left the stage.
The familiar strains of Billie Holiday through the speakers signalled that there would be no encore. It didn't matter, though; they had totally rocked for a solid hour. I've seen a lot of Minus 5 shows, and this was one of the best.
I wish all of you could have been there. The place was only half full (where the hell was everybody?), so there was plenty of room.
-Neil
He opened with two “Wilco” songs, I Don't Want To Fuck Up Anymore and What I Don't Believe. He then did a slower version of the Fellows song How Much About Last Night Do You Remember? Followed by a newer song With A Gun (one of my favorites). Next were two more Minus 5 songs, The Amazing Dolphin Boy and Vulture. Scott had given various people in the crowd instruments (penny whistle, harmonica, tambourine, etc.) to play during the “freak out” portion of the song. Two Lives from the Fellows (Topsy Turvy) followed. Family Gardener was the first time he sang it in public. (“Jeff sang it on the album, but he isn’t here, so fuck him!”) Scott introduced the next song as the first song he had ever written (co-written with a friend) The Ballad of Captain Stan. He jokingly asked people to sing along with it since everybody remembers it as the theme song from the radio and TV show, Captain Stan – Space Ranger. Somebody had hackled Scott during the song, so when he finished, he gulped down the rest of his whiskey and threw the cup and ice into the audience. (The audience were standing at least 10 feet away, so they safely parted without injury.)
He then said goodnight by introducing his “new theme song,” Cigarettes, Coffee & Booze. He quickly followed with an encore of Your Mexican Restaurant, a song the Fellows used to do.
Scott had on his usual cowboy hat and shades. Overall, it was a nice show that mixed the familiar with the unfamiliar.
-Bradley
Where did the
band name 'The Minus 5' came from, and how and where did the band first
start?
The Minus 5 was one of a couple hundred names the Young Fresh Fellows
brainstormed one day on a long van ride on a tour very long ago. Our friend
Charlie Chesterman was starting a new band after Scruffy The Cat and he
asked for some suggestions in the name department. We cracked ourselves up
all day thinking of stupid ones. For some reasons I always remembered "The
Minus 5" (I think YFF drummer Tad may have come up with it...). Somewhere
during recording Old Liquidator (had lots of un-YFF-like songs... playing
with Peter(Buck) and Ken(Stringfellow) and Jon(Auer) and not knowing what it would or could be, just
doing it) I decided I didn't want it to be a Scott McCaughey album, as that
seemed extremely boring and narrow-minded to me. So I picked a moniker I
could use for whatever happened, and The Minus 5 was there like an old
discarded sock. I saved it from the rubbish heap.
Whose idea was it to re-release 'In Rock'? Why were there two songs
(Myrna Loy, The Little Black Egg) left off and 4 new recorded songs put on?
Well, I suppose it was my idea. We only made 1000 copies of the first
version, and sold them at shows. But I wanted the new one to be different,
just updated a little bit to make it more exciting to me personally, not
that the album wasn't perfect and exciting enough as we did it. You know,
I'm very proud of that record, and I felt like Yep Roc could help me in
getting it out to more people. I love "Myrna Loy" and "Little Black Egg" --
but I wanted the great fans who came to our shows and bought the original
limited CD to still have something special, and with the new songs, to get
something cool if they bought it all over again!
If you have some comments about this, leave them here in the forum
The album features 21 tracks from artists including Robyn Hitchcock, The Makers, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Mendoza Line, The Figgs, Comb*Over, The Silos, The Groovie Ghoulies, Visqueen, Carla Torgeson & Amy Stolzenbach, The Black Panties, Emily Bishton & Conrad Uno, Johnny Sangster, Eric Kassel, Charlie Chesterman, Louden Swain, The Maroons & Steve Malkmus, I Can Lick Any SOB In The House, Superfan Scott Lee, and John Ramberg & Christy McWilson.