News January - April 2005

15 April - Minus 5 on the road

So what does Scott do when he is on a break from the R.E.M. world tour? Rest at home and relax? No, he continues working on the next “The Minus 5” record and takes the "Classic In Rock" line-up on the road for two gigs, opening for the Canadian band Sloan. May 6 at the Crocodile in Seattle WA, and May 7 at Dante's in Portland OR.

Stay tuned for more tour dates, and this time not so close to Seattle.

5 April 2005 - So where in the crap are the updates?

So where in the crap is the news? Is it the end of this site? Why is forum not online anymore? Well, I have been very busy but the site is still going strong in delivering you the latest The Minus 5 news. The lack of updates is simply because there isn't much news to update right now. Scott is still on tour with R.E.M. and will enjoy some time off soon, before they go back on the road in May for the final leg of the 'Around The Sun' tour. Meanwhile as some of you have noticed the message board has gone as well, this happened because the people who hosted it (for free) seem to stop their services. So this leaves me in search for another good host, so if anyone knows a good and cheap hosting company for the (entire) site, please drop me a line.
In other news:

*Seems Scott McCaughey has put together a list of his favourite albums at Amazon (thanks to Jane for finding this).

*The Chamber Music compilation which for the Minus 5 recorded a song and which should have been released somewhere last year, is shelved for now, because of some problems with the people of the James Joyce Estate. But it should be released sometime this year, for more info see the fire records forum.

17 February 2005 - Some Small Updates

Not much news about the minus 5 Since scott is on the road with R.E.M., read my review of the 3 gigs i went too here, and if you happen to have some Pictures of Scott from the current R.E.M. tour, post them here. Also Maybe you haven't noticed but the song of th emonth is updated with two new songs for this month, check them out here.
And before i forget, for those in europe who realy want to see the Minus 5 this year, please sign the petition and who knows what happens :p

20 January 2005 - Scott recording new Minus 5 song in Croatia

During the stay in Croatia for the European R.E.M. tour Scott found the time to get into the studio with 'The Bambi Molesters' and Chris Eckman to record 3 songs, all covers; 'Rock and Roll Friend' by 'The Go Betweens, 'My Autumn's Done Come' by 'Lee Hazelwood' and 'Sputnik '57' by 'Jon Langford'. The last one was recorded as 'Minus 5' and is for the forthcoming Bloodshot records compilation.
Thanks to Dalibor of the Bambi Molesters for this info.

7 January 2005 - Fellows Surprise at the end of 2004

A bit late for this info, but on December 22nd the young fresh fellows made a surprise appearance at the College Inn Pub in Seattle by playing a set of mostly Jimmy Silva songs. This was of course a try out for the next night when the Minus 5 played the Tractor Tavern, The Minus 5 who where that night Scott,Jim,Tad,Kurt and John Ramberg, John also played with the Fellows the night before. Setlists of both nights can be found in the Gigography section.
We do still miss some gaps in the Madrid setlist, so if you know them, please let me know
-Thanks to Zach and Scott For the info

3 January 2005 - Moby Dick Club Review

The day started early when I met Carsten and Remi in front of the Moby Dick Club at 11 o'clock. After we said out hello's we decided what we should do that day, Carsten wasn't really up for anything, and he wanted to go back to the hotel, so me and Remi decided we should see the city a bit, we were going to meet each other back at the club at around 6 (later changed to 7).
So Remi and me did this big trip around the city had something to eat, bought some records and back to the club, since we where a bit early we had a drink in the Irish pub next to the club, at seven we went back out, and saw Carsten again. Talked a bit, and then the band arrived, being Ken Stringfellow and Scott McCaughey, and a guy from the Spanish record company. Since Carsten and Remi actually knew Ken pretty well, Ken came up to us and talked to them, meanwhile I introduced myself to Scott, which was great, since this was the first time I met him. Then they invited us to the soundcheck, another great experience. Ken and Scott went up the little stage, took their instruments and started tuning them, then Ken started doing his little soundcheck, meanwhile the doorbell ring(a few times), which was an awesome sound, of which Scott said the more it would happen during his set the better. Anyway door was answered and one very special guest entered (more of that later). Ken had ended his soundcheck and went down stairs to do an interview, while Scott starts doing his soundcheck; he tried for Myrna Loy (as requested by Carsten) but seemed to have some problems with it, so it never made it in the gig. After that Scott went to do his interview, a few pictures where taken with the special guest and off they where to have some dinner before the show. So we decided we should do that as well, but never got past a beer.
Around 9 we returned to the club, where there was already a queue. So after some waiting, we finally got it. The Moby Dick Club isn't that big, so it was already very crowdie, but we manage to get a nice spot at the left side of the stage. After some waiting, it was on Spanish time after all; Scott appeared on stage around 10.30h. I don't really know what he all played, but he opened with a fellows song, then did some Minus 5 (one of DWW which had Ken come up to the stage and sang harmonies in Scott's microphone), songs that where played during the set where, "Barky's Spiritual Store", "Rock And Roll Pest Control", "Lyrical Stance", "The Town that Lost Its Groove Supply", "Retrieval Of You", A cover of "..." which had the help of Ken Stringfellow and the special guest being Mike Mills. After he broke a string of his guitar (which was replaced by Ken) Scott also did some songs on the piano. A beautiful version of "The Days of Wine and Booze" for example. Scott later told me that he didn't wrote out a set list so he kind of played it by feeling.
After Scott's set was over, lights went back on, and we had 10 minutes to relax before Ken came out. Ken Started by inviting an audience member onstage and having a glass of champagne with her. Then he started with singing his first song right above the heads of the audiance members without his microphone, and continued to play some of the songs of Touched and Soft Commands. Somewhere down the line he told a story of how the next day there would be a big revelation printed in a US paper, how they uncovered some secret love letters between George Bush and Saddam Hussein, which launched him right into "When You Found Someone".
At the end of the set he called upon his fellow friends to reunite the Four Croakers, with only 3 ofcourse as one of them was staying at the Faroër Islands at the time. So Scott and Mike climbed up the stage and what else would they play but "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" which they did a great version of, after that Mike was ready to leave the stage already, but was hold back by Ken who said he needed him for the next song as well, and so Ken launched right into "Near Wild Heaven" which had Ken and Mike singing on it, and backings by Scott. Mike change some part of the song to these lines:

"We hold each other, we love each other
There our friends who die
Children now they die
And I don't care where we ship the fucking bodies
Cause you're a fucking honeys"

After that they got of the stage and Ken Did a breath taking version of "Everybody's A Fucking Lair" on his piano. He then proceeded to invite 5 boys and 5 girls to join him on stage, to sing some harmonies, they did some more songs, Scott and Mike also joined the group and sang some stuff, and ofcourse they had to end with "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys.

And that was the end of an amazing night. All the rest is just a big blur :)

Christophe

- Ken Stringfellow's new album "Soft Commands" is out on YepRoc Records in North America, Houston Party Records in Spain and on RyckoDisc for the rest of Europe.
- The Minus 5 have a new EP out, "At The Organ" with the help of Wilco on YepRoc Records (Worldwide).
- R.E.M. is touring Europe in support of their new album "Around The Sun"(Warner Brothers), which will start on January the 7th in Lisbon and takes them trough, France, Spain, Belgium, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Italy, ...