But according to a well-founded rumour Scott and his Minus fivers will come to Spain somewhere in November. More info when it is confirmed. There will also be a compilation album (with new tracks) out in Spain around that time then.
Next week The Minus 5 return to the studio to finish the follow up of 2003's 'Down With Wilco'.
By Carolyn Lamberson / The Register-Guard
Three weeks ago, Scott McCaughey was on a stage in London's Hyde Park, playing guitar with R.E.M. before a crowd of 200,000 as part of Live 8.
Tonight, he'll be on stage at a more intimate venue: Sam Bond's Garage.
"Which is great," he said in a phone interview before that historic European concert. "I'll pretty much go to Sam Bond's for any possible excuse."
McCaughey and one of his many bands, the Minus 5, will kick off the Whiteaker bar's 10th anniversary weekend with a show tonight.
"I'm really excited that they asked the Minus 5 to be one of the bands at the 10-year anniversary celebration. I felt really good about that," McCaughey said. "And everyone in the band was like 'Yeah, we'll do that.' You know, it's not the most convenient place for us to go. You can't really get paid a lot of money or anything. It's a tiny place, but it's just such a good vibe and such a great bunch of people and I'm really looking forward to it."
When you're talking about the Minus 5, "everyone in the band" usually means some heavy hitters. McCaughey, a Seattle singer-songwriter-guitarist who also plays with the Young Fresh Fellows and Tuatara, has recruited some of his talented pals to join him in the Minus 5. The core members include R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck (he plays bass here), ex-Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin - who now tours and records with R.E.M. - and guitarist John Ramberg of the Bottle Rockets.
(Missing this trip to Eugene is Ken Stringfellow, who plays keyboards on the road with R.E.M. when he's not working on solo material or playing with his band the Posies. "He's got a new Posies record that just came out," McCaughey said. "So he's going to be full-on in Posies world for the next year, as soon as this tour is over, the R.E.M. tour.")
The Minus 5 has released six albums, most recently "Down With Wilco" in 2003, which was recorded with Jeff Tweedy and his cohorts in Wilco. The Minus 5's most recent release was 2004's "At the Organ," an EP. Fans of McCaughey's quirky songwriting style and the Minus 5's energetic pop rock will be happy to know a new album is in the works, due out next year on Yep Roc Records.
McCaughey said he'll preview some of those songs tonight at Sam Bond's.
"We won't delve too deeply into the depths of the Minus 5's slow and depressing songs," he said. "We'll probably leave most of those on the records and not bring them to this festive occasion."
Slow and depressing used to be that status quo for the Minus 5.
"The original concept of the Minus 5 was to do all these slow, quiet, weird songs that I'd always been writing but the Fellows would only do one or two of them per record. So I had a big backlog of those," McCaughey said. "It wasn't meant to be a band or a live thing particularly, but in the intervening years, with the Fellows playing less and less, and the Minus 5 playing way more often, it started getting to the point where if I'd written some rocking songs and the Minus 5 had a show, we would learn them and play them."
For the past couple of years, McCaughey has had to squeeze the Minus 5 in between gigs with R.E.M. He's toured and recorded with R.E.M. since 1994's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi." Being an "unofficial" member of a seminal rock band has its perks, McCaughey said.
"I sort of get a lot of the benefits without a lot of the hassle. I'm not famous so I don't get harassed on the street," he said. "It's a great job if you see it as a job, which I don't, really, even though it does certainly provide very well for me, which is really nice and kind of allows me to keep going with my other cockamamie projects that don't ever make any money."
The R.E.M. connection with the Minus 5 has probably helped the band more than hurt it. While the band drew fans who were into the Young Fresh Fellows, it also drew a lot of the "R.E.M. curious," McCaughey said.
"Some of those I think we really won over and are big fans of the Minus 5 and others are, `Peter just plays bass. Whatever.' I think overall it's been a good thing, the R.E.M. connection," he said. "When we started, it probably made it a lot easier for me to find labels that were interested in putting out the music."
As for Buck, McCaughey said he's perfectly happy just being a guy in the band.
"At first he was playing 12-string and mandolin and a lot of things he plays in R.E.M. But he switched over to bass for one show and he pretty much hasn't relinquished the bass spot since then," he said. "He loves just standing back there and playing bass."
With R.E.M.'s latest tour now over, McCaughey plans to spend a lot more time with the Minus 5 - or at least as much time as one can spend on a band that is essentially a side project.
"I don't feel like I can ask those guys to do a six-month tour, just because everybody has their own thing to do," he said. "Part of the thing with the Minus 5 is that everybody is in other bands and that's just the way it is. But it'll definitely be more of a priority for me. When we get back we're doing the shows in Portland and Eugene, then we're going right back into the studio in Seattle to try to finish the new record."
- Somewhere around the beginning of the set, Scott’s set list got turned around so it wasn’t facing him anymore, but facing those of us in the front row. Scott says, “Don’t look at my set list!” and has to step on it to turn it around.
- I’ve seen All The Time done by the Minus 5 twice before: Once at Music Millennium three years ago and once in San Francisco with John Wuster on drums. It was cool to see Peter “conducting” the song, in a way. He was giving Bill hand gestures to indicate when he should play and how loud.
- Carmelita was really cool. Scott followed the song by saying “Heroin isn’t that bad” and that the song made it sound kind of romantic.
- You Don’t Mean It is where the dance party started. At least, where my friends and I were.
- Scott stated they had been asked to play a song by Gentle Giant. Scott said most bands wouldn’t be able to do one song by Gentle Giant, but they could do the entire Octopus album if they wanted to. Scott took a moment to inform the band of which Gentle Giant song they were going to play. I heard Peter say “Its in E” and the band played the Ballad of John and Yoko. At then at the end John said, “I think I learned that song halfway through”
- Teenage Kicks was introduced as being “Big in Belfast” During the song Scott’s glasses started slipping further and further down his nose. He leaned into the audience to have a friend remove the glasses from his face.
- They planned to end with Over The Sea, but Scott felt like doing just one more. So they did I Still Miss Someone. It was an odd version; the drums were a little funkier than usual. But good.
- The band left the stage, but we managed to get them back. Scott said it was because he promised to play at least three songs without his glasses and had only done two. So, we got Ghost Tarts and Strychnine.
It was a great show and a good time. I met two gals who had traveled all the way from Austria to see the Minus 5 in Portland and Eugene. I’m really glad they decided to play the Doug Fir and I hope it will become the venue they play at in town from now on.
-Jane McDonald
Photos by Jane McDonald (click thumbnails for larger picture)
Peter And Bill
Scott rockin' the lounge
Sunglass-less
The show began with a great version of Ghost Tarts. The band was using a lot of equiptment from the opening band, including the mic stands. At the end of the song, Scott proclaimed that whoever invented boom stands was an idiot, that straight stands were the way to go. They didn't move, and could occasionally be put through the cieling. Scott introduced the next song as "Boom Stand, Suck My Cock."
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply was next, and Lyrical Stance was sandwiched in the middle of the song. Somewhere in Lyrical Stance, Scott broke a guitar string. Two songs in... and it was broken. The song ended and Scott switched to another guitar. I had noticed a straight stand behind me and offered to switch it out for Scott. So he did, I also offered to change the guitar string for him. And so I did. I guess one of my friends looked at my husband and said "Does Jane know how to change a guitar string?" Of Course I do.
While the guitar and stand switching was going on... the rest of the band played some jazz oddyssey type song. Pretty Tuatara-ish.
Lonely Coffin, I Still Miss Someone, and Twillight Disitllery were next. There really wasn't a setlist that the band was following, they were just picking songs as they went along. I'm Not Bitter, Retrieval Of You, and Burned were next.
Someone in the crowd yelled that they should do Hang On Sloopy. Scott couldn't remember if they had played it there or not (they had). Scott asked if we'd ever seen Jonathan Richman do Hang On Sloopy, 'cause he was the shit.
Out There on the Maroon was next up. Scott introduced it as being from the next Minus 5 record. One that they'd finish in the next month or so. That it would be a classic. He joked that they already had a date for the record release at Sam Bonds (Feb 8th) and that they'd take the roof off the place and have hot air baloons. Those would be the gold circle tickets for $150.
Continuing with the theme, the band played Where will you go. Prior to the show, Warren Zevon had been playing on the stereo. So the band played Carmelita. Scott said he wrote it when he was strung out on Heroin, but he's clean now and living on Beer and Whiskey. He said that he wanted to become part of the meth epidemic (it seems that everyday in Oregon the newspaper headline is about the meth epidemic). He hadn't tried it yet, but he was going to become the poster child for the meth epidemic... if a 50 man can be the poster child for anything.
Peter wanted to play Let's Eat by Nick Lowe, so they did. Followed by The Night Chicago Died, Again. Scott forgot some of the words at the end, but fisihed the song with "I don't know if any of you have been to chicago lately, but tis not there."
Aw Shit, Man and The Forgotten Fridays were next. The badn was trying to figure out what to play and Peter said "If you don't make up your mind, I'll have to choose." So they did The Rest Of The World.
The Days Of Wine and Booze became a dance number when a couple began a weird waltz/salsa dance at the foot of the stage. Strychnine got more of the crowd on its feet (including me and some friends from Portland), and after this... the setlist is kinda approximate...
LIes of the Living dead was played. Scott said John would do the next song and it was called You Can't Do That by the Beatles. John got a look of "Oh?" on his face... but did a great job. Dear my inspiration followed. Scott mentioned that they tried to do a Gentle Giant song from Octopus the night before and were going to do it again. So they did the Ballad Of John and Yoko. Someone called out for Cold Turkey... so the band tried that one... getting pretty far through it. A burnign version of MAry Lou was next, during which John's guitar strap came off and he had to put his foot on the monitor to keep playing... but it was great. The band closed the night with Over The Sea... as usual. John gave a special thanks to the Eugene Police for not showing up to the gig as they usually do, and the night was over.
It was a great show. I say it everytime and its a little cheesy, but I'm so glad that my favorite band is from the same region as I am, and they're so versitile and they have so much fun playing. It was a great show...
The rest of the night was pretty surreal, but damn... one of the best shows ever.
-Jane McDonald
Photos by Jane McDonald (click thumbnails for larger picture)
In Rock Line Up: John Ramberg, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin(not in picture)
Peter and his Rickenbacker bass.
John Ramberg on the lead guitar
Scott loves his microphone stand
Ghost Tarts
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply -> Lyrical Stance -> Groove Supply
In A Lonely Coffin
I Still Miss Someone
Twilight Distillery
I'm Not Bitter
Retrieval Of You
Burned
Out There On The Maroon
Where Will You Go
Carmelita
Let's Eat
The Night Chicago Died, Again
Aw Shit, Man
The Forgotten Fridays
The Rest Of The World
The Days Of Wine & Booze
Strychnine
Lies Of The Living Dead
You Can't Do That
Dear My Inspiration
The Ballad Of John & Yoko
Cold Turkey
Mary Lou
Over The Sea
21 July - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Lies Of The Living Dead
Forgotten Fridays
Courage Is The Smallest Bird
Out There On The Maroon
The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply
Lyrical Stance
I'm Not Bitter
Where Will You Go
Carmelita (warren zevon)
The Rest Of The World
Burned (Neil Young)
Dear My Inspiration
Cigarettes, Coffee, and Booze
Aw Shit, Man
All The Time
You Don't Mean It
The Ballad Of John and Yoko
Teenage Kicks
Over The Sea
I Still Miss Someone
------------------
Ghost Tarts
Strychnine
Mary Lou was in there somewhere...
For those who haven't noticed Yep Roc posted a new media
player. The recording of the radio session The Minus 5(Scott and Wilco) Did
for WXPN on April 30 in 2003. You can access it
here (Flash is necessary for this). But watch out as it takes some time
to load (it’s about 16MB large, for those on dialup).
In other news, apparently it is not certain anymore
the fellows will play in Spain, stay tuned for further updates on this.