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BY RICHARD MARTIN, rmartin@wweek.com
Scott McCaughey lives on both sides of the rock 'n' roll tracks. As frontman for the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5, the amiable singer and guitarist plays spunky pop music with a blatant disregard for commercialism. As the unofficial fifth member of R.E.M., he tours the world and lives the prototypical rock-star lifestyle. For most musicians, especially veterans such as McCaughey, recording for indie and major labels is mutually exclusive. Why bother slumming it when you can live like a king, or at least a Prince? "You know what?" McCaughey says from his home in Seattle. "I really enjoy doing the little stripped-down band tours and sleeping on people's floors and stuff like that. It doesn't bother me at all. But staying at the Four Seasons is OK, too. I like them both, believe it or not." Take a listen to an old Young Fresh Fellows CD or a new Minus 5 effort--or better yet, witness one of these bands' shows--and it's easy to see why McCaughey feels so at ease with a low-key lifestyle. The frizzy-haired mad professor revels in absurdist lyrics, unexpected chord changes and tossing together a mix of styles that includes Brit-pop, grunge, country, folk and garage rock. His career stretches back to 1984, when the Young Fresh Fellows released their debut and became one of the forerunners of the Pacific Northwest's rock scene. The band, which included the Fastbacks' Kurt Bloch and others, went on to release a number of albums over the years, concluding with 1992's It's Low Beat Time (though McCaughey says the Fellows have been working on a comeback record due out next year). In 1993, he launched the Minus 5, a star-studded collective that has gone on to issue two EPs and two full-lengths, including this year's The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy (Malt/Hollywood). The oft-changing ensemble has included the Posies' Ken Stringfellow, the Presidents of the United States of America's Jason Finn and the Maroons' Jim Talstra--all of whom will appear at the Portland show this week--as well as R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and members of Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Guided By Voices, the Walkabouts, Sonic Youth, NRBQ and the Smithereens. How do all these accomplished musicians find time to play on the Minus 5's records? "It's pretty haphazard," McCaughey says. "In general, it's just my friends around Seattle and the Northwest. When I'm working on something, it's whoever happens to be around at the time." He adds that his friends consider it a diversion from their more "serious" bands. "Everybody enjoys doing it because it's usually like they hear the song once, play through it, and I go, 'OK, that's great.' I like it to be sort of offhand, and I like the spontaneity of what people come up with without really studying the songs." McCaughey may be the antithesis to the fussy studio nazi, but the music doesn't suffer. The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy includes instant, albeit overlooked, pop masterpieces like "The Rest of the World" and "Boeing Spacearium," and Byrds-like folk-rock nuggets like "Wouldn't Want to Care" and "Moonshine Girl." It's a well-crafted collection that brims with oblique charm, and where Young Fresh Fellows records teetered between silliness and angst, the Minus 5 balances an upbeat musical mentality with introspective, evocative lyrics. The latest album was a straight-up collaboration between Buck, who wrote the music, and McCaughey, who wrote the words. The two developed a relationship when the R.E.M. guitarist relocated to Seattle from Athens, Ga., in 1993. Two years later, Buck asked McCaughey to join R.E.M. as keyboardist and rhythm guitarist on its worldwide tour supporting Monster, and he's stayed on to contribute to last year's New Adventures in Hi-Fi and the band's forthcoming follow-up. As such, McCaughey was present when drummer Bill Berry unexpectedly announced his retirement from R.E.M. in November. "That was tough," McCaughey says. "They're really excited to do this record, but it was hard to be really motivated when Bill made the decision to officially quit. It was very hard for everybody to get right in there and keep recording without him. Everybody wishes him the best, obviously, but it was hard for that brief period." Berry has been temporarily replaced by another Minus 5 alumnus, Barrett Martin. Despite playing in one of the world's best-known rock bands, McCaughey says he has no intentions of achieving the popularity and status of his sometime bandmate Michael Stipe with the Minus 5 or the Young Fresh Fellows. "I'm certainly not willing to do the standard rock thing of putting out a record and going on tour for six months and that kind of crap," he says. "I like to be here with my family, and I don't make any money when I tour with the Fellows and the Minus 5. To me, the most important thing is just to get the music out there. I'd like to reach more people, but I guess I'm mostly putting out stuff for the people who I know will really dig it and enjoy it." |
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