The Minus 5

Related Content

• R.I.P. R.E.M., Masters of a Beautiful, Eclectic Rock 'n' Roll
  September 21, 2011
• Rich Beatles Fans Will Pay Buttloads of Cash For Questionable Memorabilia
  December 2, 2011
• Jigsaw Seen: Show Preview
  November 30, 2011
• "Monstress": Lysley Tenorio Reads From His California Stories
  February 1, 2012
• Long Live the Triptych: Five Great Series of Three Rock Songs
  August 18, 2011

More About

• Scott McCaughey
• The Beatles
• Ray Davies
• Peter Buck
• John Wesley Harding

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

More a collective than a literal band, the Minus 5 is Young Fresh Fellow Scott McCaughey's vehicle for writing the perfect pop song, 1960s-style (i.e., inspired by era archetypes the Beatles, the Kinks, etc.). This time around, the 5 includes John Wesley Harding, luminaries from Wilco, and, of course, recurring collaborator Peter Buck of R.E.M. Make no mistake, though: McCaughey's well-crafted songs, cozy Ray Davies-like singing, and sardonic attitude are the stars. While the frontman does indeed draw upon the yearning, fragile melodicism and crisply jangling guitars of that still-bountiful decade, his lyrics are as tartly cynical as those of Steely Dan and Elliott Smith; on the lilting "With a Gun," McCaughey sweetly intones, "I'll kick your sister's ass/ I'm gonna take your brother's face and smash it in the grass," the song reverberating like a lost Byrds gem. There are also occasional country-rock overtones on The Minus 5, like the forlorn, Dylan-esque "Cemetery Row," featuring a gorgeously sighing pedal-steel guitar solo. Not everything's gold -- "Aw Shit Man" is an inane throwaway -- but there's enough goodness here to cement McCaughey's rep as a power-popster of the highest order.