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As you have
noticed by now, we have stopped doing the song of the month feature due to
lack of time, but we do have a download section now. And we plan on rotating
and adding songs there from time to time.
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February 2005 |
A bit later then usual, but I have been busy this week. This
month we return back 2002, where in the September The Minus 5 had the great
pleasure of opening for Wilco on their west coast tour, in-between the Wilco
dates, they found the time to play a show on their own. And what a show this
is one of the top best Minus 5 show ever. The band (Scott McCaughey / Peter
Buck / Ken Stringfellow / John Ramberg / Jon Wurster) was in fine form, and
played more covers then they played minus 5 songs. Taking request from the
audience members all the time.
Two of the covers stuck out a bit the first being an amazing cover of
Albuquerque by Neil Young, the second one being Massachusetts by the Bee
Gees, which was mostly sung by Ken. If you would like to discover the entire
gig (or some other Minus 5 live shows), just check out the
trading section and drop me a mail.
The Minus 5 -
Albuquerque (Live at the
Cafe du Nord, San Francisco, CA, 8
September 2002)
The Minus 5 -
Massachusetts (Live at the
Cafe du Nord, San Francisco, CA, 8
September 2002)
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Scott McCaughey in Europe, No F***ing way.
My First reaction when I saw on Ken Stringfellow's site that Scott was gonna
be the support set for Ken's last show of his solo tour in Europe. Place of
Happening, Moby Dick Club in Madrid. Needles to say I was going to be there,
packed with my photo camera (which can also tape video, which would come in
handy). So Scott started the night with a few of his YFF and M5 hits, before
launching into the Kirsty Maccoll song "They Don't Know", which got some
nice backing vocals of Ken and MIKE MILLS (Yes he was in the house as well).
Once Scott was done, Ken took over and played most of the song Soft Commands,
at the end of his set he called upon his two compadres to reunite the "4
Croakers" (the 4th one being somewhere on a island in the Faroe Islands).
Then they did a rousing performance of R.E.M.'s (Don't Go Back To) Rockville.
Then Mike wanted to leave the stage, but was held back by Ken who said ' I
need you for this one as well" and then launched into Near Wild Heaven, at
that time I had my camera rolling and was able to capture the song. Sadly I
can't share the video as it is too big, but I do have the audio from the
clip, it isn't the best recording, there is a lot of noise on it, but as it
is (probably) the only recording out there, we will have to do with it.
This is the only song I recorded, so I don't have anything else from this
gig.
3 Croakers - Near Wild Heaven (Live at the Moby Dick Club, Madrid, Spain, 30
December 2004)
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The Croakers reunited
Photo by Christophe Claessens
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December 2004 |
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Whilst on tour with R.E.M. this fall, they
boys(Scott, Bill, Peter and Ken) saw a chance to bang out some Minus 5 tunes
at a day off in the Vote for Change tour. They gathered up at the
400 Bar in Minneapolis for a
benifit. They got a little help on some songs by local star Jessy Green (who
also plays on 'Down With Wilco')
The Minus 5 - Don’t Want To Fuck Off Anymore (Live @
400 Bar in Minneapolis, MN, October
4 2004)
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November 2004 |
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In the summer of 2003 right
in-between the European and the North American tour of R.E.M. the Minus 5
opened for The Zombies at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. And with the rock
version of the Minus 5 in place they ripped trough some fierce version of
Ghost tarts of Stockholm, The Town That Lost It's Groove Supply, I'm Not
Bitter, Twilight Distillery and a nice version of Courage is The Smallest
Bird, which was started with a Happy Birthday to Jane who later joined on
sleigh bells for Twilight Distillery.
The Minus 5 - Courage Is The Smallest Bird (Live @ The Crocodile Cafe,
Seatle, WA, August 15 2003)
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October 2004 |
The Minus 5 where booked for the crocodile
cafe in october of 2001, funny enough this was on october 23 and was right
inbetween some R.E.M. promo dates, needles to say after the minus 5 where
done playing a very well know band came out to play. Ofcourse like always
Scott was onboard as an extra musician for the R.E.M. touring band. But
after 5 songs the band got ofstage leaving only Mike Mills and Scott
McCaughey on there to perform a very beautifull version of Catationia's
"Dead From The Waist Down". With 9/11 just happend this was a very moving
performances.
Scott McCaughey w/ Mike Mills - Dead From The Waist Down (Live @ The
Crocodile Cafe, Seatle, WA, October 23 2001)
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September 2004 |
2004 is a pretty busy year for Scott, while in the first half
of the year he was busy recording with R.E.M., promoting The Minus 5's In
Rock, playing a one off gig with the fellows, going to Croatia to play with
The Strange (The Bambi Molesters + Chris Eckman) and will soon embark on a
US tour with R.E.M. which will keep him busy till the end of the year. Butt
hat didn't stop Scott to join John Wesley Harding and Dag Juhlin in the
month July to form the John Wesley Harding's all Male Threesome, which had
Scott and Dag opening for JWH. Needless to say there where many
collaboration going on between these artists. We present two songs from the
Shuba's gig in Chicago on July 18 of this year.
The first song is from Scott opening set and is the unreleased Minus 5
masterpiece, Twilight Distillery and has John and Dag on it as well. The
second song is the Jimmy Silva song Tell It To The Raven, which is from John
Wesley Harding's set, but has Scott on vocals.
Scott McCaughey w/JWH and Dag Juhlin - Twilight Distillery (Live @ Schubas,
Chicago, IL July 18 2004)
John Wesley Harding w/Scott McCaughey and Dag Juhlin - Tell It To The Raven
(Live @ Schubas, Chicago, IL July 18 2004)
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July/August 2004 |
In 2002 The Minus 5 where pretty busy with a summer tour
which covered most of July and the beginning of August. And as if that
wasn't enough they agreed to open for Wilco in the fall, bringing them to
several cities on the west coast. They played two consecutive nights in LA
at the John Anson Ford Theater on September 9 and 10.
The played two pretty rockin' sets, at the first night they closed with a
cover of The Sonics 'Strychnine' as songs of which Peter Buck said "If I had
my way I'd play 'Strychnine' at every show in every band I'm in!"
The second night brought another nice surprise as E from the Eels joined the
band for a rendition of 'I Like Birds' from the Eels album ' Daisies of the
Galaxy' an album on which Peter had played.
The Minus 5 - Strychnine (Live @ the John Anson Ford Theater, LA September 9
2002)
The Minus 5 - I Like Birds (Live @ the John Anson Ford Theater, LA September
10 2002)
And as a special request for the month of august we will also offer The Girl
I Never Met from the September 9th show
The Minus 5 -
The Girl I Never Met (Live @ the John Anson Ford Theater, LA September 9
2002)
Thanks to Donna and Dunja for the tracks
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June 2004 |
Last year Scott flew over to Chicago to meet up with Wilco
and play a back to back concert at the Abbey Pub, For promotion of the 'The
Minus 5' record Down With Wilco. The record that is now just been released
on LP for the first time with 5 bonus tracks. They played alot of songs of
that album including a beautifull version of 'What I Don't Believe'.
Ofcourse with the full Wilco line-up they also played some songs of them,
including 'Handshake Drugs' a song that will be on the new
Wilco Album ' A Ghost
is Born' due out later this month.
The Minus 5 - What I Don't Believe (Live @ Abbey Pub, Chicago 17 april 2003)
(no longer availble)
The Minus 5 - Handshake Drugs (Live @ Abbey Pub, Chicago 17 april 2003)
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May 2004 |
Many of you will know the version 'I'm Not Bitter' of the
2003 album 'Down With Wilco'. But what some of you might not know is that is
actually an original Young Fresh Fellows song. It was released as a B-Side
on tour single in the early 90's. The song was written by Tad Hutchinson
(drummer of the fellows) who recorded a demo of it showed it to Scott and
the two finished the song on their own. The fellows never played it live.
Then in 2000 when The Minus 5 (Scott w/Wilco) played the Lounge Ax, Scott
revived this song and so it got a place on the DWW album.
The Young Fresh Fellows - I'm Not Bitter
(no longer availble)
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April 2004 |
- On December 5th 2003, a whole bunch of Seattle artist came
together to play a benefit for the Boomtown Cafe an organization that
supports the homeless at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle. Earlier in the day
some of those artists visit the KEXP studio to play some songs there and
talk about the organization. Of course Scott was their as well, backed up by
John Ramberg and backing vocals from Christy McWilson he delivered a very
nice rendition of "The Forgotten Fridays", a track from their new album "In
Rock", which wasn't even out by that time. In Rock was released by YepRoc
records at the end of Febuary and is available in stores.
The Minus 5 - The Forgotten Fridays (Live @ KEXP)
(no longer availble)
In that same sesion, Christy and John performed a version of the Young Fresh
Fellows tune "Celebration", with Scott doing the backing vocals. Its a song
that Christy and John also recorded for the upcoming Young Fresh Fellows
tribute CD " THIS ONE'S FOR THE FELLOWS" which will be released April 20th
on BlueDisguise
records.
John Ramberg & Christy McWilson - Celebration (Live @ KEXP)
(no longer availble)
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Christy McWilson, Scott McCaughey and John
Ramberg (photo from KEXP) |
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March 2004 |
- During Last year's promotion
for 'Down With Wilco' The Minus 5(Scott w/Wilco)played a show in a sold out
Bowery Ballroom on April 29th. The day before Scott visited the WFMU
radio station in New Jersey for a little chat and some live songs. Among
others Scott performed "Mellow My Mind" from Neill Young. The Minus 5 have
performed song only a few times live, mainly because this song is
unsingable.
Scott McCaughey - Mellow My Mind (Live WFMU) (no longer availble)
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February 2004 |
- On september 14th, 2003 Wilco
played the last show opening for R.E.M., and on this magical
night, late in the set, the members of Wilco called out
Scott McCaughey to come and sing a song with them. And so Scott
launched into 'Dear Employer(The Reason I Quit)' from The
Minus 5 album 'Down With Wilco', and since they where there
anyway Peter Buck and Ken Stringfellow joined in, giving this
the first live performance with the full 'Down With Wilco' cast and crew.
The Minus 5 - Dear Employer (The Reason That I Quit) (Live from Red
Rocks)
(no longer availble)
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Photo by
kidsmoke |
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December 2003-January 2004 |
- On December 19th Scott dropped in the KEXP radio studio in
Seattle and joined Amanda Wilde for his annual Christmas appearance.
In the one hour and 30 minute he co-hosted the show, he answered several
questions from the listeners, talked about various stuff from the last year,
spun some records (including a preview of "Bambi Molester" from the
forthcoming Minus 5 release "In Rock" on YepRoc) and at the end
played a live song. The song called "So Much Wine" and is a cover;
the original is by the "The Handsome Family" and can be found on the
album "In the Air".
And as a Christmas present you can now download this track exclusively at
this site. The track has a little skip that was in the original recording,
so sorry for that, for the rest is it a great tune.
Scott McCaughey - So Much Wine (live KEXP)
(no longer availble)
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© Christophe Claessens 2003-2004 |
