The Baseball Project - All Future And No Past
---------------------------------------------------

SPRING IS HERE AND THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR
UNREALISTIC GOALS
LAST SUMMER SOME HIT THE BOTTOM RUNG
BUT THE NEW YEAR BRINGS HIGH HOPES

THE PADRES MAY BE SURPRISING
A RED MACHINE COULD RISE AGAIN
IF THE PIRATES ARE PULVERIZING
I WANT TO WRITE THAT STORYBOOK END

BEFORE A GAME IS PLAYED
BEFORE AN OUT IS MADE
BEFORE THE FIRST CRACK OF THE BAT
THAT'S WHEN IT'S ALL FUTURE AND NO PAST

THE SWINGIN' A'S WILL BE OVERACHIEVING
K.C. COULD BE A ROYAL PAIN
THE O'S RECENT WOES SO DECEIVING
THE TRIBE COULD END UP DRENCHED IN CHAMPAGNE

EVERY APRIL BRINGS A CLEAN SLATE
SO UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCE
BEST REMEMBER THE RAYS OF 2008
AT THIS POINT EVERYBODY HAS A CHANCE

BEFORE A GAME IS PLAYED
BEFORE AN OUT IS MADE
BEFORE THE FIRST CRACK OF THE BAT
THAT'S WHEN IT'S ALL FUTURE AND NO PAST
IT'S ALL FUTURE AND NO PAST -- OPENING DAY
ALL FUTURE AND NO PAST -- WHAT WOULD LOU BOUDREAU SAY
ALL FUTURE AND NO PAST -- OPENING DAY

Having firmly established the previously unknown and unlikely marriage of Rock and Roll and baseball, the indie-rock 'supergroup' known as The Baseball Project are now set to wed topical folk rock with sports journalism. Presenting BROADSIDE BALLADS, big league style: Phil Ochs steps up to the plate while Blind Boy Grunt twirls bats impatiently on deck. Ring Lardner pounds his typewriter keys, and Peter Gammons plugs in his Strat. Yes, it looks like Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon will become a free-swinging musical blogging band this year when they release a series of download singles throughout the 2010 season. The band will be providing tuneful commentary on baseball events big and small, recording them in magical bi-coastal fashion (Linda and Steve in New York City, Scott and Peter in Portland and Seattle, respectively) and putting them up online while the ink is still wet. Best of all, the songs will be absolutely free, just a way for the band to thank fans for the overwhelming support of their debut album “Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails” while working on the Volume Two, due early in 2011.


The first track to be released is an optimistic, buoyant number called “All Future and No Past.” Says Scott: "I'd been reading all the pre-season reports and realizing that this is the time of year when every team has high hopes, no matter how unrealistic. Then I stumbled upon a saying from the great Indians player/manager Lou Boudreau: 'On opening day, the world is all future and no past'. And for me that really sums up the beautiful feeling that comes with spring training each year." The song was written, recorded and mixed in Portland and New York City, all in the space of about a week, setting a template for regular dispatches throughout the season.


And when will the next song come down the pike? Well, keep your eyes on the band's various websites and other outlets as well as the sports pages. When something glorious, stupid, heroic or hilarious happens in the baseball world this year it's very likely you'll be hearing more about it from The Baseball Project. Sportswriting has rarely sounded so good.

You can download the first song in these series here.
Don't forget Steve Wynn's chat is tonight.

While in the middle of recording Volume Two, The Baseball Project are starting a "musical blog" throughout the new season. The "Broadside Ballads" series will feature a new song every month about what happened that month. These series are a collaberation with ESPN and to kick off the first song, Steve will do a live chat on Tuesday, the same style Scott did a few years ago, so get your questions ready and fire away here.

We will keep you up to date when new songs drop.
Enjoy the season!

Young Fresh Fellows
Fri., February 19, 9:30pm
Tractor Tavern
Price: $10
Seattle Weekly

Considered by many a pioneering force behind the Seattle Sound, the Young Fresh Fellows formed in the early '80s and bridged punk and pop with a flippant, accessible style years before grunge ever became synonymous with Seattle. They toured with the Replacements and were produced by Butch Vig, who had a hand in making some of that era's most defining releases (among them Nirvana's Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins' Gish). Recording through the '80s and '90s, Fellows mainstays Jim Sangster, Kurt Bloch, Tad Hutchinson, and frontman Scott McCaughey established a loyal following, cranking out a canon of releases. Their raucous live appearances grew sporadic over the years as McCaughey became caught up in other projects, namely touring with R.E.M. and performing with guitarist Peter Buck as Minus 5. But on July 7, 2009, YFF released I Think This Is, their first studio release in nearly a decade. "We always wanted to do another record, we just seemed to never have the time; we'd be in other bands, a couple of our guys are really busy with families and kids, and it's that much harder to schedule things," McCaughey explains. "But it wasn't like we broke up or anything—we'd usually play a couple shows a year. Last year was the first year in 25 years we haven't played a show, although it just happened that way because I was just gone all the time." Despite the eight-year layoff, they put I Think This Is together surprisingly fast. Of course it helped that their longtime friend and supporter, British rock legend Robyn Hitchcock, produced the entire album. "We got together for five days to do the Fellows record," recalls McCaughey, speaking from his home in Portland. "Most of the music, particularly the stuff we did with Robyn, we really knocked that out quickly. It was really fast." With Girl Trouble.
GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT

For those who can't get enough of Scott Mccaughey's baseball projects, Volume 2 of the baseball project will most likely only hit the stores next year, there is this: The Seattle Pilots: Short Flight Into History DVD. It's a 85 minute documentary about the Major League Baseball’s one-year team "The Seattle Pilots". The film includes restored movie footage of the Pilots, dozens of rare and never-before-seen images and original music from Scott McCaughey, Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5.

More info can be found here, where you can also pre-order the DVD for 19,99$