You can now pre-order "The Baseball Project" album "Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails" at the Yep Roc Records store. All pre-orders will come with a downloadable exclusive track "Blood Diamond", which will be available right away. The album will be shipped around the release date of July 8th.
But for those who can't wait or aren't entirely sure what to expect, you can stream the entire album right now by clicking the button below(through YepRoc records).

The Baseball Project, a collaboration between Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey with the help of Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon, will release it's first album on July the 8th through Yep Roc Records. The album is titled "Volume One: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails" and has 13 tracks.



Tracklist:

PAST TIME
TED FUCKING WILLIAMS
GRATITUDE (for Curt Flood)
BROKEN MAN
SATCHEL PAIGE SAID
FERNANDO
LONG BEFORE MY TIME
JACKIE’S LAMENT
SOMETIMES I DREAM OF WILLIE MAYS
THE DEATH OF BIG ED DELAHANTY
HARVEY HADDIX
THE YANKEE FLIPPER
THE CLOSER

This months Q magazine features an lengthy interview with R.E.M. as well as an very positive review of their new album,'Accelerate' due out April 1st on warner brothers records.
The magazine also comes with a CD with tracks picked out by the band. Needles to say Peter buck came up with some very interesting tracks, a new 'Young Fresh Fellows' track (from the album that will come out later this year) a 'Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3' track(from the upcoming new album), 'Tuatara' track from last years 'East Of The Sun' and the original 'Myrna Loy' track that was available on 'The Minus 5' album 'I Don't Know Who I Am'. And long time Minus 5 colaborator 'Ken stringfellow' can be found with a track of his new band 'The Disciplines'.

The She Bee Gees – I really want to like this band, but can’t seem to do so. Maybe its their material, I tend to only know one song they do each set: Massachusetts. Maybe some of the other more well known songs are harder to sing. I’d really like to hear them try “To Love Somebody.” The three instrumentalists are quite good and their voices blend together well. However, the gal in the middle always sounds flat to the point of being distracting.

Casey Neil and the Norway Rats is a really fun band. It usually features Casey Neil on guitar, Little Sue on Guitar, Adam East on Bass, Jenny Conlee on keyboards, Lewi Longmire (portland’s answer to Kurt Bloch) on guitar and Ezra Holbrook on drums. Tonight, Jenny and Lewi were absent. I really like their song and would like to see them more often. They finished the set with a cover of “I knew the bride when she used to rock n roll.”

I’ll take this opportunity to admit that my knowledge of Nick Lowe is limited. Before Saturday night I knew about 6 songs, maybe.

The line up was great. Jim Sangster on guitar and keyboard, Graham Black on drums, John Ramberg on Guitar and switching to bass for a few songs, and someone on bass – I didn’t catch his name but I think he was in the Picketts. What did that leave for Scott to do? He played acoustic guitar on a few songs, but for the most part he was a frontman.

And what a frontman! He was jumping around and dancing. His drink rarely left his hand and with all the movement the stage was flooded by the end of the show. I think his microphone started cutting out toward the end of the show, so he knocked it over and stole Jim’s. Jim’s didn’t work either. The soundman figured out that the two center monitors were going out and re-arranged the other monitors. Scott stole John’s microphone and wound up singing “What’s so funny bout Peace Love and Understanding” through two microphones.

It was a really great show, too bad they only play every ten years or so.
-Jane Mcdonald

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And for those of us who weren't able to make it to the shows, YouTube user CForce33 has uploaded a couple of songs of the Seattle show.
Go check them out if you haven't already: Lowe Beats in Seattle.

Legendary underground cult artist Robyn Hitchcock reveals his creative process as never before in ROBYN HITCHCOCK: SEX, FOOD, DEATH... AND INSECTS.

This Sundance Channel original production chronicles the origins of Robyn's forthcoming album (and features eight brand-new songs), the formation of his band the Venus 3, and their U.S. tour. Famed for his twisted rock lyrics that are at once blithe, scathing and deep, Robyn is one of England's most influential songwriters and performers--and has a body of work spanning over 20 albums and three decades. Joined in music and conversation by friends and bandmates like, Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin, and Scott McCaughey (REM, Minus 5), Chris Ballew (Presidents Of The USA), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Nick Lowe, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Morris Windsor (Soft Boys, Egyptians), and Ruby Wright, Robyn’s creative genius runs wild in a free-flowing musical interview that gives us an unprecedented glimpse into his mind and craft.

FEATURES OVER 20 LIVE PERFORMANCES - INCLUDING 8 NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED SONGS: Afterlight / Star of Venus / Born on the Wind / Evolve / I Often Dream of Trains / John in the Air / Flanagan's Song / Cradled ‘til Dawn / Sickie Boy / Adventure Rocket Ship / Somebody / Uncorrected Personality Traits / My Wife and My Dead Wife / Queen Elvis / Creeped Out / NY Doll / Underground Sun / The Authority Box / Belltown Ramble / Ole! / Tarantula / 16 Years


DVD Features: "Evolve," "John In The Air," "Star of Venus," and "Afterlight" Complete Rough Versions plus Conversations About Robyn's Songwriting Technique; Acoustic Rooftop Performance of "Ole Tarantula"; Music Video for "Adventure Rocketship"