Just found these pictures at the bottom of my mailbox, send by me by Geoff. Must have somehow forgotten about these, but don't wanna keep them from you all, so here they are. Many thanks to Geoff for sending these, and deep apologize for putting them up so late.

R.E.M. - Accelerate
Once again Scott lends his skills to the new R.E.M. album, due out on April 1st(no joke). With the first single "Supernatural Superserious" out February 11th. Album includes many songs they tested out last year in Dublin during a week of rehearsal gigs.

Living Well's the Best Revenge
Man Sized Wreath
Supernatural Superserious
Hollow Man
Houston
Accelerate
Until the Day is Done
Mr. Richards
Sing for the Submarine
Horse to Water
I'm Gonna DJ

More info on R.E.M. HQ and you get a daily teaser video till the album release date on Ninety Nights.

John Wesley Harding & The Negative Quintet - Songs of Guilt and Inexperience
From JWH mailing list

"A happy new year to all from Wes, safely back in the USA after a minor skirmish with Maxjet airlines who decided to fold rather than bring him back home. a few words: it's 2008 and the new album is done - but we must be patient. A lot of love, care and attention, from many people, have gone into the making of the record and I want it to have the best release possible, for about a million reasons, none of them worth a dollar. I made a truly terrible decision for "Adam's Apple", and I must make sure that the new album - which is called "Songs of Guilt and Inexperience" - doesn't suffer the same indignity. I'd rather put it out myself. So, patience, for all of us. And for those who simply can't wait, there will be a preview (of the song 'Love or Nothing') on the cover mount CD of a soon-forthcoming issue of Mojo, curated by Peter Buck. If you get to hear that, you're one-twelfth of the way there. Another consideration is that the Minus Five, with whom I made the record, are touring as their lesser known side-project REM for most of the year. Obviously, it would be fun to do some gigs together when the album is finally out, as we had originally intended. Robyn Hitchcock also has an album due for release, recorded with The Minus Five - he calls them The Venus Three, I call them The Negative Quintet.
More info johnwesleyharding.com, wesleystace.comor MySpace

Coleman Barks - ...
from Barret Martin's myspace page
... I got booked to do four albums back to back, all of which turned out magnificently well, considering their diversity. The first was with Coleman Barks, the famed Sufi poet and elder statesman of Mystical Truth. Coleman wrote "The Essential Rumi" and numerous other poetry books that I have read over the years. He's 71 years old now, and an old friend of mine from Athens, GA, back when I played with REM. So, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey, guitarists of REM, and Kai Riedl of the band Macha came down to Santa Fe and we recorded close to 20 song-poems with Coleman. We basically made up the music on the spot to fit with Coleman's poems, although admittedly, we all came prepared with song ideas or at least riffs and rhythms, so that we could appear to be spontaneous, even if we are actually, dare I say, "professional"?
Rahim Alhaj, the Grammy-nominated Iraqi oud player came down for a few songs too, and he and Coleman bonded quite tightly. Coleman's album will be released in the late spring on Fast Horse (my label) and I think the album will really affect people, largely because of its beautiful Americana poetry, Sufi mysticism, and a helluva lot of humor that might actually shock some of the people who revere Coleman as a saint. Coleman is no saint, but he is a brilliant, warm, humorous bear of man. We love him dearly, and so will you. ...
More info about Barret at MySpaceand barrettmartin.com.
More info about Coleman Barks at colemanbarks.com.


More releases that might come out this year: A new Young Fresh Fellows album, The Baseball Project Record with Steve Wynn, the 2nd Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 album and another Minus 5 album.

Part two of the Tuatara double album(East of the sun/West of the moon) is out for awhile on Fast Horse Recordings now. While "East Of The Sun" the vocals where mostly done by men, this time around on "West Of The Moon" the spotlight is on the women,they include Adama, a British-Nigerian soul singer from London, Gina Sala, a featured vocalist with Cirque De Solei, and American singer-songwriter Jessy Greene. A few of the men from East Of The Sun remain however, with John Wesley Harding, Scott McCaughey, and Coleman Barks each contributing a song or two.

You can pre-listen to the album here.
And you can order either the physical CD or any track of your choice in the Fast Horse record store.



tracklist:
1 Bird's Eye View
2 Los Angeles
3 Wrong Turn
4 Are You Feeling Me
5 When The Love Is Gone
6 The Old Carving Knife
7 God's Meditation
8 Playing And Being Played
9 So Fine
10 Never Look Back
1 Bang Bang
12 An Invisible Bee
13 The Shifting Sands
14 Kali Rides

By Barbara Mitchell
The Portland Tribune, Jan 11, 2008

If you’ve been to a local show by the Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie or Wilco over the past four years – or if you’ve witnessed on stage Robyn Hitchcock, John Wesley Harding or KMRIA, the Pogues cover band featuring members of the Decemberists, during that same time period, you’ve probably wondered who the cool-looking guy is with the unruly hair, huge grin and sunglasses.


BY JIM CLARK

If you’ve seen the Minus 5, a Northwest supergroup of sorts that typically includes R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, you already know that the individual in question is Scott McCaughey – one of the hardest-working and most beloved members of the Northwest music community.

Team Photo, L-R: Peter, Steve, Adam, Linda and Scott

The people from KEXP blog had a little chat with Steve Wynn about "The Baseball Project"(Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, and Linda Pitmon). While there isn't a release date set for their upcoming album baseball-themed album, they can however already preview the rough mix of on of the songs, “Pasttime” which features lead vocals by Scott.
Go listen to it here