Tag Archives: Scott McCaughey

Jul 12 2023
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CD, Limited Edition

The Minus 5 • Calling Cortez (Neil Vol. 3) [CD]

“Don’t be denied” – it’s a line from the song of the same name, which also closes THE MINUS 5’s new album, Calling Cortez (Neil Vol. 3). (We’ll get to why it’s dubbed “Vol. 3” further on down the road…) Well, apparently my old friend Scott McCaughey won’t let himself be denied of releasing, what?, an album every other month just like his idol Neil Young! Granted, Scott puts his out under completely different names that keep you guessing a bit – Scott The Hoople, The Minus 5, The No Ones, The Baseball Project, Young Fresh Fellows, phew! – but still. The thing is (and I hate to say it), McCaughey’s stuff is sounding better than ever while Young’s releases aren’t as consistent. At least as far as I can tell, since I have not heard every single release Neil’s put out in the last decade (8 in 2022 alone, 3 so far this year). I haven’t been let down yet by The No Ones (see my reviews here), The Baseball Project (here) or Young Fresh Fellows (here). So I guess I’m not being denied, either. But I digress.

Calling Cortez is, apparently, an homage to Neil that started with Scott The Hoople’s Neil Vol. 1, which he self-released in 2020. (Neil Vol. 2 is MIA but slated for release sometime in the future, according to the Bandcamp page.) Only a handful of the tunes here are actually Neil Young songs, but they’re all quite good. I first found “Pocahontas” to be lacking the pathos of NY’s version, with its peppier, happier vibe. But it’s grown on me. And I really like the closer, “Don’t Be Denied,” a helluva lot. It appears to have been recorded live (you can hear some hoots and hollers near the beginning and end) and is solidly in the NY/Crazy Horse camp (though it appeared on Neil’s Horse-less 1973 album Time Fades Away). “Hitchhiker” has some nice, chiming piano chords and an excellent memoir-ish story (it’s from 2010’s LeNoise), and the others are pretty good, too.

Scott’s own tunes on Calling Cortez definitely fit in with the NY stuff, and sometimes are better than the man of the hour’s. Where Roky Erickson constantly heard white noise and alien planets in his head, McCaughey must channel rock ’n’ roll 24 hours a day. He’s certainly a big enough Neil Young fan that he probably has to be cognizant of his tunes coming out too “Neily,” and that may be why he created a “concept album” that could handle it. I really dig “Bad Fax” (with its punky Crazy Horse vibe and the chorus of “Everyone’s a work in progress”), “Empty Quiver” and “One Last Tank,” which laments those who have tried, flailed, floundered and failed while using up “one last tank of the American Dream.”

This time the Minus 5 isn’t noted explicitly but McCaughey and Peter Buck (who’s also a sometime member of The No Ones and The Baseball Project) are listed first, and then come guest appearances from everybody from Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) to Debbi Peterson (Bangles). (Oh yeah, for those keeping score, yes, Kurt “I’m Gonna Be Ubiquitous If It Kills Me” Bloch is here.) Calling Cortez is a real fun album and worth repeated listenings. Problem is, getting to know any one of McCaughey’s releases is difficult unless you just keep a stack of his various projects next to your stereo and shuffle through them and only them. But it can be done and this is one I’d definitely keep toward the top of the pile. – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (YepRoc YEP 3082, 2023)

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Jun 21 2023
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CD, vinyl

The Baseball Project • Grand Salami Time! [CD, LP]

“Hey! Dying quails and frozen ropes or a can of corn…” What? It’s Grand Salami Time!, that’s what. When listening to THE BASEBALL PROJECT you’re gonna encounter a whole lot of catch phrases and slang terms, but don’t let that deter you from this (home) plate of rock ’n’ roll that just happens to be all about America’s National Pastime (baseball, that is). Actually more of a platter than a plate, there are fifteen – 15! – songs about baseball here, and this is the band’s FOURTH release! Jesus, is there really that much to say about a sport that seems to be in such decline these days? Apparently there is.

The Baseball Project, if you don’t already know, is made up of Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows), Peter Buck and Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate) and Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends, Alejandro Escovedo) – a “supergroup” if you like that kind of term. And as you might expect from their pedigree, the band puts a decidedly alternative rawk spin on these songs about baseball, using all the “stuff” they can get away with to get you to take a swing… even if you’re not a fan of the game you’re likely to go into extra innings listening to Grand Salami Time! What’s really cool about this one is the songs aren’t all happy-go-lucky, ah shucks cornpone about the game. Because, as any true baseball fan will tell you, it ain’t all grand slams, triple plays and successful suicide squeezes. There’s a lot of melancholy, sadness and heartbreak (boo hoo!) in the game – just ask any Mariners fan – and The Baseball Project projects that, too. “The Yips,” “Screwball,” “Fantasy Baseball Widow” and the epically sad “Journeyman” are just a few that’ll bring tears to yer eyes. It’s definitely nice to get not only the lyrics but McCaughey’s play-by-play commentary about the songs in the liner notes, which helps explain what is or isn’t going on in the songs, especially if you’re not as hardcore about the game as these folks are. The album definitely knocks it outta the park/clears the fence/insert-your-own-favorite-baseball-cliché-for-a-good-thing here.

There may be other bands in the world dedicating themselves to one sport or another (have you heard The Duckworth Lewis Method, cricket fans?), but none are as engaging or prolific as The Baseball Project. If you’re a fan of hard hitting power pop ’n’ roll (or any of the bands these musicians are typically associated with) you’ll surely want to get out the rye bread and mustard, gramma… ’cause it’s Grand Salami Time! – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (Omnivore OVCD-517, 2023)

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Mar 29 2023
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CD, colored vinyl, vinyl

The No Ones • My Best Evil Friend [CD, 2LP]

I’ve been gearing up to reviewing this, THE NO ONES’ second release, My Best Evil Friend, for awhile now. So prolific is my friend Scott McCaughey* that I find it hard to come up with new adverbs ’n’ adjectives to describe what he’s done. And this time – dare I say it! – he may have authored his Sgt. Pepper. (And by saying that I know I have doomed this release to a very long shelf life, good or bad.)

“‘Don’t drop out!’ – No way, I’m here to stay” sings Scott on album opener/sorta-title-track “KLIV,” a paean to the San Jose radio station he grew up listening to in the ’60s. The lyrics are basically a list of song titles, band names and phrases associated with listening to the Top 40 AM station of his youth (mine was 93 KHJ outta L.A.). What follows are 17 more odes to rock ’n’ roll and radio, sort of a c*****t album (though not explicitly stated as such) and a damned good one at that.

Throughout My Best Evil Friend, the band – made up of McCaughey, Peter Buck (his mate from The Minus 5 and R.E.M.), Frode Strømstad and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen (they of Norway) – tackle various genres of rock but seemingly without specifically setting out to do so. Though I detect little dabs – or is that tabs? – of psychedelia here and there, along with power pop and other subgenres of rock, there are only a few instances of “hey, let’s do a girl-group type of song” or “this one oughta sound just like the 13th Floor Elevators!”-type shenanigans here. One of them, barely, is “Song for George,” a pastiche of Harrisonian grooves that sounds familiar without being overtly Beatley. Likewise, “Blue Cheer Captain” and “Phil Ochs Is Dead” have an R.E.M. vibe to them; that kind of thing can’t be helped when 1/4 of your band is 1/4 of Athens’ Fab Four. (But the songs aren’t about R.E.M., anyway.) All told, My Best Evil Friend comes off as a very personal – just what is “Band With No Head” about? – life story, starting with birth (“KLIV”) and working its way to the inevitable (“Solo in the End”) and beyond (“The After Party”). It’s a very upbeat album, though there’s a definite melancholic nostalgia lurking beneath the sunshine superman vibes. 

I wasn’t expecting to like The No Ones’ latest anywhere near as much as I do. After all, the band’s first album (The Great Lost No Ones Album) got kind of, errrr, lost in the early Covid shuffle and I hadn’t really given it a second shake in the ensuing couple of years. I mean, McCaughey’s release schedule – he being a member of this band, The Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows and solo artist Scott The Hoople – rivals that of Neil Young’s! (As a matter of fact, McCaughey has already done an album of NY covers, Neil (Vol. 1) and has two more on the way with another solo collection AND a Minus 5 one too!)

My Best Evil Friend is available as a 2LP vinyl affair (color vinyl on initial pressing) and single CD. You get 18 songs on vinyl and only 12 on disc, so do yourself a favor and buy the wax – if only to not miss out on one of the best songs The No Ones have ever committed, “All the Stupid Days.” Whichever format opted for, I can’t imagine any rock ’n’ roll fan feeling less than severely delighted with their purchase. – Marsh Gooch

5/5 (YepRoc YEP 3048, 2023)

* Scott and I know each other from his early days (c. 1980s+) in the Seattle music scene when he was fronting Young Fresh Fellows. I used to shop at the record store he worked in, too, and he turned me on to a LOT of good music!

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Jun 13 2020
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CD, colored vinyl, vinyl

The No Ones • The Great Lost No Ones Album [CD, LP]

I bet when you’re Peter Buck you don’t have to care too much about getting publicity on your new album. I mean, he was the guitarist in R.E.M. He knows his album’s gonna reach the people, one way or another. So it’s the reviewer’s job to know that it’s already come out and get on top of things. And, for Scott McCaughey, regardless of whether you’re known as the guy who started Young Fresh Fellows or The Minus Five, or that you were a sideman for R.E.M. and a member of Robyn Hitchcock‘s Venus 3, the word that you’ve started yet another band – called THE NO ONES – with the guy from R.E.M. will get around. Even during a worldwide coronavirus shut down (Volume 3, anyone?). So here we are: it’s already June 2020 and I’m just now getting around to reviewing The Great Lost No Ones Album, which was released in March. Had you heard about it? I had, but I clearly neglected my rock critic duties (hey, I don’t exactly get paid for this!) by waiting so long to tell you what I think about it. It’s almost as if I was trying to do my part, not review it, and let the album completely live up to its name.

The No Ones first got together as early as 2017 and are Buck, McCaughey (as in, the real McCaughey), Frode Strømstad and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, and they’ve recorded a powerful pure pop elpee that hearkens back to the days of old when practically all it took to put out a rock album was two guitars, bass, drums and some meaty-ass hooks. The Great Lost No Ones Album has all of that, plus the support of a mighty indie label and a captive (read: largely still home-based) audience. McCaughey’s the lead singer and as you’d expect if you’ve followed him for the last 30+ years, he has a great voice for this kind of music. What might make or break this great No Ones album for you is the degree to which it sounds like an R.E.M. record. (It doesn’t sound like R.E.M.) Those finding this album due to Buck’s membership in that band should consider that he was also a member of The Minus Five and this album is much closer to that vibe. For those of us who have tuned in to McCaughey’s projects since he fronted Seattle’s legendary (Young Fresh) Fellows, this may be the best record since Topsy Turvy. (My review on that classic ’80s indie album is right here.) I really like the single “Straight Into the Bridge” and “Dream Something Else” – the guitars on these songs are rippin’ (not sure who’s playing which parts) and sure to invite repeated listening sessions, whether in your car, your music room or your very own underground lair. Other songs do something similar, like “Sweet Home Mississippi,” “Clementine” or “Gone.” Really, you couldn’t ask for a much more engaging record to get into these days.

The Great Lost No Ones Album is available on both CD and LP, and vinyl lovers will thrill to the killer colored vinyl that’s available on initial orders. Not only is it a real beautiful yellow and purple 12″, but it features unique artwork and comes with a bonus 7″ (same colors in reverse) featuring two songs not on the album (or the CD). That vinyl version may or may not be available at this point – after all, I’m two months behind in reviewing this baby! – so I’d get on over to YepRoc’s web site pronto. I can’t tell you what those bonus tracks sound like (my order hasn’t arrived yet) but I wouldn’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be worthy of extra time on your turntable. – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (YepRoc YEP-2718, 2020)

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