Biography The Minus 5 - a brief compendium Scott McCaughey. Charioteer, optometrist, master brewer, or corpse? The blatherers rage on. What HAS been established is that “McCoy” is long addicted to rock’n’roll and its various sidekicks, at great expense to family and friends. To wit: Young Fresh Fellows (1983 to present) – songwriter, singer, instrumentalist; The Minus 5 (1993 to present) – songwriter, singer, instrumentalist; R.E.M. (1994 to present) – instrumentalist; Tuatara (1996 to present) – instrumentalist, songwriter
With these groups, Scott has made many records (best seller: 5 million; worst seller: 450), and played many shows (highest attendance: 125,000; lowest: 8). “McOi” is always available and enthusiastic when it comes to these activities. In fact, there have been many other bands that have “benefited” from Scott’s talents (first documented stage appearance: 1972, with Vannevar Bush & His Differential Analyzers). A complete discography may never exist, but for more information see Guy With A Pencil - McCaughey’s Odyssey In Song (Dalkey Archive, Normal IL, 2002).
The Minus 5 itself started when McCaughey realized he had a dumptruck-load of songs that the Young Fresh Fellows would either never get around to, or would wisely choose not to. His friends and fellow Seattle-ites Peter Buck, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer were quick to volunteer to help Scott capture his “Let The Bad Times Roll” vision, and these early sessions produced The Hello EP and Old Liquidator. Many other luminants have since joined the ranks of the Minus 5 (see list below). It’s a bit like a cancer, really.
The Minus 5 vs. wilco - historical background Uncle Tupelo opened for the incredibly popular Young Fresh Fellows once at the Off Broadway in St. Louis, 1988. There was an undeniable musical kinship between the bands (since denied) despite the fact that Jeff was 14 and Scott was 40. Years later other things happened. Peter Buck produced Uncle Tupelo’s beautiful March 16-20, 1992 album. Every so often Scott and Jeff Tweedy would find themselves at their wife’s house in Chicago, playing each other records and new stuff their bands had recorded. On a night off on R.E.M.’s 1995 world tour, Jeff learned a bunch of the songs off of Old Liquidator, and played a set with Scott and Peter at the fabled and much-missed Lounge Ax. Somewhere along the line Tweedy and McCaughey started talking about the desire to record together, and they kept talking about it, though nobody listened.
After a Golden Smog show in Seattle, Jeff, Scott and Barrett Martin recorded a new Minus 5 song "Childhood Lament" (which resides carelessly on the unreleased Let The War Against Music Begin Vol. 2 album). Wilco toured with R.E.M. in 1999. McCaughey regularly contributed moogerfooger banjo to “Misunderstood.” Backstage in Munich came the Tweedy/McCaughey/Buck anthem: “Lyrical Stance (I’ve Got A).” Later, in Toronto, Scott and Jeff penned “The Family Gardener” and recorded a rough version of the song with Brian Paulson in a Raleigh, NC Holiday Inn. In January 2000, a two-week celebration of Lounge Ax (finally being evicted from its longtime home) brought Scott to Chicago to perform a set of new material, with no rehearsal, and featuring Wilco as the Minus 5. This set has been widely bootlegged. Ha!
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