Scott McCaughey may seem virtually unknown, but he must have the most famous friends around. After years of powerpop greatness with the Young Fresh Fellows, McCaughey’s been running the Minus 5 as a supergroup collective of sorts and their new record features the deepest, most famousest lineup yet.
Alongside the R.E.M. b-team of Peter Buck, Ken Stringfellow and Bill Rieflin you also get the other Posie, Jon Auer, the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and Jon Moen, Sean Nelson of the Long Winters, John Wesley Harding, Kelly Hogan and a troika of Wilco in Tweedy/Kotchke/Stirratt.
I bring all this up only because Songs:Illinois has two tracks up, including “Cemetery Row” featuring (swoon Duffy, swoon) Colin Meloy on lead vocal.
The Minus 5, aka The Gun Album, is due February 7th from Yep Roc Records.