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The Rice Thresher
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Because We Hate You vs. the minus 5 Let the War Against Music Begin What a curiosity. Usually, double albums are reserved for ego-driven rock stars who can't manage to trim their sprawling masterpieces down to a normal single-disc serving. But in Scott McCaughey's case, it's because he fronts two different power-pop bands, both due for album releases. The premise is that the double album is a battle of the bands between the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5. My problem is that I can't tell where one band begins and the other ends. McCaughey writes almost all of the songs for both groups, sings lead and plays a lot of guitars. In fact, McCaughey is the only person in both groups - he's the shaded-in area of the Venn diagram of the bands' members. I can't tell which group is the side project and which is McCaughey's real band. Maybe there isn't a right answer. Both groups sound like side projects: a little bit of dabbling in different genres, with apparently no fear about trying to be marketable - else why release this hulking two-disc set? At first I thought the Minus 5 was the side project because it sprang from McCaughey fooling around with Peter Buck while away from their day jobs playing for R.E.M. (McCaughey has been R.E.M.'s fifth - or is that fourth? - member since the mid-'90s, playing guitar, bass and keyboards.) The Minus 5 is basically McCaughey backed by whoever happens to be around at the time, whether it's Buck, ex-Posies, Wilco or former Presidents of the United States of America. Yet Let the War Against Music Begin sounds more solidified than the Young Fresh Fellows' contribution. Both bands' material runs the gamut of pop, from jangly to quirky, but the Minus 5 disc is mostly pure power pop, whereas the YFF's half is more diverse, even more punky and more randomly put together. War Against Music boasts "Got You," which is probably the catchiest melody you'll ever hear about an obsessive relationship ("Candles light the scene of my closet shrine"). It's followed immediately by "Ghost Tarts of Stockholm," another blackly funny track that's a tour through a red-light district. The slower "Desperate for Someone" wouldn't sound out of place on a Wilco album, although McCaughey's romantic pleas aren't quite as poetic as Wilco's. The closer, "Your Day Will Come," ends with a druggy-sounding spoken-word piece by Robyn Hitchcock. In the end, though, a lot of the Minus 5 songs end up sounding like bland power pop - I prefer the Fellows for their variety. Because We Hate You opens with "Barky's Spiritual Store" and "Lonely Spartanburg Flower Stall." Both are character sketches, rendered in gentle pop, about small-town subjects (of the sort normally reserved for the Ass Ponys). Another character song, "Mamie Dunn - Employee of the Month" sings the praises of a Krispy Kreme waitress. But then on other tracks, the Fellows totally punk out. "My Drum Set" is a lo-fi ode to his kit by drummer Tad Hutchison. "She's a Book" doesn't even sound like McCaughey - it's done in a faux British classic-punk sneer. So is "Your Truth Our Lies," a stellar cover of a forgotten '70s B-side. There's also pure pop, like in the busy, bright "Little Bell" and the simplistic but funny "Good Times Rock and Roll." Because We Hate You's highlight is its final track, "The Ballad of Only You and the Can Prevent Forest Fires," a cautionary tale about a '60s band that rose too fast and floundered. It's both funny and a little poignant, but mostly it'll stick in your head - like some of these songs, if not all of them. - Mariel Tam
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