The Minus 5

The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy (Hollywood)
by Nik Rainey

Scott McCaughey (ex-Young Fresh Fellows) and Peter Buck (from some band with a bald, mumbling guy in front) again join forces with an all-star (okay, all-relatively-unknown) cast (members of the Posies, GBV, Screaming Trees, etc.) for another mighty swell disc full of chipper psychedelic pop with a miserable undertow. Compared to the Mark Eitzel solo disc most of these guys contributed to, this is positively bubbly, but so’s hemlock if you spike it with Schweppes. (Sing along, kiddies: “There’s a dead man in the alley/sterilized in doctor’s clothes…”) This is the kind of pop that gets called “Beatlesque” because they cover a Lennon song – that said cover is “My Mummy’s Dead” should tell you where these guys are coming from. Excellent. I’ll have another Prozac frappacino, please.