In Rock

Last year’s Down With Wilco was a pleasant surprise from Scott McCaughey’s pop supergroup The Minus 5. Sometime between Down With Wilco and 2001’s Let the War Against Music Begin, McCaughey, Peter Buck, John Ramburg and Bill Rieflin managed to slip out a tour-only album titled In Rock. Originally limited to 1,000 copies, The Minus 5 and Yep Rock have now decided to give the album a proper release, taking off two songs and adding four complementary tracks recorded in late 2003.  

On describing the band’s once-forgotten album, McCaughey had this to say; “This record was made carelessly, carefree, carefully calcified, like loose marbles in a capsule, Apollo Gemini Jupiter. It is the sound of relationships flaring like sunspots, of love unleashed like a big blonde dog pulling a troop carrier up a mountainous sand dune. If you want more, it’s always there, where small amps with bad tubes are turned up too loud and the Wurlitzer’s buzz is prohibitive.” And it goes on. As little as can be taken from those drops of nonsensical wisdom, it’s clear that In Rock has some sort of muscle behind it, be it logical or not.

Down With Wilco portrayed The Minus 5 as a solemn, calculated band, where in the past they seemed to be little more than an “anything goes” side project. The fun is back on the quick, catchy In Rock. In Rock begins with the psychedelic instrumental “Bambi Molester” before moving into the non-stop garage trio of “Dear My Inspiration,” “In a Lonely Coffin” and “The Forgotten Fridays.” All three songs are quite similar in sound and set the pace for the rest of In Rock with their exciting jangle pop sound.

In Rock feels like a Guided By Voices album in many ways. Like Robert Pollard, McCaughey is quite prolific, writing songs and recording at a rapid rate. Both Pollard and McCaughey seem content with their rambunctious Paul Westerberg-spirited rock n’ roll. In fact, In Rock sounds quite a bit like the spontaneous Come Feel Me Tremble; just replace Westerberg’s rough voice and the slight genre experiments with McCoughey’s Brian Wilson-meets-Ben Gibbard vocals and Buck’s always stable jangle-guitar.

Spontaneity is precious: The Beatles pulled it off in a day with Please Please Me; Lou Reed did it (at least once); and a hundred local bands do it everyday. Why can’t TheMinus 5 do it? That was probably the shortest, never-ending day of The Minus 5’s life. In Rock sounds like a group of lively 40-somethings partying in a studio, and basically that’s just what it is. While In Rock doesn’t offer the repeat value of past Minus 5 albums, it does showcase their knack for pop songs and clever rock n’ roll music. Raise those horns.    6/10

Written by G. William Locke