Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey refuses to be slowed by the practical aspects of the music business. The 2009 Minus 5 release, Killingsworth, named after a thoroughfare that borders Northeast Portland, Oregon’s Alberta Arts District, was released simultaneously with the Fellows’ album I Think This Is. McCaughey’s voluminous collection of friends soldier in and out. R.E.M.’s Peter Buck finds his 12-string. John Moen (Dharma Bums, Jicks, Decemberists) supports on multiple instruments and the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow wanders among the proceedings. The result is an understandably loose and casual affair that sounds like a campfire singalong without the campfire. “Scott Walker’s Fault” includes a melody swiped from Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” “Big Beat Up Moon” begins with a swaggering acoustic guitar augmented by spiky electric intrusions. “Ambulance Dancehall” veers from Dylanesque folk to ‘60s girl group pop. “Gash In the Cocoon” and “Tonight You’re Buying Me a Drink, Bub” throw in a pedal steel for a tilt towards alt.country.
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- 2023
- Young Fresh Fellows
- The Autumn Defense
- Golden Smog
- Robyn Hitchcock
- My Morning Jacket
- David Byrne & Brian Eno
- Gary Louris