Customer Reviews

Because We Hate You / Let War Against Music Begin

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this CD after hearing a brief review of it on NPR. I wasn't expecting much, but I was completely blown away. The two CD concept is quite clever, and each album has some really great tunes. Most of the lyrics are too smart for mainstream radio these days, but the combination of wit and excellent melody lines make this set a steal.

Finally, after years of waiting, Young Fresh Fellows fans get another helping of tasty morsels. But what's special about this package is it includes a second disc of frontman Scott McCaughey side band (or is it now his primary band?) The Minus Five. So we need to have two reviews of this molecular infusion of music to give a proper perspective on just how good this collections to ditties really is. Because We Hate You is the Fellow's champ in the corner and packs the kind of punch that doesn't sting until possibly the morning after when you wake up all black and blue. Like a good poem, it brings more meaning each time you listen to it. The infection grows and you're hooked, needing an swift kick in the pants, if you are to have any hope to stop grooving. Instant hits are For The Love of a Girl, I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight, Fuselage, and Little Bell. Any of these songs would be appropriate for radio play should the general public regain some sense of fine music taste again and get off the boy band kick. Other songs require some sense of humor and if you have been following the Fellows for any length of time you should get the jokes with relative ease. A fine time indeed!

But wait.. there's even more! The Minus Five featuring Scotty McOi (that's Scott MaCaughy to you smart guy), Ken Stringfellow of the once defunct, now resurrected, band The Posies, some guest vibes from Robyn Hitchcock, who performs well in storefronts, and some new guy on the scene, Peter Buck from some band called REM. Your first thoughts might very well be Pet Sounds when the vibrations of the notes hits your ears, and you'd be correct in thinking so. Great News Around You is a wonderful song, full of rich melodies, and great instrumentation. Other stand outs are The Rifleman with it's Big Star ending, You Don't Mean, It which could have easily been the song used in that Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do, and would have been a better suited title. There's a bit of honky tonk found within One Bar at a Time, and John Barleycorn Must Live is a must for any Wilco fan out there. And even though I peppered several big names throughout the descriptions of some of the songs, the record is all Minus Five, and that's not all bad.

I admit I haven't gotten much sleep since I first cracked open this CD because my dreams are filled with a different song every hour. Just try getting some sleep with She's A Book playing in the background! So all in all a wonderful collection of music has been crafted by Scott and his cast of thousands for your listening enjoyment. Don't wait a minute longer and buy this CD right now and feel the blessings of YFF and Minus 5.

I cannot believe that this is out of print when so many lousy albums are in print. It is an injustice to the world when two of the best albums I have heard in recent years, packaged together no less, are not available through amazon.com. Well, lucky me, a local indie record shop had this in their used department in mint condition. From the moment I stuck disc one (Minus 5 was what I went to first) in my car stereo I was hooked. This is some classic pop in line with the Beach Boys, the Ramones, and 80s "college rock." Tuneful to the extreme, lots of real soul, and the freedom to goof around that comes of low commercial expectations. The songs are smart, funny, uplifting and insightful. In an alternate reality it would be a big, big hit with everyone. It would be blasting from loudspeakers in the streets. But here we are in 2004 America where no one cares enough even to keep it in print. Evrybody has lost out without even knowing it.

-HW

Scott McCaughey fans are like Jonathan Richman fans: they think their fave's mediocre stuff is more enjoyable than 95% of the music out there. There's a lot to like on both discs of this release, but it pales in comparison to Young Fresh Fellows '80s output. Still, "Ghost Tarts of Stockholm" is better than anything released in last year, and the Fellows do their best Sex Pistols imitation on "Your Truth (Our Lies)" or something like that. Truth be told, this is a must for old Fellows fans but really only a 2+1/2 star album at most. Just make sure you get all the old YFF first: Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest, Topsy Turvy, The Men Who Loved Music and This One's For The Ladies are among the greatest rock and roll records ever made. Better yet, catch these guys on tour (check the Mammoth records site - mammoth.com ? - for details) - I saw them on a triple bill (Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5/Fastbacks, Mike Mills joined in so most of REM was there, too!) three nights ago and even though most of these musicians are now 40-somethings, they still rock harder and better than ANY band on the planet. "In Dennis's room with the black and white, we know it's gonna' be another long night, they're taking the earthlings for fools, we say: 'Godzilla's been attacked by the killer shrews', and someday, oh someday, it's all to be so easy for me."

Scott McCaughey's two bands have put together a double disc of fun, catchy pop/rock songs.

The Minus 5 Disc ("Let the War Against Music Begin") opens with "Great News Around You," which sounds as if it were taken straight out of the Beach Boy's classic "Pet Sounds." "Got You" is another catchy number with a darker meaning behind what initially seems to be bright lyrics. Other highlights include, "You Don't Mean It", "1000 Years Away" and "One Bar At a Time."

For their turn at bat, the Fellows put out an album's worth of tunes not all that far removed from the Minus 5 disc, but a little more amped up. Some favorites include the insanely catchy cover of Boyce & Hart's "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," the equally infectious "For the Love of a Girl", the dorky but lovable "My Drumset" and "Good Times Rock N Roll." And if that isn't enough to make you buy the album, they throw in a song devoted to a Krispy Kreme waitress.

Both discs feature a number of songs that could appear comfortably on the other, but both also retain their own spirit and unique feel. What really holds them together is the fact that both feature the powerful song writing of Scott McCaughey. This guy has been making music for many years now, and he knows what he's doing. Some musicians churn out a bunch of great songs early in their career only to burn out and release second rate garbage in their middle to late career. Scott McCaughey isn't one of those musicians. He keeps trying new things, but rest assured anything the man touches turns to gold. If some long-time fans of the Fellows are disappointed by this offering, it is probably due to the fact that it is different than McCaughey's early work. And making different music is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it assures that your music won't become boring. But it can also be a bit of a slap in the face to people who've listened to your music for years and want something similar to what attracted them to the music in the first place.

Bearing that in mind, I would recommend this collection to Minus 5 fans over Young Fresh Fellows fans. If you've been listening to some of the other albums McCaughey has made in recent years (particularly 2006's self-titled Minus Five Release), you will enjoy this record because it has a similar 60's pop/rock vibe. If you are expecting the more lo-fi, less elaborately produced sound of the Fellows in the 80s, you may not like what you hear. Of course, most fans of either band has probably already heard this disc so I'm primarily speaking to people just discovering McCaughey and his two bands. And to you I can only say that McCaughey is one of the most under-appreciated musical geniuses of this age.

If you are considering purchasing this, just do it. You can get a used copy for as low as $2.00, and that's for two discs worth of material! Even if you only end up enjoying a few of the more immediate tunes, you can't really go too wrong for that kind of price. Give it a try. You won't regret it.

I concede that I bought this CD out of sheer curiosity. I never heard them -both bands- before. Now it stands between my most beloved CD's, and believe me, I do have a 'beloved' category for my most appreciated CD's. I lost the count on how many times I've heard it since yesterday. Both bands have that nice 60's sound that you think was forgotten even by yourself until you rediscover it by listening to this double CD. 'The Minus 5' are more 60's oriented, while the 'Young Fresh Fellows' combine that 60's psychodelic sound with some edgy punk -some songs sounds almost hardcore, like 'She's a Book'. So, if you happen to be looking for something really surprising, and it happens that you came to this page, welcome. Don't hesitate. Give this CD a chance and don't forget to mark these my words: It will be really worth it. So check this out. Enjoy.

Wow...having been a fan of the Fellows' work for well over a decade, I thought I'd know what to expect-- but this 2-CD set surpassed all of my expectations. Both CD's are filled with catchy pop gems, from the Pet Sounds-inspired opener "Great News Around You" to the beautiful closing "Ballad of Only You and the Can Prevent Forest Fires" that takes musicology to new heights. Inspired stuff-- easily the Fellows' best since 1987's MEN WHO LOVED MUSIC made me a fan for life.

The Minus 5 disc in this set is their best. Shame it's out of print. It's mostly 60s-ish power-pop. It sounds "at home" in a shuffle with the Zombies, Swag, the Kinks, Cheap Trick, Robyn Hitchcock, the Spongetones, if you were to want to do that. But I listen to it on its own--over and over. Great. "Great News Around You" is poppy and Sardonic. "Got You" is a great twisted love song. "Ghost Tarts Of Stockholm" is more typical, rocking Minus 5. I could go through all the songs, but I don't feel like it. But they're all good. The YFF disc is pretty similar in sound and quality to the Minus 5 disc. YFF partisans think their earlier stuff is better, but I don't know, since I don't know their early stuff. BUY IT.

Criticizing this long-awaited new YFF release makes me feel bad. Much in the same way that a shipwreck survivor might feel guilty for commenting on the blandness of his first hot meal after months of drifting the high seas on a raft made of coconuts and driftwood. The fact is, I *want* to feel grateful that all the members of YFF are still alive and lucid enough to release a new record after all these years (despite being a "Seattle band"), but listening to "Because We Hate You" induces the same sinking feeling I got when I first heard "Electric Bird Digest" back in 1991...except this time, the sinking feeling is multiplied ten-fold.

"Because We Hate You" sounds nothing more like mediocre Minus-5 outtakes for the most part. Ironically, the first disc of this 2-disc release (The Minus 5's "Let the war against music begin") actually does a better job of sounding (remotely) like YFF than the YFF disc itself. It's obvious from this release that, ever since going on the road with R.E.M., Scott McCaughey's once highly creative energies with YFF have largely been distilled into bland, unmemorable songs that seem to be typical of the Minus-5 "sound".

This isn't to imply that YFF *ever* had a definitive "sound", of course. That was always one of the wonderful things about them--you never knew what direction they were going next, but you always knew that whatever direction it was, it would be FUN, and CATCHY. "Because We Hate You" satisfies neither of those criteria very well. One could make the argument that musical overindulgence (as displayed on BWHY) falls under the umbrella of "fun", i guess. But YFF seemed to always be about fun and overindulgence, but NOT at the expense of good ideas and catchy songs. Even "Electric Bird Digest", with all of its uncharacteristic--though obviously not accidental--"grunge" (it was 1991, after all--The Year Of Nirvana), had a solid foundation of great, memorable melodies that you could sing along to in the shower. BWHY, on the other hand, is eminently forgettable, even despite half-decent tracks such as "Barky's Spirtual Store" (a much superior alternate version from the one on thier earlier "A Tribute to Music" import LP), and the silly and fun "My Drum Set". This is the first time I've listened to a YFF album where i actually couldn't wait for most of the tracks to end, hoping that the next track would be a gem. No such luck here.

The Minus-5 part of this package is actually much more listenable and enjoyable than the YFF offering...Catchy songs like "Got You" and "You dont mean it" are no-brainer radio-friendly gems. Even the more sullen "Thirsty Bird" and "One Bar at a Time" holds your interest very admirably (the very obvious nod to the Beatles on the latter track notwithstanding). A wonderful guest-vocal appearance by Robyn Hitchcock (on "Your Day Will Come") caps off a disc that basically saves the whole package from being entirely irrelevant to longtime YFF fans.

This is DEFINITELY not a CD that a YFF newbie should listen to. It will definitely turn you off to what is otherwise one of the greatest bands to ever walk the face of the Earth. Start off with "Fab Sounds" or "The Men Who Loved Music" (for "old school", pre-Kurt Bloch YFF), or "This ones for the Ladies" and "Its Low Beat Time" for "new school" YFF. The Minus-5 disc, however, is probably their best ever, ironically enough.

One extra positive note though: The CD packaging and artwork is way cool.