The Minus 5

The Minus 5
The Minus 5 (left to right: Ramberg, Buck, Rieflin, McCaughey) perform at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia on April 1, 2006
Background information
Also known as	The Bison-Flavored Minus 5, The Minus Tad
Origin	United States
Genres	Pop rock
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Yep Roc
Associated acts	Mark Eitzel, Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M., Tuatara, Wilco, Young Fresh Fellows, The Decemberists
Website	www.minus5.com
Members	See List of Minus 5 members

The Minus 5 is an American pop rock band, headed by musician Scott McCaughey and most frequently featuring R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck.

Formed in 1993, McCaughey designed the Minus 5 as a pop collective, with each record the group put out featuring a new lineup. Throughout these releases, he worked the most frequently with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, who was featured on the group's eponymous debut EP, which was only released through Hello CD of the Month Club, run by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants, in 1994.

Their full-length debut album Old Liquidator was released in 1995, and the Minus 5's lineup consisted of McCaughey, Buck, and Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies. After releasing Old Liquidator on East Side Digital, the group reconvened in late 1996 to record their Hollywood Records debut, The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy, released the following spring. Also in 1996, McCaughey's 1989 solo album My Chartreuse Opinion was reissued by Hollywood as a Minus 5 album.

In 1999, the group accepted an invitation to participate in a tribute album to Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence, who was terminally ill with cancer, for the purpose of raising funds to assist with medical expenses.

In 2001, the Minus Five and the Young Fresh Fellows, another McCaughey project, released a split double album, Let the War Against Music Begin/Because We Hate You; the "Let the War Against Music Begin" half was the Minus 5 submission.

After a change of guard at Hollywood Records, the Minus 5 found themselves releasing music via independent channels, with the Return to Sender label releasing a collection of outtakes from Let the War Against Music Begin called I Don't Know Who I Am before McCaughey signed the band to the Yep Roc label for his collaboration with Wilco, Down With Wilco. Yep Roc later issued an EP dominated by Down With Wilco outtakes, At the Organ, and reissued In Rock, a collection of tunes McCaughey recorded in a single day in 2000.