The Minus 5 is an American pop rock band headed by musician Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, often in partnership with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. Band history McCaughey formed the band in 1993 as a side project with Buck, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies. Buck had moved to the Seattle area in 1992; the other principals were longtime fixtures of the Seattle music scene. The four musicians had numerous personal and professional connections: both the Posies and McCaughey's The Young Fresh Fellows had recorded at Conrad Uno's Egg Studios and released albums on Uno's PopLlama Records label. The Young Fresh Fellows and The Posies were fixtures of Seattle's Crocodile Cafe, owned and managed by Buck's then-girlfriend (later wife) Stephanie Dorgan. The Young Fresh Fellows were the opening band at a Kevn Kinney gig at the Croc On July 4, 1992; Buck backed Kinney along with R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Bill Berry. The song titles of the group's earliest output—among them, "Loser So Supreme," "Drunkard's Lullaby," and "Brotherhood Of Pain"—are indicative of the downbeat nature of the band's initial output. Themes of alcoholism, death, and self-hatred are recurrent in each subsequent Minus 5 release. "McCaughey realized he had a dumptruck-load of songs that the Young Fresh Fellows would either never get around to, or would wisely choose not to," read one press release. "[Buck, Stringfellow and Auer] were quick to volunteer to help Scott capture his 'Let The Bad Times Roll' vision." Hello Recording Club EP The band assembled at Uno's Egg Studio in summer 1993 and recorded their debut EP for the Hello CD of the Month Club, a subscription-only mail order club run by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. For this EP the band was supplemented by NRBQ members Tom Ardolino and Terry Adams and Young Fresh Fellows bassist Jim Sangster. For this release only the band's name was stylized as 'The Minus Five'; all subsequent releases have used a numeral. The EP was sent to subscribers as the December 1993/January 1994 release. Live debut and 1994 recording sessions The Minus 5 made their live debut at the Crocodile Cafe on November 9, 1993, on a bill supporting jangly indie heroes The Silos. As Auer and Stringfellow were in Europe touring behind the Posies' Frosting On The Beater, the Minus 5 performed as a duo with backing from The Silos' Walter Salas-Humara, Tom