If you’re keeping a flowchart of Scott McCaughey’s bands, good luck. Between The Minus 5, The Baseball Project, The No Ones, and the gloriously snarling Filthy Friends, he’s the indie-rock equivalent of a shared cinematic universe. “I often drag [Peter Buck] in, he drags me in,” McCaughey says. “It doesn’t take a lot of dragging.”
Filthy Friends, the supergroup fronted by Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney, came together less through a master plan and more like a really well-organized accident. “Peter and Corin started writing songs together, and the rest of us kind of fell in,” McCaughey explains. “We were already playing Peter’s solo stuff, we’d backed Alejandro Escovedo—hell, we were basically Portland’s mini-Wrecking Crew.”
But unlike the real Wrecking Crew, these guys aren’t just hired hands. They’re a band, and on Invitation, their 2017 debut, they sounded like they had a lot to get off their chests. “It’s definitely darker,” McCaughey admits. “We’re against some things, yeah. And I don’t mind saying it.”
He’s not kidding. Asked about the political tone, McCaughey practically lights a match. “I think Mitch McConnell and his cronies should be hung for treason. Seriously. Put that in wherever you want to put it.”
Okay, then.
To be fair, the album was written before Trump was elected, but you’d be forgiven for assuming otherwise. “Peter always says, this stuff is always going on in our government,” McCaughey says. “It just happened to be especially ripe when the record came out.”
Still, it’s not all policy papers and Twitter rage. McCaughey insists that Filthy Friends are, at their core, a party band. “We’re a kickass rock and roll band,” he says. “I see people smiling when we’re playing live. That’s good. That’s great.” One new song, “Ides October,” is apparently a “climate change party.” So…there’s that.
The recording process wasn’t precious—just raw iPhone demos from Peter and Corin, then everyone brought their own flavor. “There were no bass lines for me to copy. We just built it up in the studio,” McCaughey says. “It was a full band effort.”
They’re not slowing down either. Another record was already in the works. “We’re fired up,” he says. “Peter and Corin have written a bunch of new songs already. One was part of the 30 Songs in 30 Days thing. Some are about the environment. Some are definitely gonna piss someone off.”
Oh, and lest you forgot, McCaughey was also in that band. “It’s weird,” he says of the REM reissues. “They’re up to Automatic now, and after that, it’s all records I played on.” He’s especially proud of Collapse Into Now, calling it “as good as anything we did.”
So if you’re wondering how McCaughey balances protest music, multiple bands, and mild treason accusations, the answer is simple: He’s not slowing down, and he’s probably already in another band you haven’t heard of yet.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the single "Despierta" below!
