On new disc, Wilco adds to the Minus 5 magic.

Byline: CD reviews by Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Down With Wilco

Minus 5

(Yep Roc, $15.99)

The Minus 5 will play Wilco-less at Sam Bond's Garage, 407 Blair Blvd., at 6 p.m. Sunday. The cover is $5.

They say too many cooks spoil the broth, but in the case of this crowded studio, the soup turns out to be pretty rich.

Instead of following its normal piecemeal approach, the Minus 5 reportedly took a more straightforward tack in making this record. The Minus 5 and Wilco met up in Wilco's hometown of Chicago and went to work as one giant band. The collaborative approach shows in the finished project, which is more of an organic whole than a collection of parts.

"Down With Wilco" may not break much new musical ground, but all the seams are flush, the nuts and bolts are tight and catchy, bomb-proof pop songs are the order of the day. Tunes such as the full-feathered "I'm Not Bitter" show the collaboration in bloom.

More orchestral songs such as "Days of Wine and Booze" reflect the musical chemistry at work. "Dear Employer (The Reason I Quit)" and "Retrieval of You," the tale of a mini-mart employee who kidnaps a pop star, prove that humor hasn't been lost in the mix.

Scott McCaughey, the Minus 5's leader, wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, and his Lennonesque vocals are central to the music. It might have been nice to hear more from Wilco, which is treated as a backing band. Barely a peep is heard from Jeff Tweedy, who sings lead on one song, offers backup vocals on several tracks and plays piano, synthesizer and guitar on the rest.

The Minus 5 doesn't have the name recognition of Wilco - whose 2002 release "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was a critical and commercial smash - but the two bands have long shared a musical kinship. In 1988, Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy's pre-Wilco alt-country act, opened for McCaughey's band, the Young Fresh Fellows, in Chicago.

R.E.M's Peter Buck, the Minus 5's guitarist, produced a record for Uncle Tupelo, and McCaughey and Tweedy have been friends for years.

Although this clearly is a Minus 5 production, Wilco's trademark dissonance shines through from time to time. This isn't "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," but those in search of something more lighthearted might like this album better.

Radio Free Brooklyn

Pete Miser 

(Ho-Made Media, $15)

"Stuff that blings don't mean a thing to me," Pete Miser rhymes on "Got That," a track from his new CD, "Radio Free Brooklyn," in which he ticks off all the things he doesn't have.

Miser, a Portland native who now lives in New York City, may not have a "villa on Jupiter" or "seven Rolexes on my right ankle," but he's got a taste for sarcasm and plenty of platinum beats and gold-plated lyrics on this anti-gangsta rap release. It's sort of a post-apocalyptic concept album.

Miser envisions a nuclear winter in Brooklyn; along the way, he takes on hip-hop posturing, celebrity worship, excessive consumerism and hawks in the Bush White House.

"And if we have to kill in the name of being free/ Then ya'll can start it off by killing me," Miser chants on "Might Be," a fierce anthem that's one of the more thoughtful musical responses to Sept. 11.

Like other "live" hip-hop artists, music is key to Miser. His songs may be driven by beats and rhymes, but it's the bass lines and musical flourishes around the edges that make the songs sing. On "Toothbrush," Miser starts with flute, then samples the rhythmic sound of his own teeth being brushed and spins a rhyme about his girl leaving her stuff behind.

Before moving to New York to school himself in the birthplace of hip-hop, Miser fronted the Northwest act 5 Fingers of Funk and started the record label Ho-Made Media. After relocating to Brooklyn, he was recruited by the ethereal British pop singer Dido to serve as the resident turntablist in her seven-piece band, a post he still holds.

Based on the dreamy quality of this release, it's possible he's taken a thing or two away from that experience.