This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(March 2016) |
The Baseball Project | |
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Background information | |
Genres | Rock |
Years active | 2007–present |
Labels | Yep Roc |
Members | Peter Buck Scott McCaughey Linda Pitmon Steve Wynn Mike Mills |
Website | www |
The Baseball Project is a supergroup composed of Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon formed in 2007. The performers came together from discussions between McCaughey and Wynn at R.E.M.'s March 21, 2007 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. They invited Buck to play bass guitar and Pitmon on drums and recorded their first album, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails later that year. Their first public appearance was on The Late Show with David Letterman in June of 2008, preceding the release of any recorded material.
Buck and McCaughey have previously played together in Robyn Hitchcock and The Venus 3, The Minus 5, R.E.M., and Tuatara. Wynn is the former leader of The Dream Syndicate as well as Gutterball and has played with Pitmon in Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3. Pitmon also plays with Buck and McCaughey in Filthy Friends (with Kurt Bloch and Corin Tucker) and their project with Luke Haines (of the Auteurs).
The band also recorded a 'real time' commentary on the 2010 baseball season for ESPN.com: one song every month made available as a free download. The collection was released in 2011 as The Broadside Ballads and also includes a few unreleased extra tracks from Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails and Volume 2: High and Inside.
The second album from The Baseball Project, Volume 2: High and Inside, was released on March 1, 2011, on Yep Roc Records. The band followed the record's release with a tour covering the U.S. and appearances at spring training games in Arizona's Cactus League. [1] Mike Mills begins touring regularly with the band in 2012, taking over bass duties from Peter Buck. Buck moves over to his signature 12-string guitar role around this time.
Their third album, 3rd , includes Mike Mills playing bass on all tracks for the first time on a Baseball Project recording, and was released in 2014. Not long after that the band played a special show in Cooperstown, New York, at the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2019 they played a 3-day residency at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland as a part of the All-Star Game festivities in the city.
Their fourth album, Grand Salami Time , was recorded with early R.E.M. collaborator Mitch Easter at his Fidelitorium Recordings studio in Kernersville, N.C., and was released on June 30, 2023, on Omnivore Recordings. Special guests on release include Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders and the Jayhawks and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.
Jack Burns McDowell is an American former baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, McDowell played for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and Anaheim Angels of the Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Black Jack", he was a three-time All-Star and won the American League Cy Young Award in 1993.
Steven Lawrence Wynn is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He led the band The Dream Syndicate from 1981 to 1989 in Los Angeles, afterward began a solo career, and then reformed The Dream Syndicate in 2012.
Peter Lawrence Buck is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his career with R.E.M. (1980–2011), as well as during his subsequent solo career, Buck has also been at various times an official member of numerous 'side project' groups. These groups included Arthur Buck, Hindu Love Gods, The Minus 5, Tuatara, The Baseball Project, Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, Tired Pony, The No-Ones, and Filthy Friends, each of which have released at least one full-length studio album. Additionally, the experimental combo Slow Music have released an official live concert CD. Another side project group called Full Time Men released an EP while Buck was a member. As well, ad hoc "supergroups" Bingo Hand Job, Musical Kings and Nigel & The Crosses have each commercially released one track.
Michael Edward Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., his musical repertoire also includes keyboards, guitar and occasional lead vocals. He contributed to a majority of the band's musical compositions and is the only member to have had formal musical training.
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.
Mitchell Blake Easter is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as frontman of the 1980s band Let's Active.
Scott Lewis McCaughey is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and the leader of the Seattle and Portland-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. He was also an auxiliary member of the American rock band R.E.M. from 1994 until the band's break-up in 2011, contributing to the studio albums New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Up, Reveal, Around the Sun, Accelerate and Collapse into Now.
Christopher Charles Stamey is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. After a brief time playing with Alex Chilton, as well as Mitch Easter under the name Sneakers, Stamey formed The dB's with Peter Holsapple.
The Young Fresh Fellows are an American alternative rock group, that was formed in 1981 in Seattle, Washington, United States, by Scott McCaughey and Chuck Carroll. Tad Hutchison, Chuck Carroll's first cousin, joined for the recording of the group's debut album in 1983.
In Rock is an album by American rock band The Minus 5. It was released in 2000 by Book Records, and re-released in 2004 by Yep Roc. The album was recorded over one day in 2000 with songs written impromptu by band leader Scott McCaughey and sold at concerts in a limited edition of 1,000. McCaughey decided that the album should see a wider distribution, so he approached Yep Roc because he had had pleasant experiences with releasing albums from them in the past; he recorded new songs for this edition.
The Baseball Project's first album, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails was released on Yep Roc Records on July 8, 2008. The album is available on compact disc and digitally on Yep Roc's site.
Casey Neill is an American musician. He leads Portland, Oregon-based band Casey Neill & The Norway Rats, singing with a raspy vocal quality and playing electric and acoustic guitars. Neill's style, folk-punk, mixes influences from punk, Celtic and folk music, and has been compared to R.E.M. and The Pogues.
Killingsworth is the eighth studio album by The Minus 5, released by Yep Roc Records in 2009. The album was a collaboration with the Portland, Oregon–based indie rock band The Decemberists.
Propellor Time is the seventeenth studio album by Robyn Hitchcock, the third and last recorded with The Venus 3. It was released in 2010 via Yep Roc.
Volume 2: High and Inside is the second album from The Baseball Project, released by Yep Roc Records on March 1, 2011.
The Broadside Ballads (2011) is an album from The Baseball Project, bringing together songs that were recorded as ‘real time’ commentary on the 2010 baseball season for ESPN.com with unreleased extra tracks from Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails and Volume 2: High and Inside. The nine tracks prepared for ESPN.com are also available online for free streaming.
Peter Buck is the debut solo album from Peter Buck. It has received positive critical reception.
3rd is the third album by American indie rock supergroup the Baseball Project. It was released on March 25, 2014, on Yep Roc Records.
Filthy Friends is an alt-rock supergroup based in Portland, Oregon. The band is fronted by Corin Tucker and guitarist Peter Buck The other members of the band include alumni from bands such as the Minus 5, King Crimson, The Baseball Project and Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3.
Grand Salami Time! is the fourth full-length studio album by American rock supergroup the Baseball Project, released by Omnivore Recordings on June 30, 2023. The album was produced by Mitch Easter, who began working with R.E.M. at the beginning of their careers; the Baseball Project features two of their former members. It also marks their first album under Omnivore, as they had previously been signed to Yep Roc.