The Minus 5, the pop collective formed by Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, is back with a new CD, Down With Wilco. The recording to be released by Yep Roc on February 25 features recurrent participants, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, in collaboration with Wilco.

Departing from McCaughey’s historic process of recording basic parts and gathering additional recorded pieces from participants, Down With Wilco is a much more collaborative effort. McCaughey says, “I actually went into the studio for four or five days at a time and recorded the songs together with Wilco, playing as a band on many of the tracks, though we experimented with the building block approach as well. The night before each session, Jeff and I would pick out, and in some cases, change around, or finish, songs that seemed to fit our concept for the record. I felt like letting everyone have a say in the arrangements and production, facets that are usually pretty much left to me on Minus 5 projects.” The result is 13 new songs by performed by Scott McCaughey, Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Leroy Bach, Peter Buck & Ken Stringfellow, plus special guests Rebecca Gates, Christy McWilson, Sean O'Hagan, Charlie Francis, Jessy Greene and Brian Paulson.

Recorded at Soma Studios in Chicago, Down With Wilco is produced by Scott McCaughey and Jeff Tweedy, with John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Leroy Bach and Mikael Jorgensen.