Scott McCaughey/Ken Stringfellow

by M.J. Fine

ROCK

The Minus 5 released two fine albums last year — the Tweedy-licious Down With Wilco and the sinister I Don't Know Who I Am — but Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and Ken Stringfellow were too busy traipsing around the world with R.E.M. to promote them properly. McCaughey and Stringfellow are finally coming to town, but they're playing two days and half a block away from each other. As part of John Wesley Harding's All Male Threesome, McCaughey's as likely to dip into his Young Fresh Fellows catalog or break out a few Kinks kovers as he is to play anything from the Minus 5's latest, In Rock (Yep Roc). And forget Down With Wilco's terrific "I'm Not Bitter," which would fizzle without Stringfellow's harmonies. Though McCaughey's spent 20 years as a frontman and almost 10 as R.E.M.'s most dependable satellite, he hasn't logged much time alone on stage. Still, he's got plenty of quirky songs and the charm to pull it off. Stringfellow plays it straighter, but he doesn't always stick to the script. (As a solo opener at the Pontiac Grille, he brought out Twin Princess partner Bootsy Holler for a searing rendition of "Althea.") Stringfellow's Soft Commands (Yep Roc) wouldn't sound out of place on a soft-rock station, but beneath the yielding flesh of "Cyclone Graves" and "You Drew" is solid muscle. "Don't Die" is just a touch less noisy than Ryan Adams' "Note to Self: Don't Die," and just as great. "For Your Sake" reads like an exercise, a litany of alliterative hypotheticals, but Stringfellow's warm keys and not-quite-overlapping vocals have a menacing beauty. These two shows may prolong the pleasure, but the Minus 5 still owe us one.

Ken Stringfellow, Thu., July 22, 9 p.m., $8, with Trouble Everyday, Manishevitz and Finn Andrews, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888. Scott McCaughey, Sat., July 24, 8:30 p.m., $18, with John Wesley Harding and Dag Juhlin, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.