Grand Salami Time
Baseball and rock ‘n’ roll might not be entirely or naturally born of America, but America certainly sent them out into the world as though they were her offspring. And the Baseball Project certainly enjoys bringing the kids together for a rowdy playdate.
TBP’s fourth album, Grand Salami Time!—because the fourth at-bat should be the one that clears the bases—doesn’t mess with the lineup: the Minus 5’s Scott McCaughey and the Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn handle most songwriting and singing duties, with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills as muscular guitarist and sturdy bassist, respectively, and Linda Pitmon commanding the drums the way Johnny Bench commanded home plate.
McCaughey worked with Mills and Buck in studios and onstage for years, and Pitmon does happen to be Wynn’s wife, but TBP has always come across as a ragtag assembly of sandlot fanboys (and fangirl) instead of a dugout filled with seasoned professionals.
They are true fans: Wynn throws slang as various players attribute their sudden basic failures to “The Yips” (sure, it’s a golf term, too, but who gives a fuck about golf?); McCaughey honors legendary Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh alongside baseball god/daddy Shohei Ohtani with “New Oh in Town”; and even Mills writes and sings slyly of the “Stuff” a pitcher might smear on the ball when he hopes nobody’s looking.
Musically, the quintet tosses a few curves, such as the jangle-pop ode to the “Screwball”; the McCartney-reminiscent folk of “That’s Living,” which shows resigned forgiveness for the reckless drugs-and-drinking boat-crash death of Marlins pitcher José Fernández in 2016; and the funky, head-shaking look back at the 1979 Comiskey Park “Disco Demolition.”
With minor-league heart, major-league craft, and the encouraging management of producer Mitch Easter (who also handled early R.E.M. albums), Grand Salami Time! scores high with unpretentious baseball and rock fans. And that’s what it’s supposed to do.
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