When last we heard from Mark Scheer, he was making a record of Beatlesque pop with a band called Discount Stars.

This time around the singer-songwriter turns up with "All the Time in the World," a new CD from a new band, Five Star Dive, that harks back to the early era of Wilco with guitar-driven alt-country rockers, both rowdy and warm.

Five Star Dive actually started as an exercise in closure.

"It came together as a result of me revisiting old Torn 'N Frayed live tapes," says Scheer, who played in that band as well as Trash Vegas back in the '80s and '90s. "They were songs we did live maybe once or twice, then aborted for one reason or another. We never recorded them. So I thought it would be a fun project to just to record some old songs for posterity reasons ... no other."

Scheer, who handled vocals and drums, assembled Five Star Dive with former Torn 'N Frayed guitarist Vinny Q, guitarist Daryl Thumm and bassist Rocky LaMonde (CosmoSonics) to record these songs that were written between 1991 and '97.

"By the time we finished, over the course of a couple of years, there was talk we should play live," Scheer says. "Just when I thought I was out ... THEY PULL ME BACK IN!"

He also added a new song called "Harvest Time."

"I heard it in my head," he says, "as something that could be sung in pubs while swinging a pint of ale after a hard day's work. Just giving thanks to what the earth has given us and being happy with your place in life."

To play those pubs, they've added drummer Mike Oncea from the Rolling Stones' tribute band Jumpin' Jack Flash. It has gone well enough that the band is midway through a second record.

What does this mean for Scheer's Beatlesque ventures?

"I'll return to that as well," he says. "I always continue to write songs and some of them fit the Beatlesque style and some don't. It's a nice problem to have."