The Greatest Artist in the History of Music:.. Mike Doughty and Soul Coughing

THERE WAS A BAND CALLED SOUL COUGHING who used to frequent The Knitting Factory in NYC.

an EXPERIMENTAL GROUP KNOWN FOR WHAT LEAD SINGER / SONGWRITER MIKE DOUGHTY CALLS....

"deep slacker jazz"

I CALL IT BEAT-POET-FUNK-ROCK-GENIUS!!!

Ruby Vroom 1994

Featuring the Essential Songs

1. Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago,
2. Blueeyed Devil
3. Bus to Beelzebub
4. Screenwriter's Blues
5. Moonsammy
6. Uh, Zoom Zip
7. Mr. Bitterness whch it here > Complete With Lyrics!
8. Janine

and this was just the beginning..

The First Time I ever heard the band was on the Soundtrack to Blue in the Face (1995) which featured what is still one of my all-time favorites of his called, The Brooklynites! It's worth getting that soundtrack too. It has lots of great stuff on it, even monologues by Danny Hoch. I once interrupted one of his shows in the Brooklyn park to request it. He couldn't hear me or he would have done it too.

in 1996 Irresistible Bliss became their break-through album as now they not only had the critics and the alternative scene but they now had the radio airwaves as well. Super Bon Bon was a huge smash thanks in part to the catchiest of catchy catch-phrases,

"Move aside, and let the man go through, let the man go through."

The Essential Songs are..

1. Super Bon Bon

2. Soft Serve >>

3. White Girl

4. Soundtrack to Mary

5. Disseminated

6. Collapse

7. Sleepless

8. The Idiot Kings

in 1998, they released their last studio album of new material. It was a much more digital sound than on previous records, but Mike songwriting remained strong. This LP produced a Big Hit as well and it was called Circles. The band would break soon afterwards in 2000 but they did release a Greatest Hits package on their way out the door.

The Essential SONGS are...

1. St. Louise Is Listening

2. Circles

3. I Miss The Girl

4. So Far I Have Not Found The Science

5. Monster Man

6. Houston

7. $300

8. Rolling

9. Maybe I'll Come Down

TRUE STORY ABOUT MIKE & I ~ At the concert for this tour in Manhattan with a few friends and the band was amazing! Right in the middle of the song MAYBE I'LL COME DOWN he sang the line, "I got to drag my ass to now.....how did i come to stop here." I without thinking from the balcony I let out a really loud, "I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANS!" and the whole room must have heard me because they all looked up and sure enough so did Mike. He gave a thumbs up while continuing the next line. It was sick. I remember meeting a reporter outside afterward who was going in to meet him and I asked her to do me a favor and tell Mike I said, "Thanks for making music I can write Poetry too."

Most of us were traumatized by this news and didn't sleep for awhile. Then we found out that Mike was doing a solo acoustic tour selling CDs to fans from the stage and all hell broke loose creatively.

Then we found out that Mike was doing a solo acoustic tour selling CDs to fans from the stage and all hell broke loose creatively.

Here is his version of the story as told on the back of the album.

"In 2000, I quit Soul Coughing, threw a guitar in the trunk, and toured like crazy, all alone in a rented car, for three years. I recorded Skittish in 1996. I was burning to do a solo acoustic record; my band didn't have room for this music. My label rejected it, but four years later, it found a life on Napster--on my first solo tour, fans were in the front row lip-synching these songs, which astonished me. So I printed up a bunch and sold them on the road."

The ESSENTIAL Songs are...

1. The Pink Life

2. Real Love / It's Only Life

3. Looks

4. Sweet Lord in Heaven (which was titled Cobain's Sarcoma when I originally got it off Napster!)

5. 27 Jennifers

6. Down on the River by the Sugar Plant

7. Ossining

8. Laundrytown

He did a great cover Mary J. Blige's Hip-Hop Soul Standard Real Love, on his solo Skittish EP. Then he released his book of Poetry called Slanky which is pretty good by the way. Then in 2003 came the internet-only release of Rockity Roll EP which had only five songs on it but one of them was >>>> 27 Jennifers. This song was widely regarded as single-worthy but not publicly accessible. That is when huge Doughty fan Dave Matthews decided that he needed to be signed to REAL LABEL with distribution. He signed Mike to his label ATO records and Mike began working on his First Major Solo Album...

Nobody expected Mike's first solo record to explode like it did but I guess I wasn't the only one waiting for it. Songs from this album appeared in popular TV series' like Grey's Anatomy, BonesandVeronica Mars.

In 2004, the previous year, he had made public a double album / bonus tracks thing called Skittish / Rockity Roll which was now starting to sell as well. It contained an unreleased song Mike wrote for the movie Evenhand.

The ESSENTIAL SONGS on Haughty Melodic are..

1. Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well
2. Unsingable Name
3. I Hear The Bells
4. Sunken-Eyed Girl
5. Busting Up a Starbucks
6. Madeline and Nine
7. His Truth Is Marching On

Oh how I love this record. The first single (besides his newer version of 27 Jennifers seen above) was called, are you ready?

I JUST WANT THE GIRL IN THE BLUE DRESS TO KEEP ON DANCING.

It was maddening when I couldn't find the studio version for you (which is awesome) so I decided to turn on the camera and MAKE MY OWN Doughty Video. It features not also that 'Blue Dress" song but the album cut of

I WRITE A SONG ABOUT YOUR CAR

as well.

The ESSENTIAL SONGS are..

1. I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress to Keep On Dancing

2. More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle

3. 27 Jennifers (New Version-Not as Good)

4. I Wrote a Song About Your Car

5. Like a Luminous Girl

6. Put it Down

7. Nectarine (part one)

I should also say before I go that my Favorite singer/songwriter also did some cool collaborations too. He made Tremendous Brunettes with Dave Matthews and Mr. Xcitement with the alternative group They Might Be Giants too. But that wasn't his biggest collabo, oh no!

Ever heard of BT? a/k/a "The prince of Dance Music", creator of the BT stutter? If so, then you know where I'm going with this. "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (featuring vocals by Mike Doughty) was the most popular single from BT's album, and appeared on the Gone in 60 Seconds soundtrack in radio edited form. If not then check this video out too.