Soul Coughing

All Music Guide:

One of the most unique cult bands of the '90s, Soul Coughing anchored a new crop of quirky, unclassifiable bands that emerged in the post-grunge era, including Morphine, the Eels, and Cake. Driven by frontman M. Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry, Soul Coughing's sound was a willfully idiosyncratic mix of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip-hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism (described by Doughty as "deep slacker jazz"). Even at the height of the alternative rock era, it was too avant-garde to cross over into the mainstream, keeping one foot planted in the downtown New York scene from whence the band sprang. Yet their ironic sense of humor and stylized bohemian-hipster image made them accessible enough to earn a widespread, enthusiastic following on college campuses. Moreover, they built a reputation as an excellent live act, thanks to a jazz aesthetic that kept their concert performances fresh and spontaneous (not to mention a liberal policy on fans trading tapes). After three generally acclaimed albums, the group split up, and Doughty mounted a solo career.

Soul Coughing was formed in New York City in 1992 by lead vocalist Mike Doughty (who usually preferred the stage name M. Doughty). A military brat born at Fort Knox, Doughty had previously worked as a music critic, and wrote abstract, Beat-influenced poetry of the sort that went over well at live poetry slams. He also held a job as the doorman for the famed cutting-edge venue the Knitting Factory, which afforded him the opportunity to meet an eclectic array of musicians on the downtown avant-garde scene. He eventually recruited keyboardist/sampler Mark de Gli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and Israeli-born drummer Yuval Gabay (bassist Wilbo Wright and cellist Catherine Bent were very briefly in the group before the quartet solidified). Taking their name from the title of a poem Doughty had written about Neil Young vomiting, Soul Coughing made their live debut in June 1992 at the Knitting Factory (naturally enough).

They built enough local buzz to land a deal with Warner Brothers subsidiary Slash in 1993. Soul Coughing's debut album Ruby Vroom -- named after producer Mitchell Froom's daughter -- was released in 1994 to mostly complimentary reviews. The late-night barroom atmospherics of "Screenwriter's Blues" helped the band start to catch on at college radio, as did the accompanying singles "Down to This" and "Sugar Free Jazz." Their second album, 1996's Irresistible Bliss, only amplified the buzz around the band, thanks to the alternative-radio hits "Soundtrack to Mary" and "Super Bon Bon." They went on to contribute material to several soundtrack albums, including Songs in the Key of X: Music From and Inspired By the X-Files ("Unmarked Helicopters"), Batman & Robin ("The Bug"), and the X-Files movie ("16 Horses"). Soul Coughing issued their third album, El Oso ("the bear") in 1998, and received their greatest mainstream exposure with the leadoff single "Circles," a good-sized hit on alternative radio.

However, it proved to be the band's last effort, as they announced their breakup in March 2000. de Gli Antoni had already released a solo album, Horse Tricks, that returned him to his roots in experimental electronic composition; it featured contributions from the other members of Soul Coughing and was released on John Zorn's Tzadik label. de Gli Antoni moved on to a career scoring short and independent films, including 2002's quirky romantic comedy Cherish. Steinberg and Gabay, meanwhile, continued to work together as UV Ray. Doughty, meanwhile, cleaned up from an addiction to heroin, and appeared as a guest vocalist on trance producer BT's club hit "Never Gonna Come Back Down" that summer. He also played a series of shows behind his solo acoustic album, Skittish, which had been completed in 1995 but never officially released until Doughty decided to circumvent Napster and sell the album from his own website. His official solo debut was reportedly in the works, but wound up postponed; however, he did issue another solo acoustic album, Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis, in 2002, and continued his periodic work as a columnist for the New York Press. Meanwhile, the performance-oriented Kufala label attempted to arrange the release of several archival Soul Coughing live albums, although intra-band disputes put off the project indefinitely.

Wikipedia:

Soul Coughing was an American alternative rock band. Based in New York City, the band found modest mainstream success during the mid-to-late 1990s. Soul Coughing developed a devout fanbase and have garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey in Allmusic describes the band as "one of the most unusual cult bands of the 1990s ... driven by frontman Mike Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry, Soul Coughing's sound was a willfully idiosyncratic mix of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip-hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism (described by Doughty as 'deep slacker jazz')."

Origin [edit]

Mike Doughty (who billed himself at the time as "M. Doughty") was a folk singer (he attended Eugene Lang College with Ani DiFranco, where they studied with Sekou Sundiata and played around the school together), slam poet, sometime music writer, and doorman at the old Houston Street location of The Knitting Factory, then a nexus for such avant-garde artists as John Zorn and Marc Ribot. He put the band together from instrumentalists he met as they came through the club.

He met sampler player Mark Degli Antoni (recently graduated with a composition degree from Mannes College of Music) when they both participated in a performance of Zorn's "game piece" Cobra. This same ensemble also featured Jeff Buckley. Doughty brought a stack of CDs over to degli Antoni's house one afternoon, where they sampled iconic riffs from Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling, Howlin' Wolf, and The Andrews Sisters, among others. These, along with samples from degli Antoni's own orchestral works, became the foundation of Soul Coughing's musical identity, powering Doughty's half-sung, half-spoken vocals.

Degli Antoni, Doughty, Boston-based upright bass player Sebastian Steinberg, and Israeli drummer Yuval Gabay (a collaborator with Zorn, and David Linton) played their first gig, as "M. Doughty's Soul Coughing", at the Knitting Factory on June 15, 1992, a late-Monday night slot that Doughty cadged from his boss because nobody else wanted it. In 1993, he founded a club night called "SLAW" at CBGB's 313 Gallery, which was meant to emulate the popular jazz and hip hop club Giant Step, but eventually became a showcase for Soul Coughing. Posters for SLAW were headlined "Deep Slacker Jazz" (a parody of The Who's slogan "Maximum R&B"), which became an enduring description of the band's sound.

Recording career [edit]

The band was signed within a year to Warner Bros subsidiary Slash Records, and released three albums: Ruby Vroom (1994), Irresistible Bliss (1996), and El Oso (1998). In 1996, the band contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization. They enjoyed minor hit singles with "Circles", "Super Bon Bon", and "Screenwriter's Blues." They also had songs featured in the movies The X-Files film (Fight the Future), Batman and Robin, Tommy Boy and Spawn (a song called "A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon", a collaboration with drum and bass artist Roni Size.) Also released following their breakup was Lust in Phaze (2002), a greatest hits compilation including a few b-sides.

Breakup and afterwards [edit]

The band broke up in early 2000, after years of feuding over songwriting credits and publishing.

Mike Doughty [edit]

Doughty continues as a solo artist, collaborating with trance producer BT on the hit single "Never Gonna Come Back Down" in the summer of 2000. Dropped by Warner Brothers that same year, Doughty toured as a solo artist for three years in support of a self-released solo CD titled Skittish. In 2005, he signed to Dave Matthews's label, ATO Records, and to date has released four full-length studio albums, two live albums, an album of electronic sample-based music, and several EPs. Doughty chose to leave ATO for reasons related to creative control to release his most recent studio album, Yes and Also Yes. (See Mike Doughty's solo entry for further information.)

Mark Degli Antoni [edit]

Mark Degli Antoni moved on to compose film scores. His most recent score is for Werner Herzog's 'Into The Abyss'.

Sebastian Steinberg [edit]

Sebastian Steinberg has recorded and/or toured with David Byrne, Dixie Chicks, Neil Finn, Phil Selway, William Shatner, Lisa Germano, Beth Orton, Fiona Apple, and Yerba Buena.

Yuval Gabay [edit]

Yuval Gabay formed the band UV Ray and has been recording and touring with Bristol-based Roni Size and Reprazent. He featured in the following recordings:

As session musician, he recorded with Suzanne Vega, Lauryn Hill, Zack de la Rocha, Young Ryda, Ed Rush and Optical, Firewater, They Might Be Giants and Greg Kurstin.

In 2009 he released a breakbeat sample pack on Loopmasters, Full Cycle - Drum and bass collective.

As of 2010, Gabay is recording and touring with Asian Dub Foundation, The RULES (a collaborative band with DJ Krust), and ongoing collaborations with Roni Size and Reprazent.

References in pop culture [edit]