| Soul Coughing | |
|---|---|
Soul Coughing, 1998. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | New York City |
| Genres | Alternative rock, post-grunge, experimental rock, funk rock, jazz fusion |
| Years active | 1992–2000 |
| Labels | Slash / Warner Bros |
| Website | www.scug.net |
| Members | |
| Mike Doughty Mark De Gli Antoni Sebastian Steinberg Yuval Gabay |
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Soul Coughing was a popular New York-based alternative rock band. 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 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')."[1]
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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 De Gli 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 De Gli Antoni's house one afternoon and had him sample iconic riffs from Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling, Howlin' Wolf, and The Andrews Sisters, among others. These, along with samples from De Gli Antoni's own orchestral works, became the foundation of Soul Coughing's musical identity, powering Doughty's half-sung, half-spoken vocals.
De Gli 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.
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 and other rarities that featured extensive biographical and background liner notes written by Doughty.
The band broke up in 2000, after years of feuding over songwriting credits and publishing money.
Doughty continued 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 has released three full-length albums.
Mark De Gli Antoni moved on to soundtrack work. He recently toured with David Byrne on the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour.
Sebastian Steinberg has recorded and/or toured with David Byrne, Dixie Chicks, Neil Finn, Phil Selway, William Shatner, Lisa Germano and Yerba Buena.
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.
| Year | Album details | Chart peaks | Certifications | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | UK | ||||||||
| 1994 | Ruby Vroom
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— | — | ||||||
| 1996 | Irresistible Bliss
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136 | — | ||||||
| 1998 | El Oso
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49 | — | ||||||
| 2002 | Lust in Phaze
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— | — | ||||||
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | |||||||||
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2004 | New York, NY 16.08.99
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Berlin/Amsterdam 1997
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Rennes, France 03.12.94
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Tokyo, Japan 03.02.97
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Live Rarities
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| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Mod[1] |
US Main |
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| 1994 | "Down to This" | — | — | Ruby Vroom | |||||||||||
| 1995 | "Sugar Free Jazz" | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "Screenwriter's Blues" | — | — | |||||||||||||
| 1996 | "Soundtrack to Mary" | 37 | — | Irresistible Bliss | |||||||||||
| "Super Bon Bon" | 27 | — | |||||||||||||
| 1997 | "Soft Serve" | — | — | ||||||||||||
| 1998 | "Circles" | 8 | 38 | El Oso | |||||||||||
| "St. Louise is Listening" | — | — | |||||||||||||
| 1999 | "Rolling" | 44 | — | ||||||||||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart. | |||||||||||||||
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