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 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')."^[1]

Origin[link]

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.^[1]

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^[2] (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[link]

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.

Breakup and afterwards[link]

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

Mike Doughty[link]

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 five full-length albums.

Mark De Gli Antoni[link]

Mark De Gli Antoni moved on to soundtrack work. His most recent score is for Werner Herzog's 'IntoThe Abyss'.

Sebastian Steinberg[link]

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

Yuval Gabay[link]

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:

• Roni Size's Return to V LP — featuring Beverly Knight and Jocelyn Brown
• DJ Krust's Coded language LP — featuring Saul Williams
• DJ Krust's Hidden knowledge LP
• MC Tali's Lyric on my lip LP
• DJ Krust and DJ Die's Kamanchi LP — featuring Lady Miss Kier
• Ben Westbeech's Welcome to the best years of your life LP

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[link]

• A remix of "Super Bon Bon" by the Propellerheads was featured on the soundtrack to the 1998 feature film Dead Man on Campus as well as during a 2011 episode of the TV series
• An edited version of "Circles" appeared in one of the Groovies, a music video that featured Hanna-Barbera characters and would often play on Cartoon Network's Boomerang Channel.
• "Super Bon Bon" (off Irresistible Bliss) appeared in "Strangers and Other Partners," episodes of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street, Long Term Parking, The Sopranos, and Castle, and was also the theme song of ECW wrestler Danny Doring and Roadkill.
• The song "Unmarked Helicopters" appears on the X-Files tie-in album Songs in the Key of X, as well as the episode "Max" from season 4. "16 Horses" appears on the soundtrack of the movie based on the series.
• "Circles" is used in the 2004 movie Walking Tall starring The Rock. The song is also featured in the first episode of the short-lived Fox series Undeclared.
• The song "Super Bon Bon" is one of the songs played during gameplay in the PlayStation game Gran Turismo 2.
• "Circles (Propellerheads Remix)" was played in a Dentyne commercial in 2003.
• "Circles" from (El Oso) was played on the May 14th, 2008 episode of the Today Show.
• "Rolling" (from El Oso) appears in the 2006 film Candy starring Heath Ledger.
• "Super Bon Bon" was used in the soundtrack for Michael Jordan to the max, an Imax documentary about Michael Jordan.^[3]
• "Super Bon Bon" also appears in the videogame Gran Turismo 3.
• "Rolling" (from El Oso) is used in one of the 2012 commercials for Odyssey Metal-X putters.

Discography[link]

Live albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Soul Coughing Underground - An unofficial website including a discography, guitar tablature, and other information
• website of Mike Doughty
• Mike Doughty's blog
• website of Mark De Gli Antoni
• Soul Coughing collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Suckerfied Assman Tripping In His Own Dribble: An Appreciation of Soul Coughing (No Ripcord feature)