Mike Doughty ( /ˈdoʊtiː/ DOH-tee;^[1] born June 10, 1970) is an American indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter and author. He led the band Soul Coughing in the 1990s, and in the 2000s, became a solo artist. His best known songs include "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" "I Hear the Bells", and "Busting Up a Starbucks."

Early life[link]

The son of a military family, he moved around the country and Europe, and spent his teenage years living on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he attended James I. O'Neill High School in Highland Falls, New York. From there he attended Bard College at Simon's Rock. He eventually moved to New York City to study poetry at the New School University, where singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco was one of his classmates in Sekou Sundiata's poetry course, "The Shape and Nature of Things to Come."^[2]

Career[link]

In 1992, Doughty, then a doorman at the New York avant-garde club The Knitting Factory founded Soul Coughing (billing himself as M. Doughty), and released the minor hit singles "Super Bon Bon" and "Circles".

Wearying of the band and addicted to heroin, Doughty broke up Soul Coughing in 2000, and was promptly dropped by Warner Brothers. A few weeks later, Doughty beat his addiction and started touring as a solo artist. He drove around the country in a rental car, covering 9,000 miles on his first tour, playing acoustic shows, often to crowds of Soul Coughing fans. After the shows, he would sit at the front of the stage and sell copies of his acoustic album Skittish — then on CD-Rs in plain white sleeves — a record that he had recorded for, and which was rejected by Warner Brothers in 1996.^[3] During his three-year tour, Doughty sold 20,000 copies of Skittish and gradually developed a following independent of Soul Coughing.

At the Bonnaroo music festival in 2004, Doughty bumped into Dave Matthews, a longtime Soul Coughing fan who had the band open for him on two US tours, including shows at Madison Square Garden. When Matthews professed to be a fan of Doughty's solo record Rockity Roll and the song "27 Jennifers," Doughty gave him a CD with rough mixes of an album he had been working on in Minneapolis with singer-songwriter and producer Dan Wilson. Matthews eventually released the album on his ATO label as Haughty Melodic (an anagram for 'Michael Doughty'.) Haughty Melodic's hit single, "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well," received heavy airplay in 2005; Doughty made a music video for the song with director/photographer Danny Clinch, opened for DMB at Madison Square Garden, and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Founding Mike Doughty's Band, featuring Dan Chen (keyboard and synthesizer), Pete McNeal (drums), and Andrew "Scrap" Livingston (upright bass), Doughty toured extensively in 2005. In the summer of 2006 Dan Chen left the group, and was replaced by John Kirby.

In February 2008, Doughty released his fourth solo album, Golden Delicious, also produced by Dan Wilson. The album features a reworked version of "27 Jennifers", which received some radio attention following the release. The album was followed by a full-band tour in the spring.

Mike Doughty released his fifth album, Sad Man, Happy Man on October 6, 2009. It consists of 18 tracks including a version of "Casper the Friendly Ghost" and "Three is a Magic Number". While the album is not a solo record, its sound is reminiscent of his days as a solo acoustic performer and debut album, Skittish, when compared to the full band sounds of Haughty Melodic and Golden Delicious. Doughty embarked on a tour,"The Question Jar" tour, in the fall of 2009 to support the album, backed again by Andrew "Scrap" Livingston.

On July 6, 2010, Doughty debuted 14 new songs at the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC. Some of the song titles were "I Love Surprises", "Shine", and "Russell". Videos of these can be viewed on YouTube. During the performance, Doughty would read lyrics from a music stand, and then, when finished with each song, crumple the paper and throw it into the audience. He performed this show alone, stating his partner, Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, became a taxi driver. Whether or not this was a joke is unclear.

Doughty's album, Yes and Also Yes, was released in August 2011. It includes songs such as "The Huffer and The Cutter",^[4] "Hapless Dancer", "Day By Day By", and "Na Na Nothing".

In January 2012, The Book of Drugs, Doughty's memoir about his "ugly, drug-doing years",^[5] was published by Da Capo Press.

In 2012 Doughty recorded a version of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" for a fund raising cd titled "Super Hits Of The Seventies" for radio station WFMU.^[6]

Doughty's latest album, The Question Jar Show, was released in late January 2012. It is a two disc set containing highlights from his Question Jar tour.

Doughty started "The Lo-Fi Lodge", a subscription based album, where fans had the opportunity to sign up and receive a song a week for 32 weeks (for a total of 32 songs). The songs will include previously unreleased material, demos, and acoustic versions of released songs. Doughty mentioned that it will include songs from the Evenhand soundtrack. As of April 27th, fans can no longer sign up for the subscription.

In media[link]

Doughty is an active blogger, commenting on pop culture, his life as a musician and his fans, and writing about and photographing his numerous travels. In 2002, Doughty recorded four songs for the film EvenHand. "Get Along" was subsequently released as a bonus track on Skittish / Rockity Roll. In 2003, Doughty released a book of poetry entitled Slanky (ISBN 1-887128-71-9). In 2004, Doughty recorded the anti-Iraq War anthem "Move On," which appeared on the compilation Future Soundtrack for America.^[7]

"Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" was featured on the show Grey's Anatomy and also is on the soundtrack. This song was also featured in a 2005 episode of Bones titled "The Man in the Bear", and on a 2007 episode of the TV show What About Brian. Doughty's song, "I Hear the Bells", is featured prominently in an episode of Veronica Mars called "Look Who's Stalking" and also appears on the show's soundtrack. His song "(I Keep On) Rising Up" appears in the 2010 Jack Black film, "Gulliver's Travels (2010 film)".

Doughty's publicist, Andy Adelewitz, sends out an annual April Fool's Day email with fake Mike Doughty news. Past jokes have said that he was changing his name to Mike "Lion-Heart" Doughty, and had accepted an offer to become the new guitar player in Limp Bizkit. A message in April 2006 said that Doughty announced he was running for the New York State Senate, representing the 7th District (comprising most of northern Nassau County, Long Island), in order to ease tensions between Long Island authorities and soy gluten farmers.^[8]

Doughty currently has a large list of unreleased songs registered on the Harry Fox Agency website. Song titles include: "Booty Czar", "Feverish", "I Think I Know How I Feel About You", "I Wish To Fix It", "Jimmy Snackbar", "Leap & Land", "Loveliness", "Never Known To Nap" (possibly an early version of "Burn You Down"), "Oh Tanya", "Phnom Penh", "Rosearise", "Split", "She's The Ginchiest", "Some Clown", "Utility Man" (possibly an early version of "More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle"), "Who Do you Think You Are", and "Walk the Plank".

Solo discography[link]

• Skittish (recorded 1996; released 2000)
• Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis (2002)
• Rockity Roll (2003)
• Skittish / Rockity Roll (2004)

A two disc re-release which includes the out-of-print Skittish, the Rockity Roll EP, and five bonus tracks.

• Haughty Melodic (2005) #175 U.S.

Doughty's first full-band album, released on May 3, 2005.

• The Gambler (2005)

Six song EP exclusively on iTunes Music Store. Title track is a cover of the Kenny Rogers hit.

• Golden Delicious (2008) #87 U.S.

• Busking (2008)

Limited edition Live LP sold only at shows. Contains 12 tracks from a 2007 busking performance in the 14th street subway station in New York City.^[9]

• Busking EP (2008)

An EP, featuring five tracks from the Busking LP.

• Sad Man Happy Man (2009) #138 U.S.
• Dubious Luxury (2011)

An electro/sampled/sonic-slice-and-dice album put out as an appetizer to the singer/songwriter album, Yes and Also Yes.^[10]

• Yes and Also Yes (2011)
• The Question Jar Show (2012)

A two disc album compiling the best of his Question Jar tour.

• The Lo-Fi Lodge (2012)

An online subscription album which will include 32 previously unreleased songs dispersed weekly.

Music videos[link]

• "Looking At the World From The Bottom of a Well"
• "27 Jennifers"
• "Fort Hood"
• "Put It Down"
• "(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)"
• "(I Keeping On) Rising Up"
• "Na Na Nothing"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mikedoughty.com, Doughty's website
• Doughty's entry at Allmusic
• Live Music Archive
• Interview with Mike Doughty (video)
• "Venti Venting," article about Doughty's song "Busting up a Starbucks"
• The Tempest, 1988 (poster) - Doughty wrote the musical score for a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
• Mike Doughty in studio performance
• Interview at WickedInfo.com