Soul Coughing

Soul Coughing stood out among the decade's most distinctive cult acts, helping launch a wave of eccentric, hard-to-categorize groups that surfaced after grunge faded, among them Morphine, the Eels, and Cake. M. Doughty's stream-of-consciousness poetry propelled the quartet's deliberately off-kilter blend of improvisational jazz grooves, oddball samples, hip-hop, electronics, and noisy experimentalism, a style Doughty himself labeled "deep slacker jazz." Even amid the alternative-rock boom, their avant-garde leanings kept them from mainstream acceptance while they maintained ties to the downtown New York scene that birthed them. Their ironic humor and stylized bohemian-hipster image nonetheless attracted a devoted collegiate audience, and their reputation as a compelling live act grew from a jazz-inspired approach that rendered each performance spontaneous, aided by an open stance toward fan tape trading. After issuing three well-received albums, the band disbanded, allowing Doughty to pursue a solo path.

The group coalesced in New York City in 1992 around lead vocalist Mike Doughty, who performed under the name M. Doughty. Born at Fort Knox to a military family, Doughty had previously reviewed music and composed abstract, Beat-influenced verse suited to poetry slams. His role as doorman at the Knitting Factory introduced him to a range of downtown avant-garde musicians. He assembled keyboardist/sampler Mark de Gli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and Israeli-born drummer Yuval Gabay, following a brief early period that included bassist Wilbo Wright and cellist Catherine Bent. The name Soul Coughing originated from a Doughty poem concerning Neil Young vomiting, and the quartet played its first show at the Knitting Factory in June 1992.

Local attention secured a contract with Slash, a Warner Brothers subsidiary, in 1993. Their debut, Ruby Vroom, titled after producer Mitchell Froom's daughter, appeared in 1994 and earned largely positive notices. College radio embraced the late-night barroom mood of "Screenwriter's Blues" along with the singles "Down to This" and "Sugar Free Jazz." The 1996 follow-up, Irresistible Bliss, intensified interest through alternative-radio successes "Soundtrack to Mary" and "Super Bon Bon." The band also supplied tracks to several film soundtracks: "Unmarked Helicopters" for Songs in the Key of X: Music From and Inspired By the X-Files, "The Bug" for Batman & Robin, and "16 Horses" for the X-Files movie. Their third and final album, El Oso, arrived in 1998, its opening single "Circles" delivering their strongest alternative-radio impact.

The band nevertheless dissolved in March 2000. de Gli Antoni had already issued the solo album Horse Tricks on John Zorn's Tzadik label, returning to experimental electronic work with contributions from his former bandmates; he later scored independent films such as the 2002 romantic comedy Cherish. Steinberg and Gabay formed UV Ray, while Doughty overcame heroin addiction and guested on trance producer BT's club single "Never Gonna Come Back Down." He performed material from his acoustic album Skittish, recorded in 1995 yet unreleased until he sold it directly via his website to bypass Napster. His proper solo debut faced delays, but he released another live acoustic set, Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis, in 2002 and maintained a column in the New York Press. The Kufala label sought to issue archival Soul Coughing concert recordings, yet internal disagreements stalled the effort.