Ruby Vroom - Soul Coughing (1994)

Before you could just go listen to music on the Internet, it was hard to discover new things. For several years I subscribed to a magazine called CMJ New Music Monthly, and it helped me out with that a lot. It was full of reviews. The main thing that stuck with me about those reviews was a style of criticism that still influences me heavily: one of assuming there’s something worthwhile in everything. They would use the phrase “recommended if you like” as a way to place a record in a context other than just the reviewer’s tastes. The magazine came poly-bagged with a CD that had 20 or so tracks from new albums on it. Between the reviews and the CDs, I found so much music I loved from that era thanks to CMJ. I’ll run down a few of them this week.

Soul Coughing were a wild stew of influences. Singer and songwriter Mike Doughty has a gift for the drug-addled absurd and fun, but it’s taken to another level with the acid jazz rhythm section and some of the most inventive use of samples you’ll ever hear. There are samples of old tunes, sound effects, cartoon soundtracks, and all sorts of other things.

The song on one of the CMJ comps got me to buy the album, and the album wormed its way into my brain so heavily that I can still sing along with most of it.

Note: If you’re looking to buy anything from this band, I’d highly recommend Mike Doughty’s solo reworkings of the Soul Coughing songs, since there’s a lot of acrimony about money both among the former bandmates and with the label that still owns the masters. I’ve linked the original album here because it’s still a favorite of mine, and you should hear what I heard in 1994.

Note 2: Nevermind, I guess. They buried the hatchet enough to do a reunion tour so things can’t be that bad.

Tracks I Liked

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago - completely unhinged right from the start

Screenwriters Blues - Poetic, apocalyptic, absurd and funny all at the same time.

Down To This - The track that started it all by landing on the CMJ comp. Samples the Andrews Sisters and gets crazier from there.