•
Rating: New York is one of the most fascinating cities I have ever seen. Its soul coughs. Among the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the shops of Chinatown, or the fire escapes of the Bronx: wherever you are, its multifaceted personality grabs you and shakes you. In New York, you can never quite figure out which is the most attractive soul.
New York also has among its souls some slightly eccentric and bohemian people, like the poet Mike Doughty, who leads (led, alas) a truly phenomenal band, a melting pot of avant-garde ideas.
More refined than Cake, more captivating than Morphine, more forward-thinking than Beck: genuine references are hard to find. Mike Doughty defined his group’s music with three words: “deep slacker jazz.” I never quite understood what he meant, but it’s clear that in their sophisticated sound, there’s plenty of jazz and a good dose of goofiness too. They debuted in 1994 with this memorable Ruby Vroom (Slash), where Doughty’s intellectual free-style, superbly supported by a brilliant rhythm section (Sebastian Steinberg on double bass and the extraordinary Yuval Gabay on drums), is expressed with the explosive originality unique to their early days. Listen to believe, Bus To Beelzebub, Moon Sammy, Screenwriter’s Blues, True Dreams Of Wichita.
Soul Coughing is one of the most fascinating bands I have ever listened to. Their soul coughs. Among the jazzy drumming, the electronic samples, the syncopated guitar riffs: wherever I am, its multifaceted personality grabs me and shakes me. Of Soul Coughing, I can never quite figure out which is the most attractive soul.
The rock of the guitar, the funk of the samples, the jazz of the drums, the rap of the vocals… As with New York, probably, the charm is in the mix.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Casiotone Nation (03:50)
The five percent Nation of corduroy.
The five percent Nation of Marlboro.
The five percent Nation of pay-per-view.
The five percent Nation of nipple clamps.
The five percent Nation of Milton Bradley.
The five percent Nation of Casiotone.
The five percent Nation of Casiotone.
5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95,
100!
The People's Republic of Lake Edna.
The People's Republic of S.A.S.E.
The People's Republic of lemony fresh.
The People's Republic of chocolaty delicious.
The People's Republic of lumps in my oatmeal.
The People's Republic of Casiotone.
The People's Republic of Casiotone.
5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95,
100!
Yor, Yor, he's a man, he's a man.
Yor, Yor, he's a man, he's a man.
Everybody's movin'
Everybody's movin'
Everybody's movin', movin', movin', movin'...
1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 8 9, 10 11 12.
The five percent Nation of Harmful Free Radicals.
The five percent Nation of Oxygen Cocktails.
The five percent Nation of Casiotone.
04 Blueeyed Devil (04:12)
Blue eyed devil.
Blue eyed devil.
Born to be a God among Salesmen.
Working the skinny tie.
Slugging down fruit juice.
Extra tall extra wide.
33 degrees
Six hundred and sixty six
Dig digging it, come on.
Moving door to door to door.
Stoned motel room.
Nice cool on the bathroom floor.
King of Siam
Get the trouble frying.
Spoon to the lighter to the lighter to the gun
Devil lapsed out in a pool of sun
05 Bus to Beelzebub (04:33)
Get on to the bus,
That's gonna take you back to Beelzebub,
Get on to the bus,
That's gonna make you stop going rub a dub,
Your words burn the air,
Like the names of candy bars,
Your mouth is cold and red,
All in rings around your,
Laugh laughing laughs,
It's a grind grind,
It's a grind,
It's a grind grind,
I'll scratch you raw,
L'etat c'est moi,
I drink the drink,
And I'm wall to wall,
I absorb trust like a love rhombus,
I feel I must elucidate,
I ate the chump with guile,
Quadrilateral I was,
Now I warp like a smile,
Yellow no. 5,
Yellow no. 5, 5, 5,
Voulez-vous the bus?
07 Screenwriter's Blues (05:08)
Exits to freeways
twisted like knots on
the fingers
jewels cleaving
skin between
breasts.
Your Cadillac breathes
four hundred horses
over blue lines
you are going
to Reseda
to make love
to a model
from Ohio
whose real name
you don't
know
You spin
like the cadillac was
overturning down a
cliff on television
and the radio is on
and the radioman is speaking
and the radioman says
women were a curse
so men built Paramount
studios
and men built Columbia
studios
and men built
Los Angeles
It is 5 am
and you are listening
to Los Angeles
And the radioman says
it is a beautiful night out there!
And the radioman says
Rock and Roll lives!
And the radioman says
it is a beautiful night out there
in Los Angeles
you live
in Los Angeles
and you are going to
Reseda; we are all
in some way or
another going to
Reseda someday
to die
and the radioman
laughs because
the radioman fucks
a model too
Gone savage
for teenagers with
automatic weapons and
boundless love
gone savage for
teenagers who are
aesthetically pleasing
in other words
fly
Los Angeles beckons
the teenagers
to come to her
on buses;
Los Angeles loves
love
It is 5 am
and you are listening
to Los Angeles
I am going to
Los Angeles
to built a screenplay about
lovers who
murder each
other
I am going to
Los Angeles
to see my own
name on a
screen, five feet
long and luminous
as the radioman says
it is 5 am
and the sun has charred
the other side of
the world and come
back to us
and painted the smoke
over our heads
an imperial violet
it is 5 am
and you are listening
to Los Angeles.
You are listening.
You are listening.
You are listening.
You are listening.
09 Supra Genius (03:59)
Something I can't comprehend
Something so complex and
Couched in its equation
So dense that light cannot escape from
In the dark your brain glows
And it goes
Way um way, way um way um
I know you're a supra genius
Will you shoot the blue earth down?
In the space station
Polishing the ray gun
You say correllation is not causation
13 Mr. Bitterness (05:32)
There is a bar they call The Bitter Sea.
And she sits and drinks a velvet crush--that's
Kool Aid and gin--casing the clientele
Like a relentless cameraman. She is
Elsewhere. She says You keep a-knocking
But you can't come in, and I say
Little Sister, don't you do what your Big Sister does
Spiral down down down down down down down
Well desire looks just like you with an uzi nine
Gundown fifteen bystanders in a roadside driveby
Desire is the grassfire drinking gasoline
And she says Open up your mouth, man, let me come inside
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She snapped
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She's gone,
Gone gone
Aaah, leaning up against the wall
I will lash out dancing like a madman when you're gone
I will spit the blue flame and hurl my glass against the wall
And I will hear your name coming out from a boom box
I will hear your name called out from passing cars
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked...
14 Janine (04:58)
Janine, I drink you up,
Janine, I drink you up,
Janine, Janine, I sing,
If you were the Baltic Sea and I were a cup, uh huh,
Varick Street and I drove South,
With my hands on the wheel and your taste in my mouth,
Janine,
Jesus to my left, the Holland Tunnel on my right,
Angels shine down from the traffic light,
Janine,
I fell asleep by the blue light of Live at Five,
And as I drifted off, I heard Al Roker say to me:
Dial one nine hundred,
Four Jay Ay En Eye En Ee,
Slap myself to waking but now it's too late,
Cause I spelled your name out on my licence plate,
Janine,
Loading comments slowly
