Mike Doughty
[1] (born June 10, 1970) is an American indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter. 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" and "I Hear the Bells", both of which were featured on American television shows.
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MIKE DOUGHTY TICKETS
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Early life
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. Oneill 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
In 1992, Doughty, then a doorman at the New York avant-garde club
The Knitting Factory founded
Soul Coughing (billing himself then 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 years 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 former
Semisonic singer
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
. 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.
Miscellaneous
Doughty is an active
blogger (see link below), commenting on
pop culture, his life as a musician and his fans, and writing about and photographing his numerous travels, to
Cambodia,
Laos,
Buenos Aires, Shanghai,
Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Germany, and
Mississippi.
In 2002, Doughty recorded four songs for the film
EvenHand
. "Get Along" was subsequently released as a bonus track on
Skittish / Rockity Roll
. The other three songs, "Sweet Francis", "Love Theme From Officer Morning", and "The Devilish Verve of the Age Is Like a Man With a Staple Gun", remain unavailable.
In 2003, Doughty released a book of
poetry entitled
Slanky
(ISBN 1-887128-71-9) which received rave reviews from peers such as Dave Matthews and Ben Folds, who contributed enthusiastic blurbs for the book's cover.
In 2004, Doughty recorded the anti-
Iraq War anthem "Move On," which appeared on the compilation
Future Soundtrack for America
.
[4]
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 "Cougar" 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.
[5]
In 2004, Doughty's touring band included electric pianist
Thomas "Doveman" Bartlett, founder of the New York City band
Doveman.
[6]
In the fall of 2006, Mike Doughty's Band opened for the
Barenaked Ladies.
[7]
Doughty is known for being taper-friendly, allowing people to record his concerts and share them on the
Internet.
[8]
Other appearances
"Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" was featured on the hit show
Grey's Anatomy
and also is on the soundtrack. "I Hear the Bells"
was also on the show. "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" 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
.
"Down on the River by the Sugar Plant" was featured in the
Suicide Girls DVD Suicide Girls - The First Tour
during a set by SG London.
His 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.
He appears on the
808 State song "Bond" (1996) from the album
Don Solaris
.
He appears on the
BT song "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (2000).
He appears on the
They Might Be Giants songs "Mr. Xcitement" and "Your Mom's Alright" (2001) which appear on the US and UK versions of the album
Mink Car
, respectively.
Solo discography
- Skittish
LP (recorded 1996; released 2000)
- Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis
LP (2002)
- Rockity Roll
EP (2003)
- Skittish / Rockity Roll
double LP (2004)
: A two disc re-release which includes the out-of-print
Skittish
, the
Rockity Roll
EP, and five bonus tracks.
- Haughty Melodic
LP (2005) #175 U.S.
: Doughty's first full-band album, released on May 3, 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.
Sad Man Happy Man (Oct. 6, 2009)
References
- Pronounced "DOH-tee." See ''Mike Doughty: The Making of the Small Rock'', Aired on NPR May 4, 2005
- Mike Doughty
- http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A178769
- Jeckell, Barry A. ''Future Compilation Supports Political Change'' retrieved July 3, 2007
- http://www.thetripwire.com/news/2006/4/3/mike-doughty-runs-for-senate
- http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/doveman-acrobat.shtml
- News Story - WRC | Washington
- Internet Archive: Mike Doughty