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.
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.
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 somewhat 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 in the fall of 2009 to support the album, backed again by Andrew "Scrap" Livingston.
Miscellaneous
Mike Doughty and electric piano player John Kirby.
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 "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.[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.
The original version of "Move On" is from the "Future Soundtrack for America" compilation
Solo discography
- A two disc re-release which includes the out-of-print Skittish, the Rockity Roll EP, and five bonus tracks.
- 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.
- Limited edition Live LP sold only at shows. Contains 12 tracks from a 2007 busking performance in the 14th street subway station in NYC. [9]
References
External links
