Mike Doughty's Band

"Super Bon Bon," the stand-up bass-driven single from Soul Coughing's Irresistible Bliss, was an anomaly on the modern-rock airwaves -- even on playlists chock-full of one-hit-wonder anomalies. Bandleader Mike Doughty's hardly melodic, spoken-sung, baritone-squatting-squarely-on-top-of-the-mix vocals resembles no other voice in recorded history. Ditching a project as original as the one named for a poem about Neil Young's vomit may sound ludicrous to many a starving artist, but Doughty desperately needed to kick his nasty smack habit and realize musical freedom. After languishing in solo-label limbo for a spell, a clean and sober Doughty is finally making music again and answering to a boss man again -- none other than ATO Records' own Dave Matthews. Surprisingly, the musicians' traded timbres on Haughty Melodic's "Tremendous Brunettes" couldn't be a more perfect fit. Although they'll share the same stage later this year, Doughty and his brand-new bandmates are more than capable of dishing out goosebumps galore without Matthews's assistance.