Audio By Carbonatix
Soul Coughing fans, rejoice! Music written and performed by Mike Doughty solo is finally available in stores. This two-disc package includes 1996’s stripped-down Skittish and 2003’s Rockity Roll — both previously available only directly from Doughty or your favorite P2P network — along with some live tracks and outtakes. On Skittish, which was recorded in one feverish session during Soul Coughing’s acrimonious implosion, Doughty’s signature hip-folk guitar style wears a little thin, but his incisive, urgent lyrics and melancholy melodies still make for groovy listening, especially on gems like “Rising Sign.” Cheesy synths and drum machines add much-needed spice to Rockity Roll, particularly on “Down on the River by the Sugar Plant,” possibly one of Doughty’s best songs yet. This generous diptych of recycled tracks should be more than enough to whet fans’ appetites for the debut album from Mike Doughty’s Band, to be released this spring by Dave Matthews’s ATO Records.
