081: Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss (1996)
“I’m Mike Doughty! I used to be the guy who was in Soul Coughing! Now I’m just some guy!”
—Mike Doughty, saying goodnight to the crowd at the Majestic Theater, Detroit, 3/6/04
Of all the genre-flouting “alternative” bands scooped up by major labels in the mid-‘90s, Soul Coughing boasted arguably the most enduring listening power. Their second of three perfect albums, Irresistible Bliss, landed an unexpected hit with the aggressively funky depth charge “Super Bon Bon.” In this episode, Will enlists the help of Phil, Rich, and Amanda in figuring out whether there’s some manner of locomotion that will get us to the mezzanine.
Miscellany
Will writes: “Listening to the final draft of this episode, it strikes me that I may have been a little rough on Mike Doughty. He is, after all, the man who indirectly introduced me and my wife, and I’m always going to think of him favorably for that. And whatever the objective facts may be regarding his position in Soul Coughing and his interactions with his bandmates — and I hardly think he’s a reliable narrator — I don’t doubt that Doughty felt as though he was in “an abusive relationship” (as he’s framed it numerous times) or that he may have had some sort of PTSD afterward. I hope he’s a happier person for having purged all the ugliness of his Soul Coughing experience. But as someone who loves the music he made with that band, the depth of Doughty’s contempt for listeners like me gets my back up. I resent it when he essentially says, in The Book of Drugs, that people who enjoy Soul Coughing have immature tastes or, on the flip side, are being self-consciously pompous by pretending to like music whose diverse elements don’t always fit together as nicely as Tetris blocks. The whole situation is a bummer, but I feel like I went overboard scoffing at Doughty throughout an episode intended to celebrate — not tear down — music and albums we love, and I apologize if that makes for an uncomfortable listen. Because I really, genuinely do love Irresistible Bliss and hope you all will too.”
“16 Horses,” which leads into the band history section, comes from the soundtrack to the film X-Files: Fight the Future, but Soul Coughing also appears on the X-Files TV show soundtrack Songs in the Key of X, contributing the song “Unmarked Helicopters.”
The full title of Mike Doughty’s album of Soul Coughing remakes is Circles Super Bon Bon Sleepless How Many Cans? True Dreams of Wichita Monster Man Mr. Bitterness Maybe I’ll Come Down St. Louise Is Listening I Miss the Girl Unmarked Helicopters The Idiot Kings So Far I Have Not Found the Science, a mashup of the titles of every song on the tracklist.
The negative space before track 1 on some CDs was referred to as the “pregap” and was usually used to hide computer data, allowing computers to detect a data track whereas conventional CD players would continue to see the CD as an audio CD. In fact, the liner notes to Songs in the Key of X, mentioned above, contain the cryptic assertion “Nick Cave and the Dirty Three would like you to know that ‘0’ is also a number.” Investigate the pregap on that disc, and you’ll find an odd, gauzy performance of the X-Files theme song performed by Mr. Cave and Friends.
As Will mentioned during the “Disseminated” segment, Pingu is a Claymation children’s show that hails from Switzerland. If you thought the Teletubbies were bizarre…
Please note that Mark De Gli Antoni annoyingly changes the spacing and capitalization in his last name seemingly to fit his mood. We’re using the way it’s presented on Irresistible Bliss.
Other links
Soul Coughing Underground (scug.net)
Mike Doughty's track-by-track notes on Irresistible Bliss (scug.net)
Doughty’s memoir, The Book of Drugs (Da Capo Press)
“Inchworm” from Hans Christian Andersen (YouTube)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Chris Willie Williams (host)
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
Phil Maddox
Amanda Rodgers
Irresistible Bliss tracklist
Super Bon Bon
Soft Serve
White Girl
Soundtrack to Mary
Lazybones
4 Out of 5
Paint
Disseminated
Collapse
Sleepless
The Idiot Kings
How Many Cans?
Other clips used
Soul Coughing:
Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago (from Ruby Vroom)
A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon, feat. Roni Size (from the soundtrack to the film Spawn)
Circles (from El Oso)
Casiotone Nation (from Ruby Vroom)
16 Horses (from the soundtrack to the film X-Files: Fight the Future)
Bus to Beelzebub (from Ruby Vroom)
$300 (from El Oso)
Moon Sammy (from Ruby Vroom)
I Miss the Girl (from El Oso)
Others:
They Might Be Giants - Mr. Xcitement
Coach Z - These Peoples Try to Fade Me
Craig Mack - Jockin’ My Style
Mike Doughty - Super Bon Bon
Ricky Martin - Shake Your Bon-Bon
Dave Matthews Band - Recently (live)
Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang
Mary J. Blige - Real Love
Mike Doughty - Real Love/It’s Only Life
R.E.M. - Every Day Is Yours to Win
Def Leppard - Rocket
They Might Be Giants - Token Back to Brooklyn
Low - Caroline 2
Dave Matthews Band - Jimi Thing
Joe Jackson - It’s Different for Girls
Led Zeppelin - Going to California
Danny Kaye - Inchworm
John Zorn - Taipan
King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part 1
Raymond Scott - The Penguin
Dave Matthews Band - Fool to Think
Mike Doughty - Sleepless
Alanis Morissette - Hand in My Pocket
Skee-Lo - I Wish
Steely Dan - Throw Back the Little Ones
UV Ray - Let the Drums Roll
Mark De Gli Antoni - Ground to a Mound
Fiona Apple - Shameika
A Tribe Called Quest - Buggin’ Out
Butthole Surfers - Cough Syrup
Dave Matthews Band - What Would You Say
Band/album personnel
Mike Doughty – vocals, guitar
Sebastian Steinberg – bass, upright bass, backing vocals, fiddle
Mark De Gli Antoni – keyboards, turntables, programming
Yuval Gabay – drums, programming
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon (this episode only)
You can buy Irresistible Bliss and other albums by Soul Coughing at your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.