Mike Doughty reveals a soft spot for teen pop
By Jim Abbott - Sentinel Music Critic
Is this some kind of joke, or does self-described "slacker jazz" practitioner Mike Doughty really have a soft spot for teen pop?
The former Soul Coughing frontman, who will perform solo on Monday at the Social, laughs at the question.
Then he admits the truth.
"I really believe that, on balance, the two top singles of the 1990s will be Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and the Backstreet Boys"I Want It That Way.' I don't see how you can listen to it and not think it's an amazing soul song.
"There are a couple of 'N Sync songs that are terrific, a few Britney songs that are great and a bunch of Christina songs that are great. I think that years down the road, people will look back and realize that a lot of it was really great music. A lot more stuff from that period will sound good 20 years from now than from the grunge period."
An infatuation with commercial pop isn't evident listening to the frenzied keyboard splashes and insistent percussion of Soul Coughing's "Bus to Beezlebub" or "Super Bon Bon." Even the band's pop-tinged melody on "Circles" is delivered with an unvarnished edge.
Doughty has developed that organic style as a solo performer, framing stream-of-consciousness lyrics against hooky tunes on his self-released Skittish (2000) and a limited edition live album, Smofe & Smang: Live in Minneapolis.
"Songwriting is finding a relationship between a phrase and a melody. That's the basis of the art," he says. "Stuff that will come to me that makes me think, 'This phrase suggests a really interesting melody.'
"Most of the time, I get up in the morning, make some espresso and sit down with a guitar and a drum machine. It's a discipline, but it's not like jujitsu or anything. It's just getting up and doing it."
Though the process hasn't evolved much since the dissolution of Soul Coughing three years ago, Doughty's lifestyle has changed considerably. He relishes the independence of working alone, driving by himself to gigs in a rental car.
"Just being able to get up at the hotel whenever I feel like it, to leave late or leave early or to stop off somewhere for a long time. It's a lot earthier, a lot more fun than being in a big rock show.
"Literally, I can take side roads when I want. I don't have to stay on the interstate system. I get to see this part of America that's totally inaccessible on a tour bus."
The arrangement also works better economically, an important concern for a niche performer currently between record labels.
"It's really difficult right now; it's a terrible period for the music business. It's a real bust like I've never seen before. I've seen cyclical busts, but this is really a time of reckoning for the industry."
In the mid-1990s, Doughty says, major labels likely "would be throwing money at me." Instead, he will be knocking on doors in coming months, seeking interest in tracks for a new album that he is completing now.
"It's kind of strange to me, but you have to have a sense of humor about it. I'm very grateful to have an audience; I'm grateful to be the kind of guy who likes going out and working."
One of the new tracks, "American Car," is a pastiche of nostalgic images rumbling along on a foundation of rudimentary acoustic guitar and snare-drum backbeat. The song is among more than 25 prospects for an album that eventually will include maybe a dozen.
"I'm using othermusicians for the first time since I broke up the band," Doughty says. "You really have to approach each player differently. Some require coaxing, some just jump right into it. It's about imagination more than technique."
Though there's no timetable for the album's release, Doughty knows how to keep busy. A collection of his poems, Slanky, was published by Soft Skull Press, and an essay he wrote for New York Press found its way into the anthology Da Capo Best Music Writing 2001.
Doughty started his career as a rock critic for New York Press, but he doesn't miss it.
"It made me think too much about music, why I liked it and didn't like it. I'm not particularly good at explaining why I don't like something. It really drives me batty."