Mike Doughty

For the rally co-driver, see Mike Doughty (co-driver).

Mike Doughty
Background information
Born	June 10, 1970 (1970-06-10) (age 41) Fort Knox, Kentucky
Genres	Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1992–present
Labels	ATO
Associated acts	Soul Coughing
Website	Official Site

Mike Doughty ( /ˈdoʊtiː/ doh-tee;^[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 singer-songwriter and producer 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, also produced by Dan Wilson. 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 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,"The Question Jar" tour, in the fall of 2009 to support the album, backed again by Andrew "Scrap" Livingston.

On July 6, 2010, Doughty debuted 14 new songs at the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC. Some of the song titles were "I Love Surprises", "Shine", and "Russell". Videos of these can be viewed on YouTube. During the performance, Doughty would read lyrics off a music stand, then when finished with each song, Doughty crumbled the paper and threw them into the audience. He performed this show alone, stating his partner, Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, became a taxi driver. Whether or not this was a joke is unclear.

Doughty's latest album, Yes and Also Yes, was released in August 2011. It includes songs such as "The Huffer and The Cutter",^[4] "Hapless Dancer", "Day By Day By", and "Na Na Nothing".

Other appearances

"Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" was featured on the show Grey's Anatomy and also is on the soundtrack. This song 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.

Doughty's 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. "I Hear the Bells" is also in the Grey's Anatomy episode, "Bring in The Pain".

"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.

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

He appears on the MC Frontalot song "Your Friend Wil" (2010) from the album Zero Day.

His song "(I Keep On) Rising Up" appears in the 2010 Jack Black film, "Gulliver's Travels (2010 film)".

Solo discography

• Skittish (recorded 1996; released 2000)
• Smofe + Smang: Live in Minneapolis (2002)
• Rockity Roll (2003)
• Skittish / Rockity Roll (2004)

A two disc re-release which includes the out-of-print Skittish, the Rockity Roll EP, and five bonus tracks.

• Haughty Melodic (2005) #175 U.S.

Doughty's first full-band album, released on May 3, 2005.

• The Gambler (2005)

Six song EP exclusively on iTunes Music Store. Title track is a cover of the Kenny Rogers hit.

• Golden Delicious (2008) #87 U.S.

• Busking (2008)

Limited edition Live LP sold only at shows. Contains 12 tracks from a 2007 busking performance in the 14th street subway station in NYC.^[5]

• Busking EP (2008)

An EP, featuring five tracks from the Busking LP.

• Sad Man Happy Man (2009) #138 U.S.
• Dubious Luxury (2011)

An electro/sampled/sonic-slice-and-dice album put out as an appetizer to the singer/songwriter album, Yes and Also Yes.^[6]

• Yes and Also Yes (2011)

Music videos

• "Looking At the World From The Bottom of a Well"
• "27 Jennifers"
• "Fort Hood"
• "Put It Down"
• "(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)"
• "(I Keeping On) Rising Up"

References

1. ^ See Mike Doughty: The Making of the Small Rock, Aired on NPR May 4, 2005
2. ^ Mike Doughty
3. ^ http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A178769
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/archives/000789.html
6. ^ http://mkdo.co/post/8347396068

External links

• Mikedoughty.com, Doughty's website
• Doughty's entry at Allmusic
• Live Music Archive
• Interview with Mike Doughty (video)
• "Venti Venting," article about Doughty's song "Busting up a Starbucks"
• The Tempest, 1988 (poster) - Doughty wrote the musical score for a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
• Mike Doughty in studio performance
• Interview at WickedInfo.com

Persondata
Name	Doughty, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 10, 1970
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death