Search - Mike Doughty :: Skittish / Rockity Roll

As the lead singer and songwriting force behind Soul Coughing, M. Doughty combined a slam poetry, ironic sensibility with jam band-ish, arty Downtown grooves. That group was an apex of smart stoner rock. Since the mid `90s Doughty has gone it alone, and his first release for ATO combines two self-released solo recordings that flirt with the sublime. Recorded in a single day in 1996, Skittish nicely replicates his solo performances, minus witty banter. "Real Love/ It's Only Life" collapses a Mary J. Blige song into a Feelies tune, so of course it's perfect pop. The 2003 EP Rockity Roll is just as stripped-down as Skittish, but electronic drums and keyboards dominate the mix. Mike has become a beautifully mournful, smart-ass singer-songwriter in the vein of Richard Thompson. Doughty's voice is a tightly controlled, slightly nasal croon that sounds like he learned to sing by listening to trumpet solos off old bebop records. Rejecting the term "folk" for what he does, Doughty prefers his own phrase, "small rock." Surely, it's more restrained, slower and less flashy than Soul Coughing. It's also much better. --Mike McGonigal