THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 82 lines
HOW TO GET a fix on Soul Coughing? ``Irresistible Bliss'' is good for starters. The title of their new album also fits their music.
It's tight, structured; then, it's real loose and sort of improvisational. Arrangements are complex, and deceptively simple. The mix is Anything Goes: keyboard effects that echo Cab Calloway and David Lynch, Middle Eastern percussion, ``Secret Agent Man'' surf guitar and a fat, Bootsy Collins bottom - laid down with an upright bass.
M. Doughty's beat-poet delivery falls between Tom Waits and MC 900FT Jesus. When he sings, ``I got the will to drive myself sleepless,'' it's funny. And totally paranoid.
But the neatest trick may be how Soul Coughing, who play Sunday at the Abyss, manages to re-invent the three-minute pop song.
None of that, though, makes it easier to slip the New York outfit into one of those tidy, PR-ready pigeonholes. And Sebastian Steinberg, the group's gregarious bassist, is no help.
``I'll supply the hyphens,'' he said. ``I'm not in the business of describing it, I'm in the business of making it. There are people at Warner Bros. who get big money to come up with neat, three-part names.''
Steinberg was at his mom's place in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week. Soul Coughing had just finished a brief tour opening for Dave Matthews and was about to start its own in support of ``Bliss,'' the follow-up to ``Ruby Vroom.''
Critics embraced that 19 debut, even if, by some accounts, it was self-consciously too cool to play anywhere but Manhattan.
While the new album is unquestionably catchy, no one in the band, which includes drummer Yuval Gabay, keyboardist Mark De Gli Antoni and Doughty on guitar, came out and said, ``Let's be less of an insider thing. Let's not be willfully obscure,'' Steinberg said.
``It reflects the fact that the band spent the past 18 months in vans just driving around playing. Gradually, we got at the essence of the new songs. Every gesture, everything we use, became more direct.
``We made the record we wanted to listen to.''
That's always been Rule No. 1. ``Ruby Vroom's'' scathing ``Screenwriter's Blues'' began with a keyboard loop. ``Bliss' '' Level 42-ish ``The Idiot Kings'' evolved from four guitar chords.
``He doesn't come in with anything specific,'' Steinberg said. ``That's the nice thing about Doughty's guitar playing. It's nice for me because my bass line throws it into different keys. We played it a lot before it arrived in its present form. And it's changed quite a bit since we recorded it. That happens with every song we do.''
Likewise, Soul Coughing's has been a gradual evolution with audiences outside New York.
The Matthews tour wasn't their first time out with the Charlottesville pop 'n' roller. A big fan, he asked them to join him last yeararound the holidays. Early arrivals at Hampton Coliseum Dec. 30 and New Year's Eve may remember.
``Surprisingly, we got a lot of response, though it was hard to tell at the time,'' Steinberg said. ``Five hundred people is a lot in a club. In a coliseum, it amounts to the janitorial staff. We got a lot of e-mail from people who said, `We never heard you before, but ya'll rocked.'
``He's (Matthews) a really sweet guy and they treated us so well, we said, `Oh heck, who cares if it's an empty stadium?' ''
Then there was that club gig in Los Angeles, a showcase put together after ``Ruby Vroom'' was cut.
``It went pretty much standard L.A. - a lot of record guys standing around looking at the other guy to see if he likes it,'' Steinberg said. ``So we did `Screenwriter's Blues.' That made them shut up.
``I don't think anyone had a clue about how we would be accepted outside Manhattan proper. I think playing more helped. It kind of exploded slowly. You see it coming and you just can't run.''
As to the origins of the band's name, there isn't a clue in the world that could solve that mystery. Besides, Steinberg is glad to save anyone the bother of guesswork.
``A friend was hanging around with Doughty and mentioned soul coughing, referring to vomiting. Doughty, being the kind of person he is, thought it was common slang. We all looked at him blankly. Then, by his own admission, he wrote a very, very bad poem about Neil Young throwing up in a van and called it `Soul Coughing.'
``Everyone hated the poem but loved the name.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARCELO KRASILCIC
Soul Coughing has been on tour, opening for Dave Matthews.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE MUSIC by CNB