Not long after Kurt Cobain died in 1994, the sonic baton was passed on to a number of emerging rockers. Several fledgling singers, such as Creed’s Scott Stapp and Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger embraced the growling style of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
The world of music needed a jolt of originality during the year that the Rose Bowl hosted the World Cup.
It arrived with the stunning “Ruby Vroom.” Soul Coughing’s debut was refreshingly jarring.
The project was unique, combining Mike Doughty’s beat poetry, keyboardist Mark Degli Antoni’s clever use of samples, Sebastian Steinberg’s jazzy acoustic bass work and Yuval Gabay’s asymmetrical drumming.
“Screenwriter’s Blues,” a poem about the dark underbelly of Los Angeles, remains compelling. “You are going to Reseda to make love to a model from Ohio whose real name you don’t know.”
Doughty had not only never been to Reseda, he had yet to visit Los Angeles. John Fogerty crafted “Born on the Bayou” before setting foot in Louisiana, showing you can visit a city mentally without being physically within the town’s limits. “Ruby Vroom” was the start of it all for Doughty, who will perform Saturday, May 9, at the Sid the Cat Auditorium.
Doughty and his Soul Coughing bandmates made three great albums before splintering in 2000. Doughty has enjoyed a consistently solid solo career. The eccentric poet, who reunited with his three Soul Coughing bandmates in 2024, focuses on his solo career but he still adds a few tunes from “Ruby Vroom” to his set.
When a band crafts an exceptional debut album followed by very good projects, fans can’t help but focus on that initial album. Just ask The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys. It’s the same for “Ruby Vroom.” But what’s different about “Ruby Vroom,” is that it sounds like surrealist comedian Steven Wright wrote and recorded the songs.
“Good call,” Doughy said. “Very good call. Steven Wright has always been a huge influence on me. We had this running joke when we were recording. When something didn’t sound quite right. We would say it sounds like the song has been stolen and replaced by an exact replica, which approximates one of his jokes. (‘The other day someone stole everything in my apartment and replaced it with an exact replica.’) Rim shot, please!”
It is no surprise that some of the highlights of Doughty’s solo set includes tracks from “Ruby Vroom.” Doughty believes the album stands up to the test of time because it was road tested before it was recorded, which doesn’t always happen these days due to YouTube.
“One of the reasons the album sounds so great is because we played the material for two years,” Doughty said while calling from Memphis. “We cohered as a band, as a quartet. We played the songs from ‘Ruby Vroom’ so much in front of people in New York City. The funny thing is that when the album came out the locals in New York didn’t like it. I thought we were doomed. But we discovered that there were obsessives. I remember answering a phone at a San Francisco radio station and someone said, ‘you’re God.’ It was evident that people were getting it.”
The samples on “Ruby Vroom” are incredibly inventive. “He ( Degli Antoni) was amazing,” Doughty said. “It was the way he used samples and sounds and then there was his own work. The samples on ‘Screenwriter’s Blues’ were from his own composition. It all came together with that album.”
“Ruby Vroom” launched Doughty, an original talent, who has released a number of stellar albums, such as the self-released 2000 project, “Skittish,” 2008’s quirky “Golden Delicious” and 2016’s “The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns.”
There’s also The Ghost of Vroom, a duo which features Doughty and his pal/collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston, features an array of hip-hop, blues and funk.
Doughty is fortunate enough to have a significant canon to draw from and perhaps it starts with his ode to the City of Angels, “Screenwriter’s Blues,” which still sounds inspired.
“You live in Los Angeles and you are going to Reseda/We are all in some way or another going to Reseda someday to die.”
Mike Doughty Live
When: 8 p.m., Saturday, May 9
Where: Sid the Cat Auditorium, 1022 El Centro Street, South Pasadena.
Cost: $32.75 and $39.25
Info: 626-225-0099, sidthecatauditorium.com