o~o~o~o M I K E D O U G H T Y F A Q o~o~o~o
1. Questions about Mike Doughty
a. HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "DOUGHTY"?
b. WHAT IS MIKE'S BIRTHDAY?
c. WHY ARE YOU 'MIKE DOUGHTY' NOW, NOT 'M. DOUGHTY' OR 'DOUGHTY'?
d. WHERE DID MIKE GO TO COLLEGE?
e. WHAT ARE MIKE'S LITERARY INFLUENCES?
f. DRUGS...
2. Questions about Mike's music and writings
a. WHAT IS "SKITTISH"?
b. WHAT IS "SLANKY"?
c. WHO IS DAVID BLAIR, AMERICA'S MOST BELOVED GAY, BLACK, FOLKSINGING AUTOWORKER?
d. WHO WROTE "LOOKS"?
e. WHERE CAN I FIND GUITAR TABLATURE FOR A MIKE DOUGHTY SONG?
3. Questions about Mikes live shows
a. WHEN WILL MIKE DOUGHTY BE PLAYING IN [INSERT CITY HERE]?
b. CAN I TAPE A MIKE DOUGHTY SHOW?
c. DOES MIKE PLAY OLD SOUL COUGHING SONGS AT HIS SOLO SHOWS?
4. Questions about Soul Coughing
a. IS SOUL COUGHING GOING TO GET BACK TOGETHER?
b. WILL YOU EVER POST SONG EXPLANATIONS FOR *EL OSO*?
5. Miscellaneous questions
a. WHAT WAS THAT YUKIO MISHIMA QUOTE THAT USED TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF MD BBS?
b. WHAT ARE THE 24 HOUR PLAYS, AND HOW IS MIKE DOUGHTY INVOLVED?
c. MISCELLANEOUS FAN QUESTIONS
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*** SECTION 1 - QUESTIONS ABOUT MIKE DOUGHTY
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1.a. HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "DOUGHTY"?
d'oh tea
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1.b. WHAT IS MIKE'S BIRTHDAY?
june 10, 1970
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1.c. WHY ARE YOU 'MIKE DOUGHTY' NOW, NOT 'M. DOUGHTY' OR 'DOUGHTY'?
i don't know. i kind of had an epiphany in southeast asia. i wanted to have a first name like all the other kids.
nobody actually has to call me mike, unless they want to--the point is that i'm mike to me.
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1.d. COLLEGE
a listener asks:
//Hey, is Doughty a college boy?//
i entered simon's rock of bard college in the fall of 1986, when i was sixteen. i transferred to eugene lang college, part of the new school, in new york city, in the fall of 1989. there i studied with sekou sundiata, kurt lamkin, suzan-lori parks, peter wallace, and others.
i walked in the graduation ceremony, but truth be told, i owed the library eleven bucks for overdue books, and have yet to actually get the diploma.
and am i the only one reminded of the late-70's wwII tv show "Baa Baa Black Sheep," in which the gruff but lovable sergeant used to hiss dismissively at the pilots, "COLLEGE BOY!!" when i was living in belgium at age ten, me and my friends would pretend the swings were airplanes and yell at eachother, college boy! College boy!
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1.e. LITERARY INFLUENCES
a big influence is SEKOU SUNDIATA, with whom i took classes at Eugene LangCollege (the New School University)--actually, Ani DiFranco was in those classes with me, true story, weird how things turn out years later--i really took a lot of very specific influence from his work and his way of singing with his band Dahdahdoodahdah.
i am a huge fan of ALAN DUGAN, a poet who won the pulitzer in the early 60's and wrote several volumes of terse, sad, beautiful verse. hard to find, but very highly recommended. in school i was a playwright and a slavish imitator of DAVID MAMET. "the duck variations," in particular.
i adore a book called *Mr. Cogito* by ZBIGNIEW HERBERT, a polish poet.
i have lately been huge on JORGE LUIS BORGES, especially the poem "Ragnarok."
the dialogue from JOSEPH MANCIEWICZ's screenplay for *All About Eve* just thrills me. i've seen it a hundred times. "That was not only a lie, it was an insult to dead heroes and the women who love them!" and: "Infants behave the way i do, you know. They carry on and misbehave. They'd get drunk if they knew how." Fantastic.
people seem to connect me with the beats, which i guess isn't that far off base--i love Allen Ginsburg's "Howl"--but, i don't know, i'd say i'm pretty much a slavish imitator of Alan Dugan, and marginally interested in the beats, at best.
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1.f. DRUGS
a listener writes:
//curious for your thoughts on how {quitting drugs} has changed your creative process//
there was a sense of connection with the world, and with my creative self,that i would get when i got high--it would last for, say, thirty minutes after my first hit--and that's when i would write.
this window of opportunity got narrower as time went by,and by the time i was really in the gutter of my drug career, i was barely writing at all; rather, getting high and wondering when the songs wouldcome.
of course, many of the things i wrote when i was high sounded good to me only when i was high--it was a selfperpetuating cycle.
when i first got clean, i spent a lot of time just journalling, freewriting and forcing myself to just keep typing--it was all i could do to stay focussed on something other than a want of drugs--these were kind of long, formless typed prayers addressed to god or the forces of the universe orthe spirit of humanity or whoever god happened to be on that day.
this process, along with a number of books i read and people that i was hanging out with and talking about this stuff with, really brought me closer to a god-consciousness. it's something i still keep practicing, because every day i get a little better at at, a little closer to it.
and it really got me back into writing.
i discovered that i was ALWAYS experiencing that sense of connection when iwasn't high; that when i was getting high, it appeared that the sense of connection came from the drugs, but in fact, i was just getting a daily glimpse of it before it would become buried again in my muddled, distorted brain.
so really i'm writing quite a lot now.
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*** SECTION 2 - QUESTIONS ABOUT MIKE'S MUSIC AND WRITINGS
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2.a. WHAT IS SKITTISH?
skittish is a record of acoustic stuff that i recorded on july 5, 1996 andnever put out. it was produced by kramer--who did the low and galaxie 500 records i adore -- and though i was really proud of it, i never felt i could put it out without it getting short shrift.
but then, without my participation, it got kind of a life of its own through napster downloads. i have mixed feelings about napster, but it really did allow this record to assert its own life. i finally had itmastered and sequenced, and have been selling it at shows, and online, to areally nice response.
if you want to buy it, come to a show, or go to the front page of this site and click the link!!
if you've downloaded skittish from napster, keep in mind two things:
1--you're probably listening to experimental mixes which, much to my dismay, got out and shouldn't have gotten out
2--you're definately missing a track or two
3--i'd really appreciate it if you bought an actual copy of the thing
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2.b. WHAT IS SLANKY?
Slanky is mike's book of poetry. first published by doughty as a chapbook and sold at soul c's shows in 1995, Slanky will be out in stores on soft skull press in summer 2002!
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2.c. WHO IS DAVID BLAIR, AMERICA'S MOST BELOVED GAY, BLACK, FOLKSINGING AUTOWORKER?
he's the guy that taught me "looks," which is on skittish. he learned it off a mixtape when he was in highschool, and played it for me in like 1987. i always loved it, but we didn't know where to hear a recording, so i learned it from him to play it for myself.
(we finally found out who wrote it--phillip shelley, one of the founding members of pianosaurus. see the next topic for more info about him)
for more info about Dave, check out WWW.UrbanFolk.Net
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2.d. WHO WROTE "LOOKS"?
NOW WE KNOW!!
Phillip Shelley wrote "Looks."
He wrote me this:
Hey Mr. Doughty,
Awhile back you were on the radio in LA live doing a song called "Looks." All my LA friends must have been listening to the radio at the same time because I got a slew of emails and phone calls.
The reason for that is that I am the guy who wrote it, a long long time ago. They told me how you told the story about the gay black auto mechanic from Detroit, and we tried to check that out with our Detroit friends, but we couldn't figure out who he was or where HE learned the song.
It was very sweet and humbling and funny to think that a song I wrote solong ago had been passed along in this way. (I was in a band that did "Post-Mortem Bar" for years, which we learned off a video of the movie "Longtime Companion," and it took us years to find outwho Zane Campbell was, and to finally track him down...Of course he turned out to be here in New York, and performed the song on stage with us on at least one whiskey-soaked occasion.)
It is certifiably insane how certain things manage to get passed on. Anyhow, finally I went on Napster and downloaded it, and it sounded very nice. And now I have stumbled across the superspecialquestions message board and some more questions are answered!
So maybe you are curious to know: the song "Looks" was written in 1978 when I was a teenager in a New York band called the Student Teachers. The song was recorded by Jimmy Destri from Blondie,and released on a compilation called "2 X 5" (I think) on Marty Thau's Red Star label. Other bands I have been in were called The Nightmares, Pianosaurus, and Philip Shelley and his Amazing All-Girl Band (which is the one that did the Zane Campbell song). Recently I haven't played much, except to do an occasional acoustic show, or an occasional Losers Lounge show.
Not sure what else to say here...
Don't worry, I don't want money, and I don't want to sue you or anything. I just wanted to say hello, and say thank you. Maybe it would be interesting to talk some time.
thank you,
Philip
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2.e. WHERE CAN I FIND GUITAR TABLATURE FOR A MIKE DOUGHTY SONG?
Some fans have posted tablature here -- it's a thread on the BBS, and not official Mike Doughty-approved transcriptions, but it should give you a start.
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*** SECTION 3 - QUESTIONS ABOUT MIKE'S LIVE SHOWS
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3.a. WHEN WILL MIKE DOUGHTY BE PLAYING IN [INSERT CITY HERE]?
If it's not on the tour dates page of this website, then there's nothing currently planned. Touring is a complicated adventure, and we cannot tell you until a show is confirmed and posted to this website whether Mike will be playing your city, state, country or continent in the near or distant future.
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3.b. CAN I TAPE A MIKE DOUGHTY SHOW?
You may make audio or video recordings of Mike Doughty headline concerts, subject to the restrictions below. When Mike is not the headliner, taping access will be subject to the policy of the headlining act. At all shows,taping access is subject to the approval of the venue, so call ahead tomake sure they'll allow your equipment in.
Sound board audio feeds will not be available at any time. Your equipment may not obstruct the view or infringe upon the personal space of fellow concertgoers. Please be courteous when taping a show.
You may not sell recordings in any format for more than the cost of blank media and postage. In other words, you may not profit from the distribution of Mike Doughty live recordings. Sale through auctions and auction websites (such as eBay) is prohibited.
If you tape a show, please be so kind as to send a copy in for the archive. Include your name and email address:
Mike Doughty Live Shows
c/o Little Big Man
155 6th Avenue, 7th Floor
New York NY 10013
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3.c. DOES MIKE PLAY OLD SOUL COUGHING SONGS AT HIS SOLO SHOWS?
a listener asks:
//Will you be revisting any of your previous musical children during this latest tour?//
sure, there'll be lots of soul coughing songs. the set is like 50/50 old/new.
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*** SECTION 4 - QUESTIONS ABOUT SOUL COUGHING
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4.a. IS SOUL COUGHING GOING TO GET BACK TOGETHER?
i really don't think so. we were together for eight years, we said our piece, now we all want to do different stuff. so, sorry, but it's very very unlikely.
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4.b. WILL YOU EVER POST SONG EXPLANATIONS FOR *EL OSO*?
sorry, friends, but it's a little late in the game, and i'd have to say--probably not.
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*** SECTION 5 - MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
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5.a. WHAT WAS THAT YUKIO MISHIMA QUOTE THAT USED TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF MD BBS?
"At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it."
Yukio Mishima, *Confessions of a Mask*
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5.b. WHAT ARE THE 24 HOUR PLAYS, AND HOW IS MIKE DOUGHTY INVOLVED?
i did this thing on monday night at the minetta lane theater, the 24 hour plays--actually this particular version was the CELEBRITY 24 hour plays--a benefit show for a children's arts organization whose name escapes me.
i've done the 24 hour plays before as a writer--the brains behind the operation, tina fallon, is somebody i went to school with--but this one i just played interstitial music between the plays.
it works like this:
six writers show up at the theater at 8 pm. they write ten minute one act plays--they have until 6 am. at 6 the directors show up, read the plays, and divvy up the scripts. at 730 the actors show up, they're cast, they learn their lines, blocking, rehearse, and the plays are staged at 8 pm that evening. hence the 24 hour bit.
great actors in this one--billy crudup, marisa tomei, julianne moore, rosie perez, liev schreiber, philip seymour hoffman, mary-louise parker, kyra sedgewick, scarlett johansson, benjamin bratt, brendan sexton, natasha lyonne, robert sean leonard...bunch of superfamousoids.
i played like six songs, abbreviated versions of skittish faves between plays--the cool part was that there was no microphone, i just had to project to this full, 400 seat theater. it worked great!!
felt kind of odd man outish, being a lone guitarman with no castmates, but then after the show i got hugs and compliments from all these movie stars,which, i must tell you, was some badass shit right there.
i gave 'em skittishes. they were thankful to recieve them. that too was some badass happening shit.
highlights: hanging with billy crudup, of whom i'm a gigantic fan after"almost famous" and "jesus' son"--such a cool guy :)--being embraced by marisa tomei--hubba hubba--meeting tina fallon's newborn daughter hallie--watching tina tech-direct the show, fancy headset on and clipboard in hand, with a sleeping infant strapped to her chest.
two small regrets--not meeting philp seymour hoffman, whom i adore. and notgetting the phone number of the supercute new york magazine journalist imet after the show, because i was on a post 24 hour show high and just wandered away like an idiot!!
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5.c. MISCELLANEOUS FAN QUESTIONS
a listener asks--
// I saw the video for "Never Gonna Come Back Down," and it's a riot. Bythe way - who was that poor bewigged raver kid you're shaking in one shot?//
that was actually the director, clark eddy : )
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a listener asks--
// You produced a song to go along with a comic (by Chris Ware) appearing in McSweeney's #6. How did the process of creating this song work? //
i went over to this little apartment john flansburgh keeps in williamsburg,brooklyn--his little preproduction studio--one of the fun aspects of which is that the actual dial-a-song machine is sitting on top of a keyboard. we had kind of a vague idea of doing something for the new TMBG record--infact, eventually we ended up co-writing "mr xcitement," and "your mom's alright"--but he had a big folder of mcsweeney's stuff he hadn't done songs for yet, and i found the chris ware comic, and i'm a huge chris ware fan, so i begged him to let me do something, and we recorded it that afternoon.
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a listener asks--
//I recall quite some time ago that you had a font with the Witchita name on it. I did like it... I did have it on an extremely old Macintosh...anyway, due to some circumstances out of my control... I lost the damn font. I can find this for the PC... But my typical work station is a Macintosh and it just doesn't work. So, if you would know of a place where this is I would be profoundly astounded to work with the font again...//
i don't know where you could find it. i did it with a guy named chank, so maybe a websearch for chank or chankfonts? maybe.
i just saw this font of my handwriting used on a billboard for a health care center just outside of montgomery, alabama. very weird.
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a listener asks--
//do you collect anything?//
i collect celebrity AOL screennames.
i never IM 'em, i just collect 'em.