Tuesday, October 6, 1998
Innovative style highlights show as Soul Coughing rocks the
Palace
MUSIC: Multimedia techniques add excitement to lively concert
from group that defies genre
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Staff
Soul Coughing failed to book an opening band for its show at the
Palace on Monday, and it’s not very hard to see why. Soul
Coughing’s music is such a strange, eclectic mixture of tastes and
formats – no band could possibly open for them and satisfy all the
concert-goers.
This fact was reflected in the crowd that assembled hours before
the show began. Faces ranging from young punk rockers to
middle-aged classic-rock fans and everyone in between were visible
in the crowded venue. Perhaps because Soul Coughing so successfully
bridges the gap between traditional rock, funk, hip-hop and punk
music, they have unwittingly placed themselves in a musical
category all their own.
Their performance on Monday, which included a great deal of
material from their new CD "El Oso," expertly demonstrated the
band’s musical aptitude and lead singer and songwriter M.
Dougherty’s stage presence. But a Soul Coughing show isn’t just a
musical performance. It’s a feast for the senses.
Dougherty ran and paced across the stage like rude-boy Michael
Stipe, chanting and screaming the lyrics to various Soul Coughing
songs from the new CD as well as "Ruby Vroom" and "Irresistible
Bliss," the band’s two previous works. The songs themselves more
closely resemble tone poems than traditional rock songs, infusing
hip-hop beats and jazzy instrumentals to Dougherty’s surreal
rhythms and rants. The singer’s voice perfectly compliments these
other-worldly tunes, sounding not quite human as he screams about
white girls and sugar-free jazz.
Especially in this surreal vein was the opening number,
"Screenwriter’s Blues," an existential blank verse about life in
Los Angeles written while Dougherty was contemplating starting a
career in the dubious profession many years ago.
"Circles," the band’s newest single (currently getting airplay
around the clock on KROQ), perhaps typified the band’s attitude
during the performance. The song itself bears more similarity to
typical pop-rock than the average Soul Coughing song, but was set
apart by the eerie but strangely hypnotic voice of Dougherty and
the bizarre, word-association-based lyrics.
Highlighting some of these more ethereal and psychedelic tunes
was a video presentation, featuring staccato clips from the world
of animation, ranging from the Warner Brothers and Disney standards
to the spastic shorts of Tex Avery.
The showstopper proved to be "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago," from
the band’s debut CD "Ruby Vroom." The song is a perfect example of
the way simple beats and nonsense lyrics can be made, through the
right delivery, into a new and original sounding song.
Slash Records
Soul Coughing delivered a mix of funk, jazz and samples at the
Palace on Friday.
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© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board