Hey, here’s something I didn’t expect! Soul Coughing, the New York band who made three excellently weird major-label albums in the ’90s, are back together! This did not seem likely. Soul Coughing broke up in dramatic fashion in 2000; frontman Mike Doughty’s various addictions played a role. For decades, the former band members have dismissed the idea that they’d ever reunite. But now, that’s exactly what’s happening. Later this year, they’ll play their first live shows in a quarter century.

Soul Coughing got started in 1992, with all four members meeting at the Knitting Factory, where Mike Doughty worked the door. (I briefly did the same thing at the same club eight years later, and I felt very cool doing the job that Doughty had done.) They made a kind of absurdist rap-inflected, sample-drunk jazz-funk that sounded like absolutely nothing else. After signing to Slash/Warner Bros. in the weird alt-rock gold-rush days, they made three very good records and scored a few minor alt-rock hits. I saw them live a few times in the ’90s, and they were always awesome.

After breaking up, the band members all did different things. Doughty went solo and wrote some books, while stand-up bassist Sebastian Steinberg became one of Fiona Apple’s closest collaborators. Recently, Doughty revisited the band’s music on tour and on his Ghost Of Vroom 2 EP, and that led him to approach his ex-bandmates about a possible reunion. Here’s some of the stuff that he says about it in a press release:

The end was acrimonious, but I just thought I’d give it a shot. So I just wrote an email to all three guys. It took a little convincing for some of them, but I was really gratified that everyone wanted to take part in that again — to see if we can be a great band again…

I guess I just sort of came back to the music after lots of years of not listening to it. We were never imitated. What really struck me is just how individual all the instruments were. Mark, the sampler player, really did something playing those live samples that nobody ever did. And we just had the best rhythm section in the world…

We’re just trying to pick the songs that bring us joy. We’re really trying to kind of revel in each other as musicians, and that’s what the setlist is going to be based on. One thing that’s always been true about this band is every song is somebody’s favorite song…

We just decided to let bygones be bygones. You know, everybody had issues. Our fans are going to be shocked, man. I can’t even believe how much they’re going to be shocked.

TOUR DATES:
9/11 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
9/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
9/14-15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
9/17 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
9/18 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
9/20 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
9/21 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
9/22 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
9/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
9/25 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
9/27 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre
9/28 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
9/29 – Boston, MA @ Royale
10/03 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/04-05 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel

Check out our 2020 interview with Mike Doughty here.