Downtown Live

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Mike Doughty

Haughty Melodic

by Jamie Manser

ike Doughty – perhaps best known as front man for nineties beat- and lyric driven, unclassifiable group Soul Coughing – is hitting Plush September 27 in support of this year’s solo release Haughty Melodic. (ATO Records)
Right in line with his previous solo work, but this time fleshed out with a band, Melodic centers around Doughty’s lyrical genius. The musician is a talented scribe who is wry without being sarcastic; vulnerable without being maudlin. Honest hopefulness emanates from his songs, encompassing a mature, soulful reflection on life and love.

Opening track, “Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well,” is toe-tap guitar pop with heartbreak as the theme – but it’s heartache that doesn’t sink into depression. It’s heartache that acknowledges abject isolation – I feel like I’m looking at the world through the bottom of a well – but takes responsibility for healing – Lonely. But the only way to beat it is to bat it down. He reminds us to not be immobilized by the pain, but to, instead, take control and take it out.

The next song, “Unsingable Name,” is a sweet guitar-rich lullaby, ignited by the flame of new love – I want to be your absolute ultimate. Want to be your only one now. Feel the wave come up from your sulkiness. Feel the rays you radiate now.

“Madeline and Nine” conjures up butterflies-in-the-belly giddiness of high school crushes, a giddiness that never leaves us – no matter how old we are…

I can give you the constellations
Lay down here; we’ll count them all…
I’m so joyful that I have found you
All’s I need is you to see me now
Slaved by the words I lack
My world is bursting sappy music

“White Lexus” is a sad one, reminds me of something I experienced recently, with the lines – Please show me how to live, please show me how to have a day. I don’t want to wake up now, why do I have to wake up anyway…try to feel nothing on demand…my world is the surface of the moon, my heart’s down in a diamond mine.

I can’t really figure out what the next song, “American Car” is about, but the beginning lyrics are cool – My surface train pulls through the night, full of lions and trapeze artists. I’m done with elephants and clowns. I want to run away and join the office.

Throughout the whole album, Doughty lays his soul bare with courage, sans foppish sentimentality. I also must give the man kudos for “His Truth is Marching On,” a sincere song reaching out to the creator – I’m f*$%ing starved for love. I deeply need to feel connection with the infinite. I want the nourishment. I need to drink it just like water and it will sustain me. It ranks up there with George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” as a sweet, spiritual, loving nod to the divine.

Mike Doughty’s Band performs at Plush, 340 E. 6th St., on Tuesday, September 27. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased in advance at www.virtuous.com. Call the club at 798-1298 with further inquiries.

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