Soul Coughing
Liberty Lunch
Saturday, November 2 “Somebody ought to do a compilation reel of Donna’s Weird, Jerky Movements
at the Ends Of Scenes. Really peculiar stuff — sudden head twitches and
thumbs-ups and Pee Wee Herman noises and whatnot. I suppose the accumulated
sexual tension accounts for that, if not her general Tori-Spelling-Ness.” — M. Doughty, on America Online’s “Peach Pit Babylon.”
Soul Coughing frontgeek M. Doughty insists it’s beginning to qualify as a
clich�d interview question, but his morbid online fascination with
television’s Beverly Hills 90210 demands explanation. “I had a whole
television season to make a record and hang out doing promotional bullshit, so
I just got into writing about 90210,” he says. “Now, its turned into
this great marketing angle. I’m glad to be one of the world experts on
Tiffani-Amber Theissen. It’s flattering.”
It’s also got to be flattering for Doughty that 90210 star Jennie Garth
is rumored to own both of the New York band’s discs, 1994’s Ruby Vroom and this year’s Irresistible Bliss. So with a fan on the inside, could a
call for a 90210 guest spot be far off? “I’m now at the point that I’d
want to maintain my distance,” Doughty says. “You want to keep it sacred and on
its pedestal. But I don’t assume anyway that they’re going to start calling
weird little alternative hip-hop bands to play the Peach Pit.”
Indeed, Soul Coughing’s hip-to-be-square mix of samples, beat poetry, and
offbeat rhythms may be too challenging for the show’s core following. But
Doughty contends that after seeing the Goo Goo Dolls on the show, “90210
Rock” has become a genre he aspires to. “The 90210 aesthetic would
be something where you are absolutely not required to suspend your disbelief at
all,” he says. “Where you can look at it and see an actor and not a character.
I have ambitions to make something that has no bones about being completely
false. I’ll always be working, trying to push that envelope.” — Andy
Langer
This article appears in November 1 • 1996 and November 1 • 1996 (Cover).