ROUGH DRAFT WRITTEN FROM 8-17-26 TO 10-11-26
EDITED AND TYPED FROM 10-11-26 TO 10-13-26
POSTED ON SPACEHEY 10-13-26
POSTED HERE 10-28-26
so… as i mentioned in my intro post, im in college. im a freshman, to be specific. i actually started writing this post on the very day that classes started. its been kind of an odd life. lots of new people and situations etc etc the typical college stuff. ive been thinking about my childhood lately. obviously i am. im starting a new adult chapter in my life. but im especially thinking about the music. this is because starting in april or so, i set myself a challenge to listen to as many of my parents cds as possible to decide which ones to take with me to college. this included some of the albums my mom used to play in the car when driving my brother and i to school, or wherever we needed to go. and let me tell you. if you told me at the start of this that i would become utterly. and let me say Utterly. and Completely. Entirely. Fascinated. with one of the artists/bands behind a childhood album, i wouldve NEVER guessed that it would be mike doughty.
for those uninitiated, mike doughty is most well known as the frontman of soul coughing. you know soul coughing. donttt neeeed tooooo walk around in circles walk around in circles walk around in circles walk aroundddd innnnn. you know them. what you may not know is that theyreeeee FREAKING awesome! they released their debut album, ruby vroom, in 1994, then irresistible bliss in 1996, then finally el oso in 1998, breaking up in 2000 due to interpersonal conflicts and also a lot of drugs. i am summarizing quite a bit but thats all you really need to know for now. at some point later, my dad discovered ruby vroom or el oso or maybe both at the same time, and found that what he liked most about the band was mike doughtys instantly recognizable voice and lyrics. so, he bought two of his solo albums: 2005’s haughty melodic and 2009’s sad man happy man. he liked them a lot, and eventually my mom heard them too and also liked them, and so she started occasionally playing them in the car. but DO NOT GET IT TWISTED. these two albums to me were nowhere near the significance level of, say, consent to treatment by blue october, or manners by passion pit, or some nights by fun., to name a few. not only did my mom not play haughty melodic or sad man happy man as much as the others, i also had not revisited them once until my challenge, unlike all three examples i mentioned and many others. therefore, i was going into this blinder than other albums i listened to back then [or so i thought. we’ll get to that later], and this uncharted yet familiar territory was exactly why these two [and around the same time, the two soul coughing albums my dad owned] were some of the first i listened to for my challenge.
now if i were to be all fancy and chronological and deep divey about this, i would talk more about the three soul coughing albums. and id love to! but, like many things, people way more knowledgeable than me on just about anything have already said my words way better than me and probably have better opinions than me, if “better” opinions in general even exist. what i will say is this:
all three albums are, in my opinion, equally awesome. if you forced me to do a ranking of them at gunpoint, i probably could, but that ranking would change from day to day.
THESE SONGS STICK THE FUCK IN YOUR HEAD.
my parents have tainted my perception of what is popular to an extent, but i cant imagine anyone my age with even remotely the same background as me who doesnt forever have circles lodged between the folds of their brain. all of their songs are at least a little like this. if the songs are bad it’s a curse, but if the songs are fucking awesome, its still a curse but like kind of a cool, interesting curse. luckily, soul coughing songs are the latter. let me illustrate. one day in late august, my roommate and i took the bus to breakfast. the bus passed by an ice cream place with a name that sounded like whatever sound mike doughty makes in the breakdown for i miss the girl. when we got to the dining hall, looking for a place to sit, we were tired so we—and i kid you not—took the elevator to the mezzanine. it took everything i had to hold closed my jaw and not make a single noise at that. my roommate thought i was making that face in reaction to the noise the elevator was making… that poor soul. she doesnt even know of my blues. my screenwriters blues, even. ive [to an extent] driven myself sleepless just reading mike doughty interviews. i indulge in all this and i feel so stupid it just makes me want you to get my ankles and someone else to get my wrists and carry me off to the 5% nation of the sweet release of death. call this mortal plane new york, new york the way i wont go back. its el osover for me. god fucking damnit. and i wrote this entire tangent on the day that happened. its only gotten WAAAYYYYYYY worse. you will see what i mean eventually.
now i dont remember when i learned mike doughty was the frontman of soul coughing. it was definitely before doing this. obviously it wasnt that surprising if i dont remember, because again: theres just something about the guy that i cant stop thinking about. there have been days where i have done almost nothing but read interviews and graze through the wayback machine looking for Certified Never Before Seen Mike Doughty Content. but of course, i also reread things ive read before on him. one cannot overlook the interview where he deflects a question with “oh, well, hm… aw, look, theres birds over there! im looking at those birds. wow! what lovely birds. im thinking about lunch. what am i gonna have for lunch? im sorry, was there a question…!?” i desperately need to hear the actual audio of him saying this. this man is seeping into my everyday vocabulary. he has consumed me. and to think that without that little challenge i wouldnt know about this and he would forever remain just some vaguely remembered middle aged guy who lived in the cd booklet of my moms old car… it is incredibly hard to translate his presence in my brain into text without spoiling the albums [and even then its still hard], so lets get into those.
SAD MAN HAPPY MAN
i wrote about sad man happy man first as opposed to haughty melodic [which came out first] because it was the one i listened to first all those months ago. it was purely because the title intrigued me more. i had since relistened multiple times before this little project, but for the actual writeup i decided to have some fun with it. i relistened to it twice for this: once on my phone sitting at the laundromat waiting for my laundry to finish, and then again that night on my newly acquired hand-me-down discman, aimlessly wandering around campus. i took notes during both sessions, and they will pop up when relevant.
the album opens with nectarine [part two], the only song i had any memory of beyond the name of the song. this is for sure because it was the opener and therefore the song i heard the most the few times my mom put it on in the car. other than that its not too notable, but id still say its the perfect opener. nows a pretty good time to mention the cellist that accompanies mike doughty throughout the album, andrew “scrap” livingston. the cello, both on this song and the whole album, kick a lot of ass. its awesome how much depth it adds. i should also mention that yes, there is a nectarine part one. more on that later.
next is the more upbeat [i keep on] rising up, one of the more produced tracks and, according to a 2013 interview, one of mike doughtys favorite songs hes ever written [at least at the time]... which IIII would have to agree upon! this is my favorite song on the album [usually]. its got a funky groove played by scrap. its also got fun boingy sounds throughout and a little 8-bit drum thing at the end! and even though i cant say all that about most of the rest of the album, it still fits right in. the reason i make this point is because i am pretty sure it was this song that made me realize this when i was listening to the album at the laundromat: this is a college album. obviously it wasnt intended as such, but when i was at the laundromat, looking around me, seeing people doing their mundane chores, talking to their friends, working on schoolwork, doing whatever else they please, all in one place, it enhanced the song, and most of the others on the album. i felt like i was in an only half remembered college sitcom, especially with some of the other songs. as for my night walk, the part where scrap loses his shit on the cello hit right as i discovered a place on campus i hadnt seen before, and it felt amazing.
the song afterwards is [you should be] doubly [gratified], which is another more produced song that i also like quite a bit but dont have very much to say on it. it made me feel cool walking around at night. its also kind of an outlier in the “college” theme ive completely fabricated for this album. moving on…
the mood shifts back closer to nectarine with the song lorna zauberberg*, which seems to be a completely made up name. at the laundromat, the half remembered sitcom feeling started to intensify, as the chopped up and distorted vocal sample breaks started to mix with the actual people talking at the table a few feet away from me. the song is overall really pretty, especially the interesting little cello solo after the first verse. mike and scrap really are kindred spirits. theyre just dudes doing weird things. it did not surprise me that this partnership continued long after this album [and also before, but this was the first album that he was actually on]. the song also soundtracked the stars slowly appearing in the sky on my night walk, so that was awesome.
continuing the laid back sound is [i want to] burn you [down]. again, this was not my first time listening to the album, but this song had gone largely unnoticed to me before this little project. however, as i heard that riff play in the laundromat, the song clicked. even though it was not at all dark outside, i could still feel myself and everyone else there get transported to a forest, sitting around a campfire at night, all of us singing this song together despite not knowing the words and therefore its just a vague sounding out of the syllables. a direct quote from my notes: “mike doughty is sitting in the middle of the laundromat playing this song as we all adjust to our new lives.” it really opened up the song for me. college-o-meter is off the charts. it also made the contrast between this song and the next much more noticeable.
pleasure on credit is one of two more hip-hop-oriented songs on the album, and according to a scug.net article promoting the then-upcoming release of the album, is “a celebratory tale of the american spender in the face of the us’s credit addiction crushing the worlds markets.” which i think is like 95% bullshit. doughtys hip hop stuff tends to be more nonsensical since he especially focuses on flow and the sound of the words more than what they mean, and pleasure on credit is no exception. some highlights include:
my fluid is spinal
get together like a unification
get wide, because im spacious
throw around your incredible bulk
i guess the chorus makes a little more sense in this context. chasing the mermaid i suppose is like always trying to get more money and status. or something. i dont have a credit card. still quite a fun song. i like it ^_^
the next song, lord lord help me just to rock rock on, was another one that initially went unnoticed before i started writing this, despite it sticking out quite heavily, both in that “college” mold i made up and… everything else. but walking around at night, it gave me a burst of energy and i felt so. goddamn. cool. it was like i activated the power of every new york hipster like the avatar state. i gained a newfound appreciation for that song that night. ive gone on night walks to this album several times since, and this one just makes me wanna run.
its back to the usual with [hes got the] whole world [in his hands]. quick off-topic tangent: you may notice that ive been sometimes referencing how the song is compared to the previous song. this is because i really like the sequencing of this album. i dont know what exactly it is about the way the energy flows in this album specifically, but it rules. thats why it surprised me that hes not really an “album guy” and believes much more in individual songs. its not like the label did all the sequencing for him either, he has mentioned before that he has input. anyway, this is the other more hip-hop-oriented song. the rage of a thousand hipsters cooled down for this song and so this song still made me feel really cool walking at night, but more in a slacker way. though again, this is more hip-hop-oriented, meaning we have #epic funny lyric moments like “not plump, she’s plumpish / frumpish, bumpish, lumpish, jumpish”. this song is also one of the “stickier” choruses. i have found myself, on several occasions, when heading back to my dorm, knowing my roommate wasnt there and wouldnt be for a while, saying to myself “we got the whole. dorm. to ourselves, we got the whole dorm to ourselves.” certified good song! ^_^
next up: [when i] box the days [up]. im not sure exactly what it is, but i really really like this song. one or two days out of the week you could get me to say this is my favorite song off the album. it has a similar especially-collegey energy to burn you. while i made this observation in the laundromat, it was confirmed about 2 weeks later as i was driving my friends to the park at night and this song came on. it was just quietly playing in the background as my friends and i talked and joked about unrelated things, but it was kind of transcendent. this mood was of course killed when i nearly turned into oncoming traffic, but you take the moments where you feel perfectly content with life wherever you can.
after that is year of the dog, which i would probably say is my least favorite just because its the one i have the least to say about and the one thats gotten stuck in my head the least. the album kind of drops off overall at this point, and i only barely have more to say about the last few songs. diane was rather comforting on my night walk. how to fuck a republican has an… interesting subject matter, and this is a real note i took while it was playing on my night walk: “i genuinely just put my hand on my hip at the crosswalk. im becoming a hipster.” im so fucking lame dude.
while i dont have too much to say on it other than comparing it to the original, i really like casper the friendly ghost as a closer. though the lyrics are depressing, it still felt comforting as i found my way back to my dorm hall. the song is a daniel johnston cover and i neglected to listen to the original song until the very end of writing this [10-13-26]. johnstons is much more joyous. both are comforting but the original feels more comforting in a childish, nostalgic way. its interesting how daniel johnston sounds like hes talking about himself while mike doughty sounds like hes talking about someone else. its hard to say which version i like more but probably daniel johnstons, not to say that mike doughtys isnt also awesome.
when i came up with the idea of listening both at the laundromat and on a night walk, i was unsure of how well it would work out. luckily for me, however, it went very well! in fact, as of writing this [9-24-26], i have listened to sad man happy man on numerous night walks! quite a pleasing ritual for this ritual-loving freak. something interesting i noticed on that first walk was that i didnt sit down once, which is very odd to me because it was 100 degrees outside, i was wearing pants, and my stamina is total shit. while i did stop to write on a nearby flat surface occasionally, it wasnt for long and i was still standing. thats the power of mike doughty i guess.
back to nectarine part one i teased at the very beginning. so mike doughty has given different reasons for sad man happy mans existence before, but the most consistently mentioned one is that sad man happy man exists as a response to the polarizing reception of his previous album, golden delicious. it was much more produced and as someone who has listened to it… without giving too much away yeah its quite an odd little album. i definitely think sad man happy man is better, though despite their opposition, i could definitely imagine some golden delicious songs as sad man happy man songs if they were more stripped back, and some sad man happy man songs as golden delicious songs if they were more produced. but yeah, sad man happy man is pretty damn awesome and a great start to college.
*i couldnt find a way to put this in when i was talking about this song but i didnt wanna not mention it. he says the t slur in lorna zauberberg. obligatory slightly-different-times-but-still-pretty-fucked-up disclaimer. but dont worry, while i dont know if hes said anything about this song specifically, i DO know that he is pro trans, and in fact was even before it became all republicans could talk about. so thats pretty awesome.
INTERLUDE: A TRUTH MOST FUNDAMENTAL
now that you know slightly more about mike doughty, i can talk some more about my relationship with him and his music as opposed to solely soul coughing. so, to reiterate, my mind has been completely ravaged by mike doughty. like its been fuckin BAAAADDDDDDDD. i need to repeat this a bunch to get this idea through your skulls. because oh my fucking god. but heres the thing: barely anybody in my life knows. if they have any idea, its because they either pointed out my cds of the albums, or i let something small slip and they pried. even then, i would just quickly explain who he was and hold my composure to not spiral off into my own world. the only people who know just how bad it is are my family and a certain circle of online friends. “but vinny,” you say, “it would be so easy to tell them!” oh no. ohhhhhhhh no no no. let me tell you why not.
so ive got this online friend. it basically changed my entire life and is why i am as insane about music as i am. for about two years now its been obsessed with former dead kennedys frontman and prolific solo artist jello biafra. in my mind i compare me and mike doughty with it and jello biafra all the time. and surprisingly, mike doughty and jello biafra have a lot in common! theyre most known for being at-least-at-one-point-former frontmen [soul coughing are actually back together now, with the original lineup too] of bands that werent quite totally mainstream but were pretty big in certain subcultures and certainly werent completely unknown in the mainstream either. both bands initially broke up after similar lengths of time because of tension between members [especially with the frontman and the rest of the band] and distribution of money was involved. they both have had extensive solo careers since. they both have extremely distinct voices and sometimes do some kind of spoken word. they both have some kind of connection to hardcore [mike doughty was in a by-his-account-shitty hardcore band when he was like 16! it counts!]. i dont know if mike doughtys in a movie like jello biafra is but if he is and its anything like terminal city ricochet i need to see it NOW. you should watch terminal city ricochet btw. but anyway, there is still one key difference between the two men that makes my friends obsession with jello biafra acceptable and my obsession with mike doughty not, at least to my brain.
jello biafra is a punk legend, so it becomes kind of okay to mythologize him [TO AN EXTENT obviously], because he kind of actually is that guy. but mike doughty, and i say this with every ounce of respect that i can humanly muster, is just some guy.
like, at every stage of his career, even when he was like 23 in soul coughing, he looks at least a little like someones dad. he couldve been my dad. i think its the face idk. and dont get it twisted: “just some guy” does NOT mean uninteresting or untalented. mike doughty has lived an incredibly interesting life and obviously i think hes quite talented if ive been in this state for two months straight. it just so happens that it is just some guy who has been thrown into all these situations and is also a great songwriter and performer. and it wouldnt be so bad if i were only obsessed with soul coughing, because you can make an excuse that its about the whole band, and for a lack of a better way to put it, its cool to be a soul coughing fan. but mike doughty is in this weird realm where hes more obscure than soul coughing but also more “normal” and also now youre undoubtedly specifically in it for The Guy rather than The Guys and so you just feel sooooooo fucking stupid and lame. ESPECIALLY when you know youre quite a bit younger than the average mike doughty fan and also just kind of not really the demographic at all. so yeah basically nobody in my life knows about all this and it makes me feel CRAZY. and yet… i march on. like his truth. that will make sense later.
after my two “action listens” for sad man happy man, i knew i had to do something similar for haughty melodic. however, i didnt wanna just do the same two things again, because they are quite different albums to me. the obvious answer for one of them was aimlessly wandering around campus playing the cd on my hand-me-down discman but in the morning this time, and a while later i tried listening to it while doing chores, which i didnt get much out of, so i finally did my second official action listen on a long drive back to my hometown. once again, those will come up when relevant. so without further ado, lets get on to…
LOOKING AT THE WORLD FROM THE BOTTOM OF A WELL
wait… what?? the section header is supposed to be the name of the album! this is the FIRST TRACK of the album! why would that be the section header? why… would i have… an entire section… for one… song…? …ahaha… ahahaha… EEHEEHEEHEEHEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
early april. 2026. third period environmental sciences class. the scene of the crime. i am about a week away from my 18th birthday. moving out is becoming more and more of a reality. so, as stated before, i had started on a spreadsheet of all the cds my parents owned a few weeks before and i have now started listening to them all to see what i wanna bring with me to college. as stated before once again, mike doughty stood out from the rest because i did remember him, but not very much, so after i listened to sad man happy man, i pulled up haughty melodic on youtube. immediately, the tracklist looks more familiar to me than sad man happy man’s did. especially the first song, a little ditty called looking at the world from the bottom of a well. i click play. as that beginning riff plays, my eyes widen. i remember this song. the drums kick in and my mouth goes slightly agape. I Remember This Song. he starts singing and i find myself trying to predict the melody. I REMEMBER THIS SONG. and then… that chorus. that glorious, glorious chorus. i was supposed to be studying for the final. however, despite joining the two year course over a year late, i felt confident in my abilities because that class was really easy for me [and yes, i got a 93 on the final]. and so here i was, sitting there, bliss radiating from every pore of my face. i can only imagine how i looked to my friends sitting with me at the table. god. they dont even know what my life has become.
GUYS I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG.
i cant even begin to describe any specific details. its just a basic fact of life that looking at the world from the bottom of a well by mike doughty is fucking awesome. it feels like i never forgot this song. it feels eternal. hearing those first few seconds out of nowhere on the playlist does unspeakable things to me. kids these days talk about certain things being of doom and despair, but this is the riff of hope and better days to come. in that regard, this song is crushing. there was one time where it came on on the playlist as i was walking to the dining hall, and i was wearing one of my most colorful outfits, and some guy walking past me said i “gave off positive vibes”. in that moment, nothing felt real. i didnt feel real. this song-outfit-comment combination did one of two things: either i briefly caught a glimpse of sunny rainbowland, where pretty horsies gallop across vibrant green hills and everything and everyone smiles at you as the sun reaches out its hand to take you on an adventure flying through the clouds at thrilling-but-still-modest speeds, or i had been spontaneously imbued with the power that normally would have to come from being kissed by a thousand beautiful birds and butterflies while taking a bite out of a crisp apple freshly picked from the orchard of the universe. i dont think a song has ever done this to me before.
on my morning walk, the song was glorious. i had a comical grin on my face the whole time, and the scenery was beautiful. on my drive, the sky was perfect. it had a very slight dark blue gradient and the clouds were perfectly patterned. i couldnt help but look up at it the whole time. this song just makes you notice the world around you. and yes, i know, obviously nostalgia plays a factor, but i would like to argue that this song is timeless in my association with it.
i alluded to this earlier, but im not really talking about the soul coughing albums because theyre more well known and so i feel like i dont have anything new to say. however, i do feel a little more confident here because of one thing: my age. i know gen z soul coughing fans. i dont know any gen z mike doughty fans, let alone any who are doing anything like this. so heres a story from my fresh and youthful perspective.
it was august 12th, 4 days after moving in, 5 days before i started writing this. i met someone who i had only previously known from instagram [i tend to mass follow people going to my college]. they seemed so, so outgoing. it was insane how quickly they could just make friends. so we had planned a movie night with them, me, my roommate, and some friends my roommate and i had made a night or two ago. after other hijinks that ended up not mattering in the end, we started heading to the place we were gonna watch the movie at. as we were walking, we crossed paths with 5 other people. the new friend struck up a conversation and we all started talking, and they invited the 5 of them to the movie night. so now we had like 10 people going. as we were watching the movie, i could feel myself disassociating. it turns out my roommate felt the same way. she said she was gonna dip so i followed her. it just all felt so… odd. so overwhelming, so spontaneous. and in the midst of it all, i could hear mike doughty in my head. he was singing that soaring chorus…
i feel as if i am looking at the world from the bottom of a well
the line comes from a murakami novel, but it perfectly encapsulated how i felt at that present moment. i was still navigating through this new home, still finding where i belong and what friendships will last. and i still am. and yet, the song is happy. its looking towards the future. as am i. my train will come some one day soon, and when it comes ill ride it bound from night to noon. as my roommate and i were walking back to our dorm, she compared her overstimulation to a scene in some show where one character is standing still as everyone else moves around him, and as i was recounting all of this in the very journal i drafted this post in that night, i realized that thats exactly whats happening in the music video for this song. it was a crazy coincidence.
in the same journal entry, i mistakenly call the lyrics “for the most part… just some fuckin buuuullllllllshiiiiiitttttt” despite not even checking the lyrics to fact check this claim. its now pretty obvious to me how the verses and chorus are connected. looking at the world from the bottom of a well, to me, is about how loneliness and isolation can feel so natural sometimes, but you have to break out of it and find a beautiful place for yourself in the world. in this song the loneliness is probably romantic, looking at the first verse about the cuban girl, but i can still find relation to it in my own life. my whole life, even with friends, i was kind of a loner and felt a little out of place. i barely hung out with them outside of school until i had become much closer to who i am today. i didnt have like ANY friends outside of school either. but now that im in college, i have two main friend groups and then a few others i also kind of hover around, and yet i still feel like im trying to find my place. i feel like i barely lived life until i was 16, and i honestly dont have a lot of experience that my other friends have had, so i kind of dont feel like a real person sometimes either. but i know that im gonna find my way. but for that to happen i have to actually try. i have to bat it down. i have to climb out of the well. and by god im gonna fucking do it. this song found me again at exactly the right time. thank you mike doughty.
HAUGHTY MELODIC [or the rest of it at least]
after one of the most magical rediscoveries of my life comes unsingable name, which hearing again that first time all those months ago, i also vaguely remembered, though i have much less to say about unsingable name. its a pretty basic song but still very pleasant. in my morning walk notes i described it as a “sunny day song”, and it still kept up the energy enough to keep me looking at the sky on my drive.
next up is madeline and nine, another song i dont have much to say about but still really like. i would like to single out the drums and backing vocals here as they are awesome. its also a slightly more melancholic turn in the album, as i noted on my morning walk. i also really like how the song kind of shifts throughout, its really interesting. i know this all isnt much but trust me i like this song LOL
something i think is really cool is that madeline and nine is in e major, and then the next song, busting up a starbucks, is also in e major, but you can tell right away that this is gonna be a completely different song, because that little flute vamp at the start sure as hell sets you up for whats to come. this song is AWESOME. i think this song has the most instruments/samples of the album and you can tell. they have put in every single part they could think of for this one. from the very beginning flute to the rolled piano chords in the prechorus to the digital screeches at the end of the second verse and more, busting up a starbucks has it all, and it all blends together to make me feel very cool when walking around and very hyped when driving. i headbang at the breakdown every time. i will note the ending of this song is very odd: mike doughtys hitting a long note as all the instruments are holding out an e major chord and the drums are going crazy and youre waiting for that last crash but then it all just… fades out. and then it fades back in with only the guitar ringing out, cut off by a bass kick. a year or two ago i had an idea for a joke song that never got past like one line that would be all about how fadeouts are for cowards who dont know how to end a song [that was, in fact, the one line], and then the punchline was that it would fade out, but then have one last punch so that it technically didnt end on a fadeout. almost exactly like busting up a starbucks. i cant believe that fakeout fadeout is real… im literally a visionary but 20 years late.
mike has said on two separate years-apart occasions that the next song, white lexus, is one of his favorite things hes ever written. while i do like other songs better, i can see why. its got a unique chord progression [I-III-vi-IV btw. can you tell i had my music theory class on the day of writing this], and its beautifully subtle. while probably less of doughtys doing, theres a really quiet piano in the back that i didnt notice until my morning walk listen, and it felt awesome to discover. referencing the sequencing again, its a really nice breather after busting up a starbucks. speaking of songs that come after other songs…
american car is another song i dont have much to say about but still really like. while most of the album is more of a “day album” [which ill talk more about later], this is a song id love to drive to at night one night. another notable thing about this song is that it got stuck in my head all the damn time in the days leading up to starting on writing this and triggering true doughtymania. i really like the details added in the song, like the kind of crystally sounds at “throw the memories in a drawer” like yeah that sure does sound like memories being thrown in a drawer. then theres the intensifying drums in the last choruses, which i didnt really notice until my morning walk but theyre great. yeas… very good song.
next up is tremendous brunettes, which is probably the song i have the least to say about. dave matthews [of dmb and ato, mikes then-label fame] is on it! but as someone whose only exposure to dave matthews band is the tour bus incident and community [which i need to rewatch so bad], i didnt even notice anyone else in the song at first, which i am unsure how that happened because those YEAAAYEAAAYEAAAs could never have been mike doughty. ummm but ya this ones alright. this was the point of the morning walk where i sat down for i think the whole song, which this is a longer album than sad man happy man [~46 mins vs ~33 mins] but that would still mean i sat down at about 23 minutes in, not to mention the fact that it wasnt nearly as hot as the night i walked around to sad man happy man.
whenever i try to remember the tracklist of haughty melodic from memory as a challenge [because im a freak] i consistently forget about i hear the bells, which is weird because id say this is another highlight of the album. this is a real thing i noted down on my morning walk as this song was playing: “this field is nice. the sun is shining on it nicely.” i think the fact that i was moved to write this down sums up how the song makes me feel. a more specific observation from me: i really like how the vocal melody in the verse… slithers??? thats the only word i can think of. idk its also odd that i forget about this song because it has the two lyrics i look forward to the most when throwing this album on, those being 1. the third verse:
im seeking girls in sales and marketing
lets go make out up in the balcony
your business dress, so businesslike
and im tossing the blouse over a chair back
it just comes out of nowhere its so funny. this is basically a precursor to how to fuck a republican from SMHM. its not a phase. uptight republican businesswomen are forever. also i have never in my life heard a rhyme like “marketing” with “balcony”. how and where did he pull that one out of. and 2. the first line of the fourth verse:
you snooze you lose, well ive snozt and lost
no notes. fucking great.
the next song is sunken eyed girl. let me say that louder. SUNKEN!!! EYED!!! GIRL!!! i swear this song gets better every time i listen to it its fucking awesome. its also GREAT to drive to. your foot just instinctively steps on the gas. i passed like a bajillion trucks to this song on my long drive it was awesome. and thats not even mentioning that breezy little guitar solo after the first chorus. it brings me so much joy every time it happens. if looking at the world from the bottom of a well didnt hold so much significance to me, i think these two songs would be on par, if not sunken eyed girl being better.
grey ghost is the song after, and like the song before, its been growing in stature with every listen, but its a very different mood from sunken eyed girl. its about the death of his friend jeff buckley, and its a very pretty song. i didnt pay much attention to this song at first, but it was the drive that made me pay attention. while my focus drew away from the sky at some point around american car and tremendous brunettes, i found myself looking back up. was the initial looking away the songs’ doing, or did i just remember i needed my eyes on the road? this may point to it being the songs’ doing. i am an irresponsible driver.
the next song is harder for me to tackle: his truth is marching on. its a christian song. i am not christian. as someone whos terrible at processing lyrics in real time and didnt even register him namedropping god right at the start, i had to find this out looking at the lyrics. i feel awkward singing along because again, not christian, but its a pretty good song. better than the christian songs on the radio in my aunts car. this was the song i had stuck in my head in anticipation of the morning walk as i was getting ready for it.
finally, the album ends with your misfortune. in my notes following the drive, i said that i felt like your misfortune would be an underrated closer. i have no evidence for this, as the only other mike doughty fan i know is my dad, but i feel it in my soul. it was a great ending for both the walk and drive. when i found out his truth was a christian song, i briefly considered whether or not this one was christian too, just from hearing the first verse:
when your faith in life is gone
come and speak to me
when youre down and all messed up
seek my sympathy
when he mentioned sympathy i decided that it wasnt, because you pray to god for guidance, not sympathy. so to end haughty melodic how i began it, i have decided to do some incredibly surface level analysis on what this songs about, because i need to work on not being totally hopeless with lyrical analysis on command. i think this song is about someone manipulating and isolating someone at their lowest point, and taking advantage of them. while at first seeming friendly, they are still benefitting from “[their] misfortune”, as seen in the first half of the first chorus. the second half shows their friendly facade:
i can be the friend you want
i can be your confidante
i can be the right reminder at the right time
throwin’ out the lifeline
however, by the second half of the second chorus, their malicious intentions of keeping them trapped in this relationship show:
i can be the air you drink
every single thought you think
i can be the right notion in the meantime
warm you like the sunshine
ive developed a bad habit of not checking the lyrics and just assuming mike doughty is always just constructing songs solely based on sound of words, when he does in fact put thought in the stories they tell, so its nice to take time to try to figure them out. yay ^_^
mike doughty has said before that haughty melodic is a hopeful album. as you may have figured out from the looking at the world from the bottom of a well tangent, i tend to agree. anytime one of the songs comes on on the playlist i get a big grin on my face. i can feel the hope he was feeling [ignore how parasocial that sounds…]. ive already gained such an intense personal connection to this album. my life has been looking up lately, and i know mike doughty will follow me there.
CONCLUSION
theres a comparison my mind has been making a lot: haughty melodic is a “day album”, sad man happy man is a “night album”. this all comes down to ~vibes~, of course. there are exceptions in songs like rising + doubly and american car + grey ghost, but for the most part its pretty fitting. however, despite their opposition, id say they are pretty equal albums. like the soul coughing albums, i could put one above the other but which is above which would change from day to day.
this little project has also helped me in getting just slightly less embarrassed about liking mike doughty. as the certified Driver Friend of the group, i previously would not have him on the playlist at all in case my friends heard him and [knowing that they probably dont know who he is] were all like why are you listening to some lame acoustic guy i thought you were supposed to be cool… but as i was walking around with haughty melodic in my ears i realized that it does not matter and they are chill. but they still dont get to know the full extent. i cant bat it down no matter how hard i try. there is just no way to beat it. mike doughty may keep on rising up, but i keep on spiraling down, down, down, down, down, down, down. lord lord help me just to move move on. if one day, somehow, i dont know who he is, he will remind me, because i hear the bells, and they toll for me.
both albums have gotten regular play since, including in their action listen contexts. in fact, haughty melodic has joined the ranks of another album in that i have to put it on anytime i have a long drive. ill probably write about that mysterious album next, as a buffer between this and doughtymania 2. WAIT… what was that i just said?? yes, folks, it is with a heavy heart that i must inform you that no, you did not misread the title of this post. this is part 1 of several posts. LET IT BE KNOWN that i had absolutely no intention of doing anything beyond HM and SMHM, but now im in the hole and i cant stop falling. i already have the pairings and order sorted out, and i am already quite familiar with the upcoming pair. god. every day i think im at peak doughtymania and then it gets worse. remember that it can always, ALWAYS get worse. GOOOOOOOOOD NIGHT EVERYBODY!
APPENDIX
the thing i conveniently forget every time i feel like updating my family on new interests is that they looooooove bullying me [affectionately]. so while i was doing my weekly call to my parents [this was october 8th] my dad kept telling me to check what he dmed me on discord [yeah yeah white people be like etc etc]. it was this image:
i gave a little more than a nose exhale and hated myself for it. for the record his last name is pronounced DOH-tee and not DAOW-tee as i once believed [because of my parents] but my father will not be swayed.
also, i thought it would be fun to track the stats for these albums because im a data + arbitrary thing assignment freak. THE STATS SO FAR:
explanations for the letters:
sad man happy man is the letter s because its a cool, hip letter. we’re so used to seeing it everywhere that we forget how distinct a letter it is in terms of how it sounds. its got a bit of a bite to it.
haughty melodic is the letter a because its fundamental and reliable for all your wordy needs, but its also open. a good-hearted and optimistic letter.
here is ALSO some hip new doughty slanguage i have accumulated [not including ones that would spoil the next doughtymania].
SOUL COUGHING:
“this might be the ruby vroove” [ruby vroove replaces move in this context]
“its el osover”
MIKE DOUGHTY:
“fuck my sad life happy life” [in the same vein as fuck my stupid baka life]
“i snozt and lost”
“sexy friends of [city name]” [to refer to any group of people. kind of a deep cut reference]
referring to lady parts as a place [this ones an extremely deep cut. good luck.]
referring to english as londonese [same extremely deep cut. good luck.]
more to come. see yall next time!
