"that cuban girl who brought me low..."

i had a run on great music back in the mid 90s. team dresch, palace, beck, chris whitley. i'm still listening to most of them, even their new stuff. at the time i was wooing a beautiful recent college grad who was working at barnes & nobles in charlottesville. she was deeply impressed by my cool music taste. i think i knew i was in when she made a "music tape" for me that included liz phair doing several sex tunes(eg. "fuck & run"). anyway, one of the groups that i really liked back then was soul coughing. they had a great groove, funny hip cynical lyrics, & the singer had a rough tho interesting voice. the singer was the band's front man & creative force, mike doughty, & their brief flirtation w/success back then nearly did him in. it did do the band in.

he's on his own now & doing well, judging by his solo releases. the first video is from an early solo album, haughty melodic, & the last one is from his newest album, released last year, golden delicious. he seems to like girls. i like girls too. he seems to take them leaving him badly. i get that. the beautiful italian barnes & noble girl dumped me after i dropped out of grad school at uva & followed her across the country to sf. once she knew she had me, it just wasn't exciting anymore. i should have been able to see that coming for miles. if i'd listened more closely to her "music tape" & liz phair's "go west." i guess i don't really pay enough attention to the music. it's all in there if you just take the time to listen but a good groove can confuse things. it's always hard to "access the essence of the mess" when you're in the middle of it. it always seems to require being brought low. w/the music, doughty gets through it. i get that too.