Soul Coughing's El Oso

  M. Doughty - vocals; guitar
  Mark De Gli Antoni - keyboards; samples
  Sebastian Steinberg - upright bass
  Yuval Gabay - drums and percussion


  "This record is huge. It's my favorite," says M. Doughty. But then, suddenly
  realizing that's what everybody says when they have an album in the
  pipeline, Soul Coughing's frontman adds, "I'm not lying. On El Oso, we have
  really grown as a band." You cannot blame Doughty for choosing his words
  carefully. The release of their third album sees the genre-bending quartet
  poised on the brink of greatness - which a predictable dose of massive
  industry hype would only delay. 

  Building a fan base the old fashioned way - by relentlessly taking their
  commanding live show on the road, Soul Coughing broke out of the
  experimental art rock ghetto in 1994 when their first album, Ruby Vroom,
  sold in excess of 150,000. Powered by the high-spirited aggression of the
  radio-friendly track "Super Bon Bon," their sophomore effort did even better
  and Irresistible Bliss sold over 250,000 copies.

  Spawned in the bowels of New York's underground in 1992, Soul Coughing,
  ironically, never entertained the thought that someday they might have
  commercial potential. Indeed, Doughty confesses that, "When the band was
  formed, I had given up on making it in the music industry. I didn't care
  anymore and I just wanted to book some Monday night shows and have some
  fun."

  To this end, the struggling avant poet put together an unlikely band of
  talented musicians. Mark De Gli Antoni, who has a Masters in music
  composition, handles keyboards and sampler. Yuval Gabay occupies the drum
  stool. His credits include Bosho, an experimental percussion threesome;
  Zahar, which fused traditional Moroccan folk music and rock; and musical
  collaborations with choreographers. Stand up bassist Sebastian Steinberg's
  career has included stints in everything from reggae bands to belly dancing
  combos as well as collaborations with New York's leading dissonant guitar
  hero, Marc Ribot, not to mention playing on the upcoming Cibo Matto LP. "We
  are four smarty pants, who are proud of their great musical backgrounds,"
  says De Gli Antoni. "So it's not that easy to chew up and spit out what it
  is that we do." To make matters even more interesting, De Gli Antoni had
  never been in a band before and Steinberg's professional experience was
  mostly confined to electric bass.

  Despite their disparate backgrounds, they came together with a unifying
  theme. Steinberg relates the band consensus: "Funk had become this tinny
  sounding shit. One of the things we all agreed upon was that Soul Coughing
  had to have a dark deep low-end and that live we had to be as fat as all
  these hip hop records." Almost predictably, their first show at New York's
  très hip Knitting Factory saw only 17 paying customers-but remarkably, the
  lineup stayed intact. Within a year, there was a good word on the street
  about the band, and their weekly residency at CBGB Gallery had become the
  downtown cognoscenti's party of choice. "People started dancing," says
  Steinberg. "And once that was taken care of, anything else could happen."

  And so it did. After sorting through some offers, Soul Coughing inevitably
  signed to Slash/Warner in 1993. The following year they recorded Ruby Vroom
  with Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Los Lobos, Sheryl Crow, Cibo Matto). After
  backbreaking tours with the likes of Jeff Buckley, Sunny Day Real Estate and
  Cop Shoot Cop, they returned to the studio in 1996 with renowned producer
  David Kahne and created Irresistible Bliss out of the tunes they had
  perfected while on tour.

  Which brings us to El Oso...

  The record title may have been partially inspired by the bear on the
  California state flag-although rumors abound of bears appearing on Soul
  Coughing's set lists as early as 1994. But when asked for further
  information Doughty will only reply cryptically, "El Oso quiere miel." From
  that, we can divine that the lyricist is still savoring the sweet taste of
  success after spending 12 weeks with the band last winter at L.A.'s Sunset
  Sound Factory. Once again, Tchad Blake was at the controls and Doughty says
  that, for once, they actually had to fully develop their tunes. "Tchad had a
  zillion keyboards, whistles, bells, toys, weird speakers and guitars, and we
  went crazy with the overdubs." But just in case you suspect that with all
  this, they were really only given enough time to muck things up, rest
  assured that Soul Coughing's already prodigious funk is fatter and their
  groove more hypnotic than ever before. "I don't think we hit stride with
  song production until this record," confides De Gli Antoni. "In the past, I
  think we always felt that we didn't squeeze the wine-press hard enough and
  there were still a lot of skins and stems left in the juice."
      
  El Oso clearly brings Soul Coughing more than a few steps closer to
  realizing their dream of being a great dance band. Jungle beats dominate the
  cuts and the boys have also been obviously listening to a lot of drum and
  bass. "Eventually it snuck into my music," admits drummer Yuval Gabay. "When
  I come up with beats I always try to imagine how people would dance to it.
  And with jungle, people are bending their knees but their heads are also
  bobbing up and down. So these days, I am trying to get people to bob their
  heads as well as shake their booty." 

  Soul Coughing have also acknowledged their influences by having British drum
  and bass maestro Optical (Metalheadz, Grooverider, Goldie) work his magic on
  two of the tunes ("Blame" and "The Incumbent"). "It was an awesome
  collaboration," continues Gabay. "The beauty is that it all came from us and
  went through his filters. He did very subtle things that made a big
  difference. He didn't fuck with the music."
      
  And as for Doughty's lyrical prowess, which draws its sustenance in equal
  measure from A Tribe Called Quest and the beat poets, it has never been more
  refined. Check out the way he captures that salacious gutter vibe on "$300,"
  the fetid claustrophobia of addiction on "Houston" and the supple swagger of
  "Rolling." And still, for the single "Circles," Doughty manages to wear his
  heart on his sleeve in lyrics that were inspired by a recent breakup. "The
  girl was confusing," he confesses, "So I said, 'fuck you girl you are so
  confusing to me.'"

  Released on September 29, El Oso.