It's Not Gossip, It's Commentary
“Wow! What a tempest in a teapot. My comments regarding The Golden Globes have been blown way out of proportion. My passion for our film Gnomeo & Juliet and belief in Elton‘s song really got my emotional juices going. But I must say for the record that I do believe Madonna is a great artist, and that Elton and I wish her all the best for next week’s premiere of the film W.E.” Elton John’s husband, David Furnish, casually dismissing the fact that he’s a sore loser.
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When I heard that Kelly Clarkson would appear on The Voice, I thought, “Wow, that’s really strange. Isn’t she the chick that won American Idol?” As it turns out, I’m not the only person intrigued by the choice. American Idol programming executive Mike Darnell said, “It’s a compliment to Idol, that other shows want to use our superstars on their shows. We’re not hiring a lot of people on The Voice to be on our show.” It is a little strange to tout Kelly Clarkson as famous enough to mentor up-and-comers, considering that fame is solely attributed to a competing show. I bet the development executives in charge of her selection hadn’t even thought about it until the media brought it to their attention.
“I’m healed up from my fabulous stage drive in Australia. To dispel a few rumors, I wasn’t drunk and there wasn’t a beautiful girl in the audience that caused me to walk off. When I woke up I said, “Was it a heart attack or a stroke?” I was very happy when they said, “No, you had a concussion. You just walked off the stage like a Miss America contestant.” Weirdly, my tennis game got better afterward.” Jimmy Buffet, on his well-publicized stage fall during his Sydney concert.
In an effort to restore what’s left of my sanity, I am taking the holidays off from all things gossip and technology. It’s time for some family lovin’ and some adventure seeking in a far off land. I will return in full form after the new year. To all my loyal readers — please take this time to enjoy your holidays, and thank you for your continued support. I couldn’t do this without your positive encouragement. I’ll see you in 2012!
Most television shows go through major changes after season one, and I predict that X Factor will be no exception. When recently asked about her return, Scherzinger prepped for the potential public relations cleanup, saying it’s more difficult than she expected to publicly reject people. Translation? — She fears she’ll get fired and she’s planting the seeds to make people think she quit. As for Steve Jones, he will likely get the boot as well, given the enormous amount of negative criticism he’s received. Apparently, Jones was only hired as a last minute replacement for Corbin Bleu, because Scherzinger refused to work with him, and the network therefore had to scramble for a new co-host. They chose Jones because of his chemistry with Scherzinger, but when Scherzinger replaced Cheryl Cole as a judge, the reason for Jones’ hiring became moot. The truth is, neither Scherzinger nor Jones will know about their status with the show until “pick-up letters” are sent out for the new season. If no such letter arrives, then they get the axe. Until then, only the network executives know the plan. I suggest firing Scherzinger and Jones, leaving the judging panel at three, and then hiring Brian Dunkleman as the new co-host (okay, that last part is a joke . . . sort of).
Some people just don’t have the X Factor, and Nicole Scherzinger is one of them. This perception could quite possibly be fixed with better management, considering she comes off as an ice princess with no personality. And on top of that, she’s not putting out good music. She sang “Pretty” on X Factor, and the lyrics made me physically uncomfortable. Did I mention her strange singing faces? The best part of the song was the end, when Simon Cowell critiqued her performance the way she critiques the contestants, which I can only hope will shed some light on why she should not return to next year’s judging panel.
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Mike Doughty is a talented guy. I’ve been a fan since my high school days when I played Soul Coughing on repeat, and I later became addicted to his solo work when my musically adept cousin pointed me to Haughty Melodic, one of my favorite albums in history. So when he agreed to do an interview with The Dishmaster to promote his new album, Yes and Also Yes, I was elated. While preparing for the interview, I quickly discovered that he and I have very different feelings about the band he spent numerous years with. In fact, he once referred to his time with Soul Coughing as “the devil’s asshole.” You can therefore imagine my trepidation on broaching the subject. But I wouldn’t be The Dishmaster if I didn’t get the dish. So I dove right in, and I happily discovered that Mike was not only gracious about discussing the subject; he was also honest, which is rare in this industry. Read my interview below, and then listen to his song, “Na Na Nothing,” at the end of the post. It’s fantastic, and so is he.
I was a huge Soul Coughing fan. You’ve described your experience with Soul Coughing as “Dante’s Inferno.” Do you think being in a band inherently lends itself to fights over songwriting?
No. My band mates, in my opinion, were sociopathic. It was worse than your average band conflict. The majority of the songs were solely written by me. My band-mates’ [perspective] was “You’re not very good, and you’re very lucky to have found us,” and they also threatened to leave the band over the [songwriting split], and they were stupid enough to have done that. I do not know a story of a band crazier than mine.
Did they ever approach you after reading your interviews about them?
No. I refuse contact. But there was an interview with the keyboard player, where he basically said, “Doughty doesn’t really write music at all,” and he wasn’t trying to be a dick. He really believed that. It would be one thing if they were just mean-spirited and conniving, but to really talk to someone and say “The sky is blue,” and have them follow up, “No, it’s red” . . .
Is that why you no longer sing Soul Coughing songs?
I choose not to sing them. Chances are I wouldn’t sing those songs even if it was a good experience. I just want to get away from it. I just have songs that I like better. I’m not going to come to your house and steal your iPod. You are welcome to listen to those songs. But I don’t want to play it. If people come to the show and say they want to hear “Super Bon Bon,” I’ll tell them not to come back. And if I could give you your money back, I would. I genuinely dislike the Soul Coughing stuff. I don’t think most of the songs are very good at all.
Is that because you’ve changed styles as a musician since your time in the band?
If I had not had to constantly appease my band-mates, it would have sounded more like my solo stuff. We were Captain Beefheart, and we could have been Led Zeppelin. It sucks that this work I really dislike is hanging around my neck. I feel like a creative person that wants to keep creating art and I have a large audience that digs it.
Too bad schmucks like me keep asking you about Soul Coughing.
I don’t think you’re a schmuck. I just really wish honestly, humbly, and respectfully that guys that want to hear Soul Coughing don’t come to the shows. It’s so aggravating.
Did getting away from the label contribute to your freedom as a solo artist?
The label was very good to us. But there were a lot of stupid decisions made by my band-mates that lost [the label] money, and I look back and don’t understand why someone didn’t step in and say, “This is what you’re going to do and you’re going to like it,” because it would have been better for us.
I’ve heard you say that you make more money now than you did on the label.
It loops back to the band. But I also don’t own the Soul Coughing songwriting. The label was making a profit even when we were in the hole. But the band spent a lot of money. I remember a gig in DC and my drummer insisted on taking a tour bus instead of a van. There was so much money spent. I am not excluded from that. I would stay at the Royalton for a month making my record, and when I got out I couldn’t pay my rent. When I went solo that’s when it all made sense to me. Also — I wasn’t wasted anymore.
When you write music, do you ever look back on your songs and discover a new meaning?
Yes. You have a perspective on the emotional context after playing it for a bunch of years that you don’t have when you record it. I don’t really want to talk about it because very, very deep factors in my personality are revealed to me years later. But I’ll tell you one thing – “I don’t need to walk around in circles” was about Soul Coughing.
I love the song “Holiday” on the new album. I read that Rosanne Cash said something nice about you during a concert. Did you contact her after hearing what she said?
She said from the stage, “I’m really nervous because Mike Doughty is here and he’s such an amazing songwriter,” and my jaw hit the floor. So when Dan Wilson and I wrote “Holiday,” there happened to be this note there that I couldn’t hit, so my solution was to get a female backup singer who would sing along with the chorus . . . but I [thought] . . . as a shot in the dark, let’s send this to Rosanne Cash and see if she’ll do a full-on duet . . . And she said yes. It was astonishing.
Because of the climate of the music industry, artists are making most of their money on tour. Does the excessive traveling bother you?
No, I love touring. This last tour I did with the band was a dream. Everybody was so awesome. I’m touring with dedicated, smart, funny, interesting people that are a blast to work with, and I like being on the road.
Is it true you wrote this on an artist’s colony? Do you usually write in one condensed period of time?
It was more writing from square-one than I had done in the past. I wrote it in a more linear way than I [usually] work in.
How did you choose the title, Yes and Also Yes, for the album?
It was an improvised headline to an OkCupid profile. You can’t put the profile up without a headline, which is annoying, so I wrote “Yes and Also Yes.”
For those that know The Dishmaster, you’re aware that emotion makes me uncomfortable. So you can imagine my discomfort to discover that all the judges on ‘X Factor’ are crying hysterically after every performance. Do they lack any semblance of internal control? It’s awkward and unnecessary, and in the case of Nicole Scherzinger — it looks fake. Isn’t this technically a place of work? Are they really that moved? Am I just a heartless prick? Watch Leroy Bell sing ‘Angel’ below, and then wait until the end to see Scherzinger’s curious, unmovable face.
“I respect Nicole and I love her but I think that as a creative executive — Simon, that’s the lane that he’s in, you know? So that’s when I think I crashed and burned — those last two weeks when I didn’t have his help. And unfortunately, I wasn’t in his category. So unfortunately, I had to bite the bullet.” ‘X Factor’s’ Stacy Francis on whether Nicole Scherzinger’s poor song-choices resulted in her elimination from the competition and whether she would have rather had Simon Cowell as her mentor.
I discovered Beirut on NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk Concert‘ series, and I’ve been listening to their album, ‘The Rip Tide’, ever since. The band is currently comprised of six members, including Zach Condon, Perrin Cloutier, Nick Petree, Paul Collins, Kelly Pratt, and Ben Lanz. When researching the origin of Beirut, I found that my limited musical knowledge made it difficult to explain their musical influences. As a result, I’ve deicded to completely rip off another website’s description. Here goes: “The music combines elements of Eastern European and Balkan folk with Western pop music, fusing the American mainstream and indie-rock culture and the World Music market.” And there you have it. Listen to their performance below.