Ruby With Soul And Fast

I used hangout in New York City a lot. I would open up the Village Voice and see if something got my attention. I would look at all the clubs in the city to see what acts were where and if it looked good I would call the best friend and hang out and do a show. Most of the time I would stay with him on long weekends and find something that would be great to see. The clubs that did spark my interest were Roseland, Knitting Factory, CBGB's Irving Plaza, Village Vanguard and others that were small and name forgetting places.

I was in the heat of the popular New York City Jazz scene too. I was at the Knitting Factory more then I could count. Every weekend there was a show that had an artist I really liked. Some of these artist included Thomas Chapin (who happened to be from the next town over from where I grew up), Don Byron, Wayne Horvitz Matthew Shipp, Tim Berne, Matt Darriau, Marc Ribot, and so many others. I would look at the line up of Knitting Factory and go crazy because if I was in town for one show the next best show was the night I was not. I knew how to get to 74 Leonard St. I could be blindfolded and all I asked was to shout out street names and make sure I was on the sidewalk and I could get to it.

One day at the Knitting Factory I met up with some friends for eats and music. They barely heard of this band called Soul Coughing, but me being in New York City I had a copy of their first CD and also saw them perform. They were not super popular, but they were going to play the main stage at Knitting Factory. For people who people who wonder what is the Knitting Factory is, I will tell you. It was the most cutting edge music spot of it's time. Beside the musicians I mentioned above. Any artist who wanted to get known or who were cutting edge themselves would come and play. They had three stages and the main stage is where they had to be to get noticed. I have to say I saw some cool people when they were starting out there. Soul Coughing
was one of the coolest most original artist I saw.

When they first hit the stage back in early 1994 I was impressed by every part of what the band was doing. Each member had added an important ingredient that add a wonderful mix of hip-hop, funk, indie rock, jazz sampling and a bit of avant-garde. I mean how many bands of the 90's have an upright bass player grooving with hip-hop style drums and the keyboards are sampling people like Raymond Scott and old jazz from our grandparents time. I think I saw them at the Irving Plaza about five times in that first year. They never made it to Connecticut during their first few years and that annoyed me. I had to go to New York City just to see them again and again.

I picked their first album because it's where you see all these mix of musical genre's that I talked about. It's mostly at it's peak here because of the fact that all those cool samples that Mark De Gli Antoni uses are used here the most. The originality of M. Doughty is also present. It is fresh and new and amazing representation of the New York downtown music scene. Just listen to "Screenwriter's Blues" it's sample of orchestral horns and Raymond Scott is amazing and unique. There are samples of Monk and Howlin' Wolf and the Andrews Sisters. It is really a site to hear.

I do recommend this album for other reasons too. I think it's just a must own, and lost treasure of indie rock from the 1990's. I would tell you more, but the music really does speak for its self. There are many original artists of the 90's, but they take it a step farther then anybody. Have fun and I am sure where ever you listen to this you will be hooked.