Mike Doughty will be at TriBeCa B&N on February 2 for a special performance, signing, and discussion (photo by Deborah Lopez)
Barnes & Noble
97 Warren St. at Greenwich St.
Thursday, February 2, free, 6:00
212-587-5389
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.mikedoughty.com
Mike Doughty first entered the New York scene back in 1991, when he was writing about life and music for the New York Press in its early heyday; using the names M. Doughty and Dirty Sanchez at the alternative weekly, he was part of a cast of characters that also included Sam Sifton, Jim Knipfel, Jonathan Ames, and Amy Sohn. The forty-one-year-old former Knitting Factory doorman started the band Soul Coughing in 1992, releasing such well-received albums as Ruby Vroom and Irresistible Bliss before breaking up in 2000. Doughty digs deep into the details of that time in The Book of Drugs (Da Capo, January 2012, $16), a no-holds-barred look at that old music cliché, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. “I can’t renounce drugs. I love drugs,” he writes in the memoir. “I’d never trade the part of my life when the drugs worked, though the bulk of the time I spent getting high, they weren’t doing shit for me. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t do drugs first. This part of my life — even minus the bursts of euphoria — is better, sexier, happier, more poetic, more romantic, grander.” Doughty gets right down to business in the book, telling it like it is, at least as far as he can remember, making no excuses or philosophizing about the things he did as Soul Coughing exploded and then imploded. He talks about hanging out and doing drugs with Jeff Buckley, spends three pages listing random women that he screwed, admits that “puking became so normal that I stopped kneeling,” and regularly questions his own talent. Well, he needn’t worry about that last thing, as Doughty is damn good at what he does, as evidenced by this lighthearted yet involving memoir, his work with Soul Coughing, and such solo records as 2005’s Haughty Melodic, 2009’s Sad Man Happy Man, last year’s Yes and Also Yes (named after his profile headline on an online dating site), and the just-released The Question Jar Show, a live album interspersed with Doughty answering questions from the audience in between songs. The Brooklyn-based Doughty will be at the TriBeCa Barnes & Noble on February 2 at 6:00, signing copies of The Book of Drugs, talking about his life and career, taking questions, and playing a few songs as well.