Ghost of Vroom – the new band comprised of veteran singer-songwriter Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing) and his longtime collaborator, bassist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston – have announced the release of their eagerly anticipated debut album. GHOST OF VROOM 1 arrives via Mod y Vi Records on Friday, March 19.
GHOST OF VROOM 1 is heralded by today’s premiere of the album’s first single, “I Hear the Ax Swinging,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. Fans who pre-order GHOST OF VROOM 1 will receive a download of “I Hear The Ax Swinging.” An official companion video – directed by renowned humorist/cartoonist David Rees – is currently in post-production and will premiere later this month.
LISTEN TO “I HEAR THE AX SWINGING”
PRE-ORDER GHOST OF VROOM 1
Produced by Doughty and the legendary Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson, Seu Jorge), GHOST OF VROOM 1 sees Ghost of Vroom fusing tense breakbeats, eclectic instrumentation, and Doughty’s celebrated lyrical dexterity to create a wildly inspired sound praised by American Songwriter for its “urgency and relevance…a beyond-perfect union, centered around a solid rhythm section, that elaborates on the hip-hop influences Doughty picked up as a young kid when he had just moved to New York in the late eighties.”
Recorded in Memphis, TN and completed at Caldato’s Eagle Rock studio space in Los Angeles a mere three days before California entered its first lockdown, the album follows last summer’s debut EP, GHOST OF VROOM 2, available via Mod y Vi Records on 12” black 180 gram vinyl with audio on Side A – including a vinyl-only exclusive instrumental track – and an etching of the cover artwork on Side B.
GHOST OF VROOM 2 includes the first single, “Rona Pollona,” joined by an animated music video streaming now at YouTube following its exclusive premiere via Rolling Stone, which applauded the “sardonic ode to the Covid-19 era” for its “extremely online stream-of-consciousness” and “laid back groove of shuffling drums, twisting guitar and lazy cello strokes, recalling the way A Tribe Called Quest flipped Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ for ‘Can I Kick It?’”
Hailed by Stereogum for its “offbeat, not-quite-this and not-quite-that arrangements – and, of course, Doughty’s famous tongue-in-cheek rhymes,” GHOST OF VROOM 2 also includes “Chief of Police” and “1918,” both accompanied by animated music videos streaming now at YouTube.
STREAM/DOWNLOAD GHOST OF VROOM 2
WATCH “RONA POLLONA”
WATCH “CHIEF OF POLICE”
WATCH “1918”
Mike Doughty first conjured Ghost of Vroom after the acclaimed release of his 2016 solo album, THE HEART WATCHES WHILE THE BRAIN BURNS. Now based in Memphis, TN, he initially considered a reunion with his former bandmates in the groundbreaking Soul Coughing but when those plans fell through, a new band was clearly in order. Doughty enlisted his longtime musical collaborator, bassist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston and set to work, weaving free-form wordplay and idiosyncratic lyricism with a dynamic, genre-agnostic musical approach that simultaneously celebrates and further evolves Doughty’s fascinating, two-decade-plus body of work.
Doughty has been creating a wide range of new music via his official Patreon page, with all patrons receiving exclusive access to at least one completely new song each week along with an autographed cassette tape-recorded live-in-studio at Memphis Magnetic Recording Co. Additional extras include the LIVE! AT ROYAL CD and a Ghost of Vroom t-shirt exclusive to Patreon members. For more information, please visit www.patreon.com/doughty.
Patreon members recently received free access to an all-new, all-improv set from Ghost of Vroom. Recorded at Memphis Magnetic Recording Co, the one-of-a-kind performance featured Doughty on vocals, sampler and guitar, Livingston on cello and keys, Madden “Lil Pepper” Klass on drums, and Logan Hanna on guitar. Additional livestream events will be announced soon.
Last year also saw the publication of Doughty’s acclaimed second memoir, I Die Each Time I Hear The Sound, available now from Hachette Books where books are sold. Praised by Kirkus Reviews as “a witty rock memoir delivered with arty, aphoristic verve,” this highly original gathering of autobiographical stories sees Doughty, in his inimitable voice, sending dispatches from a touring musician’s peripatetic life, vividly recalling moments when profound musical experiences made him see the world anew. Funny, vulnerable, and unsparing, I Die Each Time I Hear The Sound is a unique narrative, unstuck in time, and an unforgettable examination of what it is to be an artist in this cultural moment.
Track List:
More Bacon Than The Pan Can Handle
Memphis Woofer Rock
50,000 Bonus Miles
Revelator
Beat Up Born Where I Come From
Send A Letter To The Moon
I Hear The Ax Swinging
Miss You Like Crazy
Bad Credit No Credit
James Jesus Angleton
They Came In The Name Of The People
