Mike Doughty is not a member of the West Point Skateboard Gang. He's about 10 years too young to be associated with fogies like us. He is, though, the most famous person to have graduated from James I. O'Neill High School. He beats out Kevin "Iceman" Lewis who many of us watched playing for SMU in the NCAA basketball tournament, the Rogers Brothers (who were part of the WPSG) who were featured in a segment on the 2nd(?) X-Games on ESPN for their mad street luge skills, and dhc who finished third in the Miss NY Pageant back in the day. Also, many conspiricy theorists* have strong evidence** that Pampdog is actually Buckethead. I know, it was like going to Beverly Hills High with celebrities all over the place.
Mike Doughty was a twerpy little kid who was my girlfriend's little brother's best friend. That would be the girlfriend whose name I now have tattood under my ex-wife's name on my left bicep. Back then, MD had an unkempt head of curly blond hair and he wore nerd glasses. He and my girlfriend's brother played a lot of video games on a Commodore 64 - sorry dude, if you're reading this, for so outing you.
Fast forward many years later, my brother TA asks if I've ever heard of Mike Doughty. I say sure I have, I knew him when he was a little kid. TA tells me Grey Ghost is a great song, and I should listen to it (I did, it is). Last fall, with the release of MD's Golden Delicious CD, TA and I went to see him play in Atlanta. TA had already met up with him in years past, and MD knew my youngest sister, Coolmomma from back in the day, and he knew TA was Coolmomma's brother. Doughty set up in a music store down the street from where he was playing and played acoustic versions of some of his music to whoever was in the store. TA requested a few songs, including the James I. O'Neill alma mater. MD actually remembered it was a remake of Oh Tanenbaum. Afterwards, we went up to talk to him. TA introduced me. I asked him if he remembered his old friend and his sister and the thug she went out with. He did. I figured he was about to credit me for having such a profound musical influence on him. After all, Mathdude was the consumate music critic even back in the day. Pretty much everyone's taste in music was raised by osmosis from having known me. He asked to see my "Rock Rules" skull and cross-bones tattoo. I guess I could be remembered for worse things. We went to see his show afterwards, and he was great.
I've made available for you to download two songs: Grey Ghost and Fort Hood. If you're from West Point, you'll know exactly what they're about. Kingston Steve and I were chuckling a while back imagining some lame-o emos trying to figure out what "Stony Lonesome" was, not realizing it was a housing area at West Point. Both of these are really good. If you like them, I encourage you to pick up either his Haughty Melodic or Golden Delicious CDs. Feel free to add any of your memories of Doughty in the comments. If by some chance you're reading this, Mike, keep up the good work, dude.
Mike Doughty was a twerpy little kid who was my girlfriend's little brother's best friend. That would be the girlfriend whose name I now have tattood under my ex-wife's name on my left bicep. Back then, MD had an unkempt head of curly blond hair and he wore nerd glasses. He and my girlfriend's brother played a lot of video games on a Commodore 64 - sorry dude, if you're reading this, for so outing you.
Fast forward many years later, my brother TA asks if I've ever heard of Mike Doughty. I say sure I have, I knew him when he was a little kid. TA tells me Grey Ghost is a great song, and I should listen to it (I did, it is). Last fall, with the release of MD's Golden Delicious CD, TA and I went to see him play in Atlanta. TA had already met up with him in years past, and MD knew my youngest sister, Coolmomma from back in the day, and he knew TA was Coolmomma's brother. Doughty set up in a music store down the street from where he was playing and played acoustic versions of some of his music to whoever was in the store. TA requested a few songs, including the James I. O'Neill alma mater. MD actually remembered it was a remake of Oh Tanenbaum. Afterwards, we went up to talk to him. TA introduced me. I asked him if he remembered his old friend and his sister and the thug she went out with. He did. I figured he was about to credit me for having such a profound musical influence on him. After all, Mathdude was the consumate music critic even back in the day. Pretty much everyone's taste in music was raised by osmosis from having known me. He asked to see my "Rock Rules" skull and cross-bones tattoo. I guess I could be remembered for worse things. We went to see his show afterwards, and he was great.
I've made available for you to download two songs: Grey Ghost and Fort Hood. If you're from West Point, you'll know exactly what they're about. Kingston Steve and I were chuckling a while back imagining some lame-o emos trying to figure out what "Stony Lonesome" was, not realizing it was a housing area at West Point. Both of these are really good. If you like them, I encourage you to pick up either his Haughty Melodic or Golden Delicious CDs. Feel free to add any of your memories of Doughty in the comments. If by some chance you're reading this, Mike, keep up the good work, dude.
So here's what we learned here: 1) Mike Doughty is a great up and coming musician, 2) Don't get anyone's name tattood on any part of your body, and 3) Pampdog is in all likelihood Buckethead.
*me
**Buckethead shreds. Pampdog shreds. Also, when asked if he was Buckethead, Pampdog emphatically denied it. Which is exactly what he would do if he were Buckethead, right?
6 comments:
Pampdog = Buckethead, Hmmm...
I've never seen them in the same room without that line between them.
That's right! Contact the news media. We've solved the Buckethead identity mystery.
Pampdog wrote me:
I am not in a position at this time either to conform or deny any allegations that I either am or have any connection to said Buckethead. I will admit that I do enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken, but choose not to patronize their business due to the corporation's tendency to mistreat its chickens. I may or may not have a penchant for yellow or black raincoats and I may or may not have access to white theatrical masks, no more nor less than your average citizen. I hope this helps to clarify your suspicions.
See, I told you!
Oh, YEAH, there are SO many parallels that can be drawn between BH High School and JIO! I think that they ONLY differences that there could possibly BE are that I doubt BH High was built on a garbage dump (unless you classify all of LA a "garbage dump") and of course, none of us had daddies paying for our nose and boob jobs and pricey German cars. But everything else? You bet, right on the money. (yikes)
Apparently Mike lived next door to me my senior year, I can't definatively say I remember him. My bro, Fred, got hip to Doughty's music a few years back. He told me there was a dude out there singing a song with 'sam saldivar' in the lyric. I passed the investigation to Tony Alva, and it turned out that we knew him, sort of. It was like a half a degree of separation.
I've seen him three times. A great songwriter and charismatic performer.
I wonder if I was a prick to him back in the day.....
I don't think he's really "up and coming." He's always been pretty big amongst the McSweeny's set, and I saw Soul Coughing several times in the mid-to-late 90s, along with quite a cult following.
Still, he doesn't know who I am or any of my rockin' tattoos, so game, set, match - you. If only I'd dated that girl from Cornwall when she still lived in Cornwall, maybe I could have also played some sweet-ass Commodore 64, too. Especially the Journey game.
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