If you are (currently) a fan of Soul Coughing DO NOT READ THIS BOOK - it will break your heart.
Not because Mike Doughty was victimized by his bandmates and the industry, but because he somehow blames the fans of the music for this.
I waited two months to write this review, because I've been a fan of M.Doughty for a long time, been to several of his solo concerts over the years, bought his solo albums. My father has worked in drug and alcohol counseling, so I understand the victim mentality. I have clinical depression, have lots of friends who've used substances to cope, and at this point, Doughty, if you're still at the place you were when you wrote this book, dude, you need a better counselor or therapist. Because you have a lot of anger issues and need to let some of this shit go. Get some cognitive behavioral therapy to move forward.
I can understand getting upset at fans who want to hear old music that you want to put behind you, but until you SAY PUBLICLY that things ended badly, and you don't want to play it because of bad blood, you don't get to be mad at people who make your artistic lifestyle (D-grade or otherwise) possible. Unless you're refusing all your royalties (yeah I know that's probably $5 a quarter at this point) you do not get to blame innocent consumers of what you put out there as art (even if it's not what you intended, and you basically lied to everyone involved about your unhappiness with how it turned out for several years). Yeah, drunk bros at shows are shitty, but blaming them for your lack of ability to move past your own hurt isn't appropriate or mature.
As a fan of your poetry (yeah, I own two books of it), I also can't get over how callow you are in your relations with women - the way you portray both yourself and them in this book. You have a beautiful mind, but somehow it doesn't translate into action beyond the page. I don't think you respect yourself, so how could you be anything other than sociopathic in your actions with others?
I can understand you were being honest with how you feel/felt when you wrote this book, and wanted to get this out there. But the vitriol obviously hasn't passed, but the whole tone of the book is coming off as victim-hood directed outward at the reader and the world.
Didn't mean it that way? Should have discussed that with your editor, who obviously can't correct spelling errors or doing something as arbitrary as force chapter markings on your artistic intentions, or warn you that objectively, this whole book portrays you as a very selfish, angry and unhappy person (not just in the past, but now too). The whole book made me want to throw up.
(I posted this on Goodreads, and I know he's got friends who read reviews and respond, so that's why this review got a bit personal in its tone.)
Not because Mike Doughty was victimized by his bandmates and the industry, but because he somehow blames the fans of the music for this.
I waited two months to write this review, because I've been a fan of M.Doughty for a long time, been to several of his solo concerts over the years, bought his solo albums. My father has worked in drug and alcohol counseling, so I understand the victim mentality. I have clinical depression, have lots of friends who've used substances to cope, and at this point, Doughty, if you're still at the place you were when you wrote this book, dude, you need a better counselor or therapist. Because you have a lot of anger issues and need to let some of this shit go. Get some cognitive behavioral therapy to move forward.
I can understand getting upset at fans who want to hear old music that you want to put behind you, but until you SAY PUBLICLY that things ended badly, and you don't want to play it because of bad blood, you don't get to be mad at people who make your artistic lifestyle (D-grade or otherwise) possible. Unless you're refusing all your royalties (yeah I know that's probably $5 a quarter at this point) you do not get to blame innocent consumers of what you put out there as art (even if it's not what you intended, and you basically lied to everyone involved about your unhappiness with how it turned out for several years). Yeah, drunk bros at shows are shitty, but blaming them for your lack of ability to move past your own hurt isn't appropriate or mature.
As a fan of your poetry (yeah, I own two books of it), I also can't get over how callow you are in your relations with women - the way you portray both yourself and them in this book. You have a beautiful mind, but somehow it doesn't translate into action beyond the page. I don't think you respect yourself, so how could you be anything other than sociopathic in your actions with others?
I can understand you were being honest with how you feel/felt when you wrote this book, and wanted to get this out there. But the vitriol obviously hasn't passed, but the whole tone of the book is coming off as victim-hood directed outward at the reader and the world.
Didn't mean it that way? Should have discussed that with your editor, who obviously can't correct spelling errors or doing something as arbitrary as force chapter markings on your artistic intentions, or warn you that objectively, this whole book portrays you as a very selfish, angry and unhappy person (not just in the past, but now too). The whole book made me want to throw up.
(I posted this on Goodreads, and I know he's got friends who read reviews and respond, so that's why this review got a bit personal in its tone.)
