Singer/songwriter Mike Doughty will take a sharp turn into hip-hop on Stellar Motel, his first all-original studio album in three years due out September 16h.
Produced by DJ Good Goose, guests include rappers MC Frontalot, Miss Eaves, Big Dipper, Jay Boogie, Kim from the Japanese band Uhnellys, country singer Laura Lee Bishop, Brooklyn saxophone-and-drums band Moon Hooch, and the female rap trio Hand Job Academy.
Doughty was particularly inspired by the Brooklyn queer hip-hop underground, and out rappers Big Dipper, Jay Boogie and Hand Job Academy’s Uncle Meg deliver some of the album’s best verses.
Fans watched Stellar Motel’s entire process via Doughty’s PledgeMusic campaign, through dozens of making-of videos — from the earliest stages, as Doughty and Good Goose built basic tracks, through Doughty’s lyric-writing, to the sessions with guest vocalists (with much joking and messing around). Doughty’s fiendishly loyal crowd pledged for oddball incentives such as recordings on microcassette (recorder included), lyrics typed on Doughty’s 1980 IBM Selectric typewriter, and the “cosmic freewrite option”: a page of typed, surreal responses to topics requested by fans.
Doughty plays a run of shows through the American Northwest in early September, followed by a national tour in October and November. These will be duo shows, with longtime foil Andrew “Scrap” Livingston on cello; all will be Doughty’s “world-renowned, award-winning” Question Jar Show (see below for complete list of dates).
Select retailers of the Alliance Entertainment Corp. (AEC) will offer an exclusive, limited-edition split 7″ single with STELLAR MOTEL CDs, featuring two new Mike Doughty/Moon Hooch collaborations: a new version of Doughty’s song “Rational Man” featuring Moon Hooch, and a new remix of Moon Hooch’s song “Milk and Waffles” with Doughty on vocals. (The split 7″ will also be packaged with copies of Moon Hooch’s new album, also in stores Sept. 16.)
STELLAR MOTEL will be released on Snack Bar/Megaforce Records.
MIKE DOUGHTY – “STELLAR MOTEL” TRACK LIST
1. Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating in the Future
2. When the Night Is Long
3. Oh My God Yeah Fuck It (feat. Moon Hooch and Miss Eaves)
4. Raging On
5. Let Me Lie (feat. Big Dipper)
6. These Are Your Friends
7. Let’s Go To The Motherfucking Movies
8. The Champion (feat. MC Frontalot)
9. Pretty Wild (feat. Ash Wednesday, Clara Bizna$$, and Uncle Meg from Hand Job Academy)
10. When You Come Home
11. 走馬灯 (feat. Kim from Uhnellys) *
12. This Is Change
13. To See the Sun Come Down (feat. Jay Boogie)
14. The Brightness
15. In The Rising Sun (feat. Laura Lee Bishop)
16. Better Days Come Around
* 走馬灯 is pronounced “somato” and means “a revolving lantern”
MIKE DOUGHTY FALL 2014 TOUR DATES
Sept 6 — Zumbrota, MN — State Theatre
Sept 7 — Moorhead, MN — Roots on the Red Festival
Sept 9 — Boise, ID — Record Exchange in-store performance
Sept 10 — Portland, OR — Mississippi Studios
Sept 12 — Portland, OR — XOXO Festival at The Redd
Sept 13 — Cottage Grove, OR — Axe & Fiddle
Sept 16 — San Francisco, CA — Amoeba Records in-store performance
Oct 8 — St. Louis, MO — Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
Oct 9 — Emporia, KS — Brickyard Bar
Oct 10 — Denver, CO — Walnut Room (2 shows)
Oct 11 — Salt Lake City, UT — Kilby Court
Oct 12 — Boise, ID — Neurolux
Oct 14 — Vancouver, BC — Biltmore Cabaret
Oct 15 — Seattle, WA — Triple Door
Oct 17 — San Francisco, CA — The Chapel
Oct 18 — Los Angeles, CA — The Mint
Oct 19 — Las Vegas, NV — Bunkhouse Saloon
Oct 20 — Phoenix, AZ — Musical Instrument Museum
Oct 22 — Austin, TX — Cactus Cafe
Oct 23 — Dallas, TX — Lola’s
Oct 25 — New Orleans, LA — Gasa Gasa
Oct 26 — Pensacola, FL — The Handlebar
Oct 28 — Tampa, FL — Crowbar
Oct 29 — St. Augustine, FL — The Original Cafe Eleven
Oct 30 — Atlanta, GA — Eddie’s Attic (2 shows)
Nov 1 — Nashville, TN — City Winery
Nov 12 — Providence, RI — Columbus Theatre
Nov 13 — Portland, ME — One Longfellow Square
Nov 14 — Burlington, VT — Higher Ground
Nov 15 — Rochester, NY — Water Street Music Hall
Nov 16 — Cleveland, OH — Music Box Supper Club
Nov 18 — Columbus, OH — Rumba Cafe
Nov 19 — Ann Arbor, MI — The Ark
Nov 20 — Chicago, IL — City Winery
Nov 21 — Milwaukee, WI — Shank Hall
Nov 22 — Minneapolis, MN — Dakota Jazz Club (2 shows)
Nov 24 — Pittsburgh, PA — Club Cafe
Nov 25 — Washington, DC — Jammin’ Java
Nov 26 — Philadelphia, PA — Tin Angel
Nov 28 — Boston, MA — Johnny D’s
Nov 29 — New York, NY — City Winery
Dec 6 — Woodstock, NY — Bearsville Theatre
