Album · Soul Coughing
Ruby Vroom by Soul Coughing
Ruby Vroom is an album by Soul Coughing, released in 1994. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 19 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Screenwriter's Blues”, on 9 lists with a best position of #107.
Ruby Vroom, the 1994 debut from Soul Coughing, came out on Slash with Tchad Blake producing, and it sounds like little else from that year. Mike Doughty's deadpan, word-drunk vocals ride on top of Sebastian Steinberg's upright bass, Yuval Gabay's crisp drumming and Mark Degli Antoni's sampler, which does half the talking.
The loops are the fun part: Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" drives "Bus to Beelzebub," Degli Antoni's own orchestral horns cycle through "Screenwriter's Blues," and the jazzier tracks lift bits of Thelonious Monk and the theme from Courageous Cat. Doughty called the sound deep slacker jazz, and that's as good a label as any. By April 1996 it had sold around 70,000 copies, and in 2024 the band announced a remastered 30th anniversary edition.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Ruby Vroom on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Screenwriter's Blues | 9 | #107 | – | 1994–2023 | |
| 2 | Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago | 5 | #360 | – | 2000–2024 | |
| 3 | True Dreams of Wichita | 3 | #452 | – | 2018–2023 | |
| 4 | Sugar Free Jazz | 1 | #707 | – | 2023 | |
| 5 | Bus to Beelzebub | 1 | #771 | – | 2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.