The mid-1990's was the strangest time in American cultural history. It was a reckless free-for-all, high on that ignorantly blissful period of peace between the Cold War and the War on Terror. Well, maybe not high, but at least drunk. I say this because America's musical tastes were a lot like a drunk's tastes at the end of the night. It was a mix of things we never would have touched otherwise, in quantities that were, at best, ill-advised. Still, some really amazing stuff came out around this time, not the least of which was the explosion of electronic music. Oddly enough, rock temporarily fell out of favor. Most of what was out there didn't try very hard to escape the samey fuzz of alterna-rock or the oxymoronic harmonies of pop-punk.

In this bizarre period, people began rediscovering jazz, of all things. Not good jazz, mind you, but generic nostalgia pop that resulted in a very brief, very funny swing revival and a much longer-lasting fascination with cleaned-up, corporate Latin sounds a la Ricky Martin and Marc Antony. Somewhere in the midst of all that, smooth jazz and world music sneaked itself into American pop culture via the Dave Matthews Band and a cavalcade of impersonators.

At the intersection of all these mid-90's fads is a short-lived musical buffet known as Soul Coughing. I contend that Soul Coughing never would have even received a record contract at any other point in history. They're not so much a blend of styles as they are an ill-conceived musical pizza. Sitting on top of a soupy mix of jazz, rock and alternative folk are scattered particles of House, avant garde and whatever it is Tonic played.

My introduction to Soul Coughing was shortly after they broke up. I went to a small alternative school populated by strange kids and a staff of teachers who tried to guide that strangeness into a top-notch education. That meant occasionally indulging the inherent oddness of consciously "alternative" teenagers. In between classes one day, one of my English teachers brought out Ruby Vroom, specifically the sorta-novelty track "Bus To Beelzebub". Soul Coughing built their entire career on overtly weird stuff like this. The amazing part is that so many people took to it.

This is why I say that Soul Coughing had its brief window of opportunity in the mid-90's. I have no doubts that bands just like Soul Coughing existed before and after that point. The difference is that people had such unusual, nearly nonsensical tastes in pop music in 90's. I can't say that I'm really a fan of Soul Coughing, only that they're of particular interest to me in the context of their time. If you were culturally conscious during the period of 1994-2001, you'll probably remember just how mixed up pop culture was. If you weren't paying attention for whatever reason, go check out the Top 40 and try to make sense of it. When you inevitably fail, start spinning any one of Soul Coughing's three albums and you'll certainly understand how music like that is born.