| Ruby Vroom | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 27, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | April–June 1994 | |||
| Studio | Sound Factory, Hollywood | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock,jazz fusion,alternative hip-hop[1] | |||
| Length | 61:27 | |||
| Label | Slash/Warner Bros. Records 45752 | |||
| Producer | Tchad Blake | |||
| Soul Coughing chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ruby Vroom | ||||
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Ruby Vroom is the debut studio album by Americanrock bandSoul Coughing, released in 1994. The album's sound is a mixture of sample-based tunes (loops ofRaymond Scott's "Powerhouse" on "Bus to Beelzebub",Toots and the Maytals,Howlin' Wolf,the Andrews Sisters, andthe Roches on "Down to This", and a loop of sampler playerMark Degli Antoni's orchestral horns on "Screenwriter's Blues", among others). It also features guitar-based tunes like "Janine", "Moon Sammy", and "Supra Genius" and jazzy, upright-bass-fueled songs that often quoted other material—the theme fromCourageous Cat on "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago",Thelonious Monk's "Misterioso" on "Casiotone Nation", andBobby McFerrin's cover ofJoan Armatrading's "Opportunity" on "Uh, Zoom Zip". On September 12, 2024, the band announced onJimmy Kimmel Live that a remastered 30th anniversary version of the album would be released on CD and vinyl, which includes bonus songs from the era.
The album sold approximately 70,000 copies, as of April 1996, according toBillboard.[2]
Ruby was named after a mispronunciation of the name of Ruby Froom, daughter of record producerMitchell Froom—a frequent collaborator ofRuby Vroom producerTchad Blake—and singer/songwriterSuzanne Vega.[3]
The album was recorded atSunset Sound Factory in Hollywood, Blake and Froom's usual workspace—a storage room near the studio's lounge was filled with vintage keyboards and road cases filled with toys—whistles, baby rattles, children's toy xylophones. Many of these ended up in the songs, such as a train whistle played by Doughty on "Uh, Zoom Zip". This was in keeping with Tchad Blake's spirit of maverick experimentation, which included sticking abinaural head-shaped microphone in front of Yuval Gabay's drumkit, sticking a mic in a car muffler, called "the Bone" and sticking that in the drum booth as well, and having Doughty improvise wild, yelling ad-libs on "Casiotone Nation", singing into a cheap amplification system called an Ahuja that Blake bought in India. The speaker was essentially a huge bullhorn atop a stick.
The album's lone guest is Rachel Benbow Murdy, band founderMike Doughty's ex-girlfriend, who supplies a vocal on "Janine". Doughty had Murdy go out to a payphone in Sheridan Square in New York and sing a rendition of "Lemon Tree" with an improvised melody into their answering machine.[4] Recorded a year before theRuby sessions, Doughty and bass playerSebastian Steinberg recorded the tune at the avant-garde jazz clubThe Knitting Factory during the daytime, when the club was closed, with club soundperson James McLean. McLean put a mic on the answering machine, which Doughty had brought to the session.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide | A[6] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [7] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A[1] |
| The Guardian | [8] |
| The Philadelphia Inquirer | [9] |
| Rolling Stone | [10] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [11] |
Ruby Vroom was positively received by critics.Entertainment Weekly described the album as "elegantly spare, dramatic, and danceable",[1] andRolling Stone's Michael Azerrad applauded Soul Coughing for combining its disparate genre influences into "a compelling and profoundly original sound".[10] The sampling work of keyboardistMark de Gli Antoni was singled out for particular praise: Michael Azerrad stated that Antoni "revolutionize[d] what sampling can do as a rhythmic, harmonic, textural and melodic tool",[10] while Sean Westergaard ofAllMusic opined that he "set the bar for sampler players in the pop world".[5] Vocalist Mike Doughty was also praised for his work, with critics noting that he was able to effectively balance wry cynicism against earnest descriptiveness.[5][10]Robert Christgau argued that, onRuby Vroom, Soul Coughing demonstrated stronger musicianship than other acts who shared the band's "hipster cynicism".[6]
In a retrospective review from AllMusic,Ruby Vroom was labeled "one of the great debut albums of the '90s".[5]
