Ruby Vroom

Ruby Vroom was Soul Coughing's 1994 (see 1994 in music) debut album. This album's sound was a bit less reliant on guitar and samples than later ones and had a greater focus on Yuval Gabay's hip-hop drum-playing, as seen in the tracks "Mr. Bitterness" and "Bus to Beelzebub", and Sebastian Steinberg's jazz-flavored bass-work, as in "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago" and "Uh, Zoom Zip". Mark De Gli Antoni's sampling was quite present in the mix, although not as subtle as it would be in later albums, as shown by the Raymond Scott sample in "Bus to Beelzebub" or the Andrews Sisters/Howlin' Wolf chorus from "Down to This", for example. M. Doughty's lyrics were typically nonsensical, aside from the coherent "Screenwriter's Blues". A departure from the strong rhythm of the rest of the album was the inclusion of two unusually soft, acoustic guitar-focused tracks, "Janine" and "True Dreams of Wichita".

Track listing

1. "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago" (3:48)
2. "Sugar-Free Jazz" (3:55)
3. "Casiotone Nation" (3:50)
4. "Blueeyed Devil" (4:12)
5. "Bus to Beelzebub" (4:33)
6. "True Dreams of Wichita" (5:00)
7. "Screenwriter's Blues" (5:08)
8. "Moon Sammy" (4:09)
9. "Supra Genius" (3:59)
10. "City of Motors" (4:38)
11. "Uh, Zoom Zip" (3:56)
12. "Down to This" (3:49)
13. "Mr. Bitterness" (5:32)
14. "Janine" (4:58)