Soul Coughing – Super Bon Bon
1996 · Directed by Jamie Caliri
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Best comments
1.“In '96, I was a skinny blond guy with buzzed hair and wire-rimmed glasses working graveyard shift at a convenience store in Austin. The night Soul Coughing played downtown, college kids kept walking in and stopping dead to stare at me. Finally one couple asked, 'What the hell are you doing here??' 'I work here.' 'You played a concert and then came to work here?' Turns out I looked so much like Mike Doughty that people thought the lead singer was working the Stop-N-Go right after the show. 'THANK YOU, AUSTIN, WE LOVE YOU – BUT I HAVE TO STOCK THE BEER COOLER.'”
More comments
- 2.“When Doughty was in Italy, he spotted a candy bar called a Super Bon Bon. He liked the way it sounded... so he just used it.”
- 3.“I used to work at an animal rescue, and occasionally we'd get a bunny. Every time I took one out to clean his cage and he'd hop around the room, I'd have this song playing in my head as 'Super Bun Bun.'”
The story
Super Bon Bon was the second single from Soul Coughing's 1996 album Irresistible Bliss, cut at New York's Power Station with producer David Kahne. It only got to number 27 on US modern rock radio, but the song refuses to die. It has backed wrestling entrances, Gran Turismo 2, The Sopranos, The Last Dance and Reacher, and in 2024 it turned up on the UK sales chart, nearly three decades late.
The video was directed by Jamie Caliri, a CalArts-trained animator who later developed the stop-motion software Dragonframe with his brother and won an Emmy for the United States of Tara opening titles. Cinema Cats, a site that tracks cats on screen (yes, really), describes the band playing in funny, surreal and slightly unnerving surroundings, cut with a grey tabby kitten stuck in a baby's crib, hunting for a way out and eventually chewing on the sound gear. Their verdict: kittens don't like being treated like babies. Noted.
