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When the great ’90s New York weirdos Soul Coughing broke up in 2000, they did not leave things on good terms. Over the years, those guys definitely gave the impression that they still hated one another, so it was a genuine shock when Soul Coughing announced a reunion tour earlier this summer. Thus far, there has only been one proper Soul Coughing reunion show. That one went down a few nights ago in San Diego, and the tour continues tonight in LA. But in between those shows, Soul Coughing popped up on Jimmy Kimmel Live to give their first late-night performance in decades.
As far as anyone at Stereogum knows, last night’s Kimmel performance was the first time Soul Coughing were on late-night TV since a November 1998 episode of Letterman — back when Jimmy Kimmel was still co-hosting Win Ben Stein’s Money on Comedy Central. That’s a long time! And a lot of water under the bridge! But Soul Coughing were fully locked-in, turning in a tough performance of 1996’s “Super Bon Bon,” still their most popular song. That bassline has lived in my head since high school.
Before the performance, Jimmy Kimmel held up a copy of the band’s Ruby Vroom reissue — kind of funny, considering that “Super Bon Bon” is not on that album. But Soul Coughing were less there to promote a reissue, more to show the world that they’re back in business. They succeeded. Soul Coughing look different now. They’re all older. The band now has two very different variations of Santa beard happening. But all these years later, absolutely nobody sounds like them, and their form of musical chemistry is so specific. I don’t know if Sebastian Steinberg just started doing creepy-whisper call-and-response at the end of “Super Bon Bon” if I just never noticed it before. Either way, great performance. Watch it below.