Pitchfork

Who knew that in 2005, Peter Gabriel would be a trailblazer for younger songwriters? We speak, of course, of Gabriel covering the Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love" for the soundtrack to Shall We Dance. Not long after word of that cover got out, former Soul Coughing singer Mike Doughty recorded the same song in sessions for his upcoming new album, Haughty Melodic. We're willing to believe it's just a coincidence, though, if only so that we can dream of a world in which we don't hear about everything Peter Gabriel does six months in advance. Sorry, Peter. That's just how it is.

But even though Melodic comes out May 3, we'll have to wait longer to hear him singing Stephin Merritt. On his blog, Doughty explained: "We recorded covers of the Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love', and Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler'. Both sounded great, and we had a notion to end the record with a cover tune, but we were struck by this one tune that previously we'd kind of written off, 'Your Misfortune'. [...] We realized it was really great and bumped the cover concept. Both 'Book' and 'Gambler' will find lives outside the record, though-- iTunes or European or Japanese bonus tracks or something." Are the Japanese into Kenny Rogers? We really can't keep up. Anyway, the tracklist:

01 Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well
02 Unsingable Name
03 Madeline and Nine
04 Busting Up A Starbucks
05 White Lexus
06 American Car
07 Tremendous Brunettes
08 I Hear The Bells
09 Sunken-Eyed Girl
10 Grey Ghost
11 His Truth Is Marching On
12 Your Misfortune

Mike Doughty and his new keyboardist, Dan Chen, will tour for most of May, assuming Doughty's jury duty doesn't interfere. No joke. Those dates:

05-04 Washington, DC - Black Cat
05-05 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
05-06 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe
05-07 Boston, MA - Middle East
05-08 Rochester, NY - Milestones
05-10 Toronto, ON - Rivoli
05-12 Cleveland, OH - Odeon
05-13 Chicago, IL - Black Orchid
05-14 Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural
05-17 Seattle, WA - Neumos
05-18 Portland, OR - Doug Fir
05-20 San Francisco, CA - Cafe du Nord
05-21 San Francisco, CA - Swedish American Hall
05-23 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
05-26 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre