Urge Overkill

If there was ever a band that could of kicked the sh*t into the post-Nevermind American rock wasteland then it was these guys....and for a short while they did.

They had this great Rat Pack/James Bond schtick all suave in razor sharp suits and sipping martinis, dangling medallions and bug eyed sunglasses stolen from the Brian Jones school of cool. They were pure flash and openly lusted for the rock n' roll excess and success of their heroes in a time when you weren't meant to.

They had those great pure crystal sparkling melodies offa 70's AM radio and big arena Kiss/Cheap Trick guitars. It all spells summer, sun and fun.

They should of ruled the airwaves along with the Wildhearts, should of been the 'Kings Of Pop'......but such is the nature of the fickle music buying public.

Anyway their record Saturation (1993) is probably the best rock n' roll record of the 90's and everyone should have it.

Sister Havana



Positive Bleeding

I love that album...their earlier ones are good as well, but sometimes a bit crippled by bad production.

I'm only familiar with the song they did for Pulp Fiction. I liked em well enough, but they were never a priority of mine to get into. Too much metal arouns for me to get first.

Wow, I forgot all about them, think I covered one of their songs in a band years ago, can't remember what it was though.

Cool band and 'Sister Havana" is a song my crappy little band used to cover. Never got to see these guys live, which really sucked. Of course they were also known for their good fashion sense.

I will have throw on " Saturation" when I get home tonight.

DeathCult wrote:

I'm only familiar with the song they did for Pulp Fiction. I liked em well enough, but they were never a priority of mine to get into. Too much metal arouns for me to get first.

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon, an old Neil Diamond cover I believe. That pretty much covers my knowledge of these guys as well. I had a buddy that was way into 'em, but they didn't do anything for me. I was too meTal at the time.

manny wrote:

Cool band and 'Sister Havana" is a song my crappy little band used to cover. Never got to see these guys live, which really sucked. Of course they were also known for their good fashion sense.

I will have throw on " Saturation" when I get home tonight.

I think that was the same one my crappy little band covered as well!

Shiney wrote:

I love that album...their earlier ones are good as well, but sometimes a bit crippled by bad production.

Steve Albini produced those earlier records and he was very much in his Big Black/Rapeman daze.....although the boys in Urge were not adverse to a bit of 'Noise' back then.......maybe their eyes were geared towards P*ssy Galore at the time.

There is apparently a new record going to come out soon from the reformed band minus drummer Blackie (Who has done time with hard luck glamabillies Motorcycle Boy) and with a member of Cherry Valence!

Also Chicago was on a roll in the early 90's....Urge Overkill, Enuff Z'Nuff and Material Issue being the three greatest pop rock n' roll bands that aren't Cheap Trick.

I love BIG BLACK but find alot of Albini's production a bit coarse (example PJ HARVEY's "Rid Of Me") In someone elses hands that disc would've been as awesome the others.

Shiney wrote:

I love BIG BLACK but find alot of Albini's production a bit coarse (example PJ HARVEY's "Rid Of Me") In someone elses hands that disc would've been as awesome the others.

It's a bit of a blessing and a curse with Albini.....he did after all produce Surfer Rosa.

Should be interesting this new Manic's record that he is going to produce.....which is slated as Holy Bible II!

Also you reckon Ginger and the Wildhearts were taking their Albini/Big Black obsession too far with Endless Nameless?

The good news is that I've got all these Pillars of Power Pop in a Pile ready to spin. The bad news is that I have no idea when I'll find time tto delve into the P.P.P.Pile. I'm looking forward to it eventually.

SAHB Healer wrote:

The good news is that I've got all these Pillars of Power Pop in a Pile ready to spin. The bad news is that I have no idea when I'll find time tto delve into the P.P.P.Pile. I'm looking forward to it eventually.

Don't play them all at once.......you might overdose on sugar! Counter quickly with some Stooges dirt or any other filth you have lying around.

But seriously what have you got lined up? The Wildies? Terrorvision? You taken up that Redd Kross recommendation yet?

[quote="rattpoison"]

SAHB Healer wrote:

But seriously what have you got lined up? The Wildies? Terrorvision? You taken up that Redd Kross recommendation yet?

precisely that. But there is a blizzard on, I gotta plow and shovel snow, my water pipes are frozen, and I got a bad back and diarrhea. Plus my buddocks are chapped. I don't want to hear any music that's anything besides mournful right now. The power pop will have to wait until something thaws.

[quote="SAHB Healer"]

rattpoison wrote:

SAHB Healer wrote:

But seriously what have you got lined up? The Wildies? Terrorvision? You taken up that Redd Kross recommendation yet?

precisely that. But there is a blizzard on, I gotta plow and shovel snow, my water pipes are frozen, and I got a bad back and diarrhea. Plus my buddocks are chapped. I don't want to hear any music that's anything besides mournful right now. The power pop will have to wait until something thaws.

Hell yeah Saturation was great as hell!

Wargod48

Saturation is still in frequent rotation on my CD player. I would probably list it as one of my favorite 90's albums, along with Radiohead's OK Computer and Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen.

Alright. I just got a new laptop with Itunes, etc. Also some sort of off brand Ipod type thing. Here's the first playlist that I'm going to try to load onto these new toys. Some of my own faves plus lots of sugggestions from RP, Shiney, Toho, and Eyesore among others. I guess it tends toward heavy pop and alt. It makes sense to my ears, even though some of these bands don't have much in common.

Charletans UK- Up To Our Hips
Cheap Trick- s/t (97)
Cinder Road- Superhuman
Darkness- Permission To Land
Electrafixion- Burned
Enuff Z Nuff- Strength
Enuff Z Nuff- Animals With Human Intelligence
Greta- This Is Greta
House of Large Sizes- My Ass Kicking Life
Lynam- Slave To The Machine
Lynam- Tragic City Symphony
Manic Street Preachers- Generation Terrorists
Manic Street Preachers- Gold Against The Soul
Mars Electric- Beautiful Something
The Music- Welcome to The North
Redd Cross- Phaseshifter
Shoes- Present Tense/Tongue Twister
Smithereens- Best Of
Smithwick Machine- High Fashion Horsepower
Space Age Playboys- New Rock Underground
Sugar- File Under Easy Listenig
Terrorvision- Regular Urban Survivors
Urge Overkill- Saturation
Wildhearts- "Works" CD#2
Wildhearts- Riff After Riff

Electrafixion is a failed Power Pop project by Echo and The Bunnymen (but I love it). Smithwick Machine was a diverse Stooges type band from the "Red States". House of Large Sizes was a 90's Power Pop band from Iowa. Urge Overkill is good, but they almost got bumped by commiting the cardinal sin in my world of having a 20 minute gap before a "hidden track". I'll leave that off my new Ipod though if I can figure out how.

p.s.- This was a heroic effort by me to listen to all this happy music with frozen socks. It's not happy music weather here right now at all!

Sister Havana is the only song I know from them and I love it. I used to have it on my Limewire account. Peace.