How I Like Urge Overkill: The Playlist
No band evokes the classic Simpsons bit about sarcasm and '90s rock more than Urge Overkill. Former associates of Steve Albini bedecked in retro swag and matching monogrammed medallions, pretending to rock glory at its most absurd until Geffen Records gave them a contract worthy of their ambitions. They crossed over with a Neil Diamond cover from their last indie EP (which a drug moll in Pulp Fiction had on reel-to-reel somehow), but failed to score huge with any originals - even the one about the lady assassin in Cuba. They lost their last bit of cool by treating opener Guided By Voices like shit on a 1995 tour, collapsing into scuttled follow-ups and druggy dysfunction before the decade was over. Were they being ironic? Always? Sometimes? Did they even know anymore?
Hipsters from Generation X proper (the ones circling 50, not cavalier, generational code-switching Xennial types like myself) have no chill when it comes to these guys. Either Nash Kato, King Roeser & Blackie Onassis are darling sex gods with hooks for days who never got their due, or the most embarassing, talentless, contemptible pretenders to ever taint the streets of Chicago (or would be if not for Billy Corgan). I've read stories dignifying both sides of the debate, but can't help but notice their fans included Liz Phair, Amy Rigby, the Deal sisters, Chrissie Hynde and Kurt Cobain, while their haters were generally uptight dudes in glasses (I can say that 'cuz I frequently am one). If you wanted your rock bullshit free in the nineties, Urge Overkill was a pathetic, farcical enemy. But if you started hanging out with scuzzy rock boys for a little glamour, this fun, flashy trio were heroes.
In the most ironic coup of all, after a long break in the '00s, Urge Overkill is still going! In fact, they released a fine new album last week named Oui. I'm not ready to say where it ranks in the discography, but "I Can't Stay Glad@U" rhymes "wake you" and "fake you" with "lake view." They're still going for it and they've still got it. So I made a little playlist to hopefully shake you and make you curious for more (the politics of streaming seem a little moot here, as their whole gestalt involved not recouping advances).
- "Sister Havana" (Saturation, 1993)
The aforementioned near-hit about the lethal lady Nash saw with "Fidel in the sand - assassin!" I guess the kids just didn't find it resonant?
2. "The Candidate" (The Supersonic Storybook, 1991)
There's a surprising amount of political intrigue in Urge Overkill singles.
3. "Effigy" (Rock & Roll Submarine, 2011)
Twenty years later, and King still manages to combine anguish and authority like an unexpected cross between Dave Pirner and Lemmy Kilmeister.
4. "Somebody Else's Body" (Exit The Dragon, 1995)
You might remember some famous heads bobbing to this bop in the movie Flirting With Disaster, both about bizarre love triangles. It's not a good sign when you go from soundtracking Uma Thurman dancing to Ben Stiller driving, but you're still in the spotlight.
5. "Faroutski" (Americruiser, 1990)
To be honest, I don't spend much time with the more noise than joys pre-Blackie albums, but this track smokes. Produced by Butch Vig before that was the thing to do!
6. "Bottle Of Fur" (Saturation, 1993)
Years after I bought the album, with a little more life experience, it hit me just how brazen a metaphor this is. But Kelley Deal praised it in the '93 year-end Rolling Stone issue, noting "I want to be missed." So I won't balk. Those climatic chimes!
7. "The Mistake" (Exit The Dragon, 1995)
The definitive Urge Overkill song for me, despite being sung not by Nash or King, but drummer Blackie, who - between this and Saturation's equally tender and arresting "The Dropout" - should have been alternative rock's Peter Criss. Dude makes the corniest rock imagery sound sincere ("roll one up and do as you please," "a couple kids believe in your sound"), surrounded by a spooky, Sister Lovers-worthy soundscape, advising "beware the overdose" from a degree of experience that only got more transparent after he was kicked out of the band. Every so often, usually when "I hear [his] song on the jukebox," I've googled him up, hoping he's ok. So I was thrilled to find him on a podcast in 2019, throwing down rehab anecdotes with plenty of life of and aplomb. If the cat ever drops a solo album, I'll listen to it in a heartbeat.
8. "Goodbye To Guyville" (Stull EP, 1992)
Or maybe this is definitive. A slow, bluesy scorcher where a lanky, long-haired stud with colored sunglasses calls out the sausage party of the scene, swearing he's just as unimpressed as you are, lady. As you probably know, or have gathered, Liz Phair was listening.
9. "Positive Bleeding" (Saturation, 1993)
Despite the song's anthemic catchiness (that "sitar"!) and Nash's remarkable ability to sell "baby, I'm a rolling stone" before the band barrels in for the chorus, somehow a single about positive bleeding failed to go gold in the early '90s. The decade's loss!
10. "Now That's The Barclords" (Stull EP, 1992)
I know they refer to the "Barclords," a word still unused by the rest of society according to Google, but I'm pretty sure this song about a band of really cool guys who live in a house together ("seated longside a mahogany table") and like to have girls over for dinner and dancing is autobiographical.
11. "Today Is Blackie's Birthday" (The Supersonic Storybook, 1991)
Quick. How many rising bands in 1991 would celebrate the drummer's birthday on track 2 of an album?
12. "Touch To A Cut" (Rock & Roll Submarine, 2011)
It's possible this is a fave from the first reunion album because it opens almost exactly like Gang Of Four's "We Live As We Dream, Alone." Punk, AOR, soap operas, white turtlenecked ensembles, it's all for the taking with Urge.
While I didn't include anything from Oui (I just hate to include a brand new joint on a retrospective), do check it out. They cover Wham! on it! Are they being sarcastic? Honestly, I don't even care anymore.