In the Summer of 1994, I was a wild child. I’d travelled to Europe, and discovered Urge Overkill. They were flashy, a bit weird , and came out of the the blazing Chicago music scene that also birthed Liz Phair. They racked up a few hits, including “Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon” from Quentin Tarantino’s historic ‘Pulp Fiction’ . After a second album, they vanished. Time to reshine the light on this seminal band from the 1990’s.

The core of Urge Overkill, Nash Kato (vocals/guitar), and Eddie “King” Roeser (vocals/guitar/bass guitar) met in college in 1985. Their first EP “Strange, I…” and later the full length album, “Jesus Urge Superstar” came out in 1989, produced by soon to be legendary producer Steve Albini. At first, there wasn’t much to differentiate Urge Overkill’s sound from the other herd of pre grunge bands of the era.

It wasn’t until the release of “Americruiser” in 1990, when the band’s signature sound mix of punk and Lounge lizard congealed. Produced by Butch Vig, “Americruiser” is the work that caught the attention of the College Rock and Alternative radio scene. “The Supersonic Storybook” in 1991, and the EP “Stull” , with the single ‘Now That’s The Barclords’ in 1992 shoved the band into national recognition. “Stull” also contained the Neil Diamond remake ‘Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon’, which would be featured in a prominent scene in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994.

They toured with Nirvana and Perl Jam that year, to enormous success.

With drummer Blackie Onassis, who joined the band in 1991, Urge Overkill recorded and released their first big label (Geffen) album in 1993, the seminal “Saturation”. Their biggest radio hit ‘Sister Havana”, was later followed by the single ‘Positive Bleeding”. With almost guaranteed national and international touring opportunities, most critics at the time said that their next album would set them in A Nirvana-esque level of fame…

So, what happened to Urge Overkill? An unfortunate disagreement between Kato and Roeser over the usual creative differences. The follow-up to “Saturation”, “Exit The Dragon” from 1995, didn’t reach the level of success of their previous recording. Roeser left the band, with Kato and Onassis continuing without him.

After the band changed to 550 Music in 1997, the band disappeared.

Nash Kato resurfaced in 2000 with a solo project, “Debutante”. Nearly half of the album’s tracks were written by Blackie Onassis. In 2004 Kato and Roeser decided to give Urge Overkill neither go, with Mike “Hadji” Hodgkiss (bass), Chris Frantisak (keyboardist), and Brian “Bonn” Quast (drummer). They replayed old material and did a domestic and international tour. It took 16 years, until 2011 to release new material, ‘Rock & Roll Submarine’.

Urge Overkill was, and still are, one of the most unique bands to come out of the Grunge period. They mix the image of Lounge Lizard and rocker seamlessly, and their music both kicks your ass and soothes the soul. These guys deserve way more recognition than their getting.

Urge Overkill website:

http://urgeoverkill.com

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