I keep rediscovering bands from the ’90s, the last decade when there were so many you might miss a few. Until I heard this tune on a throwback radio show recently I had forgotten all about this Chicago power trio.
Urge Overkill was two guys who met at Northwestern University in 1985, along with a succession of drummers. They followed what was then the typical pattern for new bands — release a few EPs, get some airplay on college stations in the late ’80s, get exposure opening for Nirvana, get signed by a major label when alternative rock exploded in the early ’90s.
Unfortunately the trio had rubbed a lot of people the wrong way on the way up, mainly by strutting around in ’70s clothing, doing a lot of drugs and generally acting out, all in an era when musicians were supposed to scorn that sort of thing — indeed, the worst sin a band could make in those days was “going commercial” by, God forbid, trying to sell records. Worse in the eyes of critics, instead of being tortured by the existence of their own ambition, they were proud of it. Fans tried to explain that they were spoofing the whole idea they appeared to be embracing, but that level of irony was beyond hipster sensibilities in those times.
Their major-label debut, 1993’s “Saturation,” should have been their next step toward the top. The music mixed rock and punk but only occasionally sounded like grunge — it generally had more energy, and occasionally, as on this tune, an actual hummable melody. But while the first single, “Sister Havana,” got a fair amount of mainstream airplay, this follow-up single stalled lower on the charts. I like it better anyway.
Though the album’s sales were disappointing, the group got a big break in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino pulled a tune from their 1992 EP, a droll cover of Neil Diamond’s wretched “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” for “Pulp Fiction.” The hit film brought them exposure, but drugs and egos had already done their work, and their follow-up album was their last until they regrouped in 2011, by which point almost nobody cared anymore. This was the title track to their comeback album.
