Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Record Ramble - Saturation by Urge Overkill


I first heard about Urge Overkill in 1993 when their video for the single "Sister Havana" came out. I didn't think much of the video itself (it was, to my mind, typical of the day), but I really dug the song. I had thought that they would become huge stars; indeed, they did land their version of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" onto the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. They then released their second major-label release, Enter the Dragon, which more or less tanked (many blame Geffen Records for not giving the album the push it needed; others say that the darker, somber tone of the record itself alienated listeners). The subsequent tour saw the band fighting and basically imploding, like so many bands do. And, well, I promptly forgot about them. That is, until 2004, when I bought a copy of Mojo Magazine and read an article about "The 67 Lost Albums You Must Own". Urge Overkill's Saturation (Their major-label debut - the record containing "Sister Havana"!) was on that list. Reading that article planted a seed in my head. Sure enough, I saw Saturation at a CD store. In a bargain bin. For $2.99. SOLD!
Of course once I bought the thing, it took me a year and a half to bring myself to listen to anything but "Sister Havana" (that song is so good, the rest of the album must kinda suck in comparison...). Once I finally got around to it, however, I was/am really impressed...
At its best, Saturation combines tight playing, catchy hooks and choruses, unique song structuring, and a 70s arena-rock sensibility to create a work that's close to masterpiece. Easily half the CD should have been on the charts, beginning with "Sister Havana", the obvious hit single/signature tune, with its opening riff, tight production (courtesy of the Butcher Bros.), and lyrics combining romance and a plot to kill Castro (no, really). Other standouts include "Tequila Sundae", "Positive Bleeding", "Back On Me", "Bottle of Fur", "Crackbabies", "Erica Kane" ("...another Emmy's passed you by..."), and "Nite and Grey". Some of the touches seem a little hokey (a farty synth note cropping up in the chorus of "Tequila Sundae", the soap-opera keyboard theme at the beginning of "Crackbabies") or contrived (various bits of studio dialogue), but overall, this is a good-to-great album, because the best songs on here override all the junk (the bridges to each aforementioned song are worth the price of the recording sessions, in my opinion).
It was the best $2.99 I ever spent.

Friday, August 22, 2008

I just wanna give a big ol' shoutout to Taki, a Japanese fast food restaurant on Colfax and Logan, here in the Mile High City. They rock. Me and the missus (the lovely Gina, for those who aren't in the know) went there for dinner tonight. I had the veggie tempura bowl, and Gina had this dish called the Yakisoba, which looked like it had noodles, veggie tempura, raw veggies, and chicken (the other choices were beef, shrimp, and tofu). Umm Yum!! This place is all laid back - you walk in and order and the manager (I assume?) is all friendly and everything, and for the two of us it was under $17.00...Gina loves it and so do I...
And now for something completely different...I'm going to be reviewing albums on this blog soon...not new ones, necessarily; just ones in my collection. I'm trying to decide which album to start with...I've got it narrowed down to Danzig by Danzig, Feel Good Hit of the Summer by Queens of the Stone Age, Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand, and Saturation by Urge Overkill. If anyone has an opinion, please let me know...

Monday, August 18, 2008

Howdy...Yeah, I know it's been a while...I didn't want this blog to turn into a rant & rave type of thing, so I figured I would wait until I got inspired by something happy...of course, I realized that when I'm in the middle of something good or happy, I don't want to write about it - I simply want to enjoy it...if I'm feeling blue or bugged about something, well, of course I'm more inclined to write about it, because that's my way of processing it, digesting it, and, well, crapping it out (a rather crude - yet effective - way of putting it, I think)...so on with the rant...
There are times I really hate being in a band. All the little egos and personalities all clashing, just like Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann at a cocktail party...there are a lot of specifics to deal with in this particular band, but what it comes down to is this: I really hope we don't chase our new guitarist away...he seems like a good guy, and I really like the way he plays. However, due to circumstances not really beyond our control (I mad-dogged him for an entire song for stepping all over my intro, and our other guitarist and I keep trying to goad him to put on more of a stage show by running into him and whatnot - with predictably mixed results), he may be thinking about whether he wants to be in the band...or not. The other guitarist is all about putting on a wild stage show and keeps pushing it onto the new guy. Granted, he was told that he would be expected to get kinda wild onstage, and he said he'd be into it...now, he's got a wireless setup, and is still rooted to the same spot...I'm thinking that he still feels rather new (his very first gig w/us was in May) and is still kinda learning the material (material that 4/5 of the band have been doing for about a year now). I would think that he'd have the songs down by now and would be thinking about his stage show, but maybe he's just not into the whole 'let's-run-around-and-hang-from-the-ceiling' school of performing...
And our singer/booking agent wants our lives to be booked five months ahead of time so he can book the band four months ahead of time...boo...I understand that most club owners need to have things booked ahead of schedule so they can CTA, but - boo...