URGE OVERKILL – STULL EP (TOUCH AND GO)

URGE OVERKILL – STULL EP (TOUCH AND GO)

Urge Overkill was always a niche band from Chicago.  In the music papers they were namechecked by those in the know but seldom was anyone casually into them.  We knew what they looked like but not necessarily what they sounded like.

Stull is the six song EP released in 1992 which was reportedly found in a Dutch record shop by Quentin Tarantino one day and being the original home to their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” it would have been the first place he heard the track ahead of including it in a pivotal scene in Pulp Fiction.  It was a very strong selection to cover exhibiting both a telling message in the lyrics and a huge vocal delivery demanded in order to command the punch Diamond constructed.  And the band pulls it off to amazing ends.

Picking up the charge the second track “Stull (Part 1)” is equally cool offering a dragged out and measured approach to proceedings solidifying their search for soul and solid ability to attain it.  The journey is a good one, a safe five minute drive of definition and reassurance.  There is courtesy in refinement.

The process steps up with “Stitches” and a near punk track along lines of The Clash/Rancid that expresses the desire to “kill somebody just for fun” while namechecking both the Manson Family and the Son Of Sam killer.  This I am informed is their take on “Stitches In My Head/I Wanna Kill Somebody” originally by The Alan Milman Sect.

“What’s This Generation” begins with what has come to be the trademark drum sound of Steve Albini and Electrical Audio although it comes as quite some surprise to discover that it actually is not one of his recording jobs.  This band learns well even if this is a scratchy mess of a track coupled with a horrible fade out at the close.

Another single appears in the form of “(Now That’s) The Barclord” which was previously a Sub Pop Singles Club release.  Sounding like an Elvis Costello track it is a solid new wave work out exhibiting gestures towards better taste.

It all ends with “Goodbye To Guyville” which was a concept borrowed/adopted by Liz Phair whose debut album was called Exile In Guyville.  It’s a swift, slick and breezy strain.  Smooth, introspective and slow moving it is very Afghan Whigs in execution.

This is the sound of getting what you want.

Thesaurus moment: luxury.

Urge Overkill

Touch And Go