Urge Overkill
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Of course, Urge Overkill were always unlikely candidates for rock stardom. The groups core members, Nash Kato (b. Nathan Katruud; occasionally billed as National Kato) and Eddie King Roeser were Midwest suburbanites who met at college in Chicago. Taking their name from a Parliament song, the duo formed Urge Overkill in 1985 with drummer Jack Watt (billed as The Jaguar) and recorded their debut EP, Strange, I... with Katos roommate Steve Albini the following year. Neither Strange, I or its full-length follow-up, the Albini-produced Jesus Urge Superstar, gained much attention, primarily because the group was attempting to replicate the noise-rock aesthetic of so many other Chicago-based acts on Touch & Go Records. However, the Butch Vig-produced Americruiser (1990), featured an improved sound and sense of style, highlighted on the near-college hit Ticket to LA.
Drummer Blackie Onassis (b. Johnny Rowan) was added to the band prior to recording their third album. With Onassis in the band, the group landed on their Stonesy fusion of arena rock and punk, as well as their idea to act like stars. The new Urge Overkill was debuted on 1991s The SuperSonic Storybook, which became an underground hit thanks to strong reviews and a slot opening for Nirvana on the American Nevermind tour. Urge hired Kramer to produce the 1992 Stull EP, which featured both Girl, Youll Be a Woman Soon and Goodbye to Guyville, a kiss-off to the Chicago indie-rock scene the band had alienated; Liz Phair would later borrow the term for her acclaimed debut album, Exile in Guyville.
Urge Overkill signed to DGC Records in 1992, although they were still contracted to record another album for Touch & Go. Their jump to the majors angered the whole label, particularly their former producer Albini, who publicly attacked the band in several interviews. Still, the bands 1993 major-label debut, Saturation, was greeted with strong reviews upon its summer release. Produced by the Butcher Brothers (Cypress Hill), the album sounded like a surefire alternative crossover hit, but only Sister Havana earned much airplay. Furthermore, the band began to alienate certain members of the alternative rock community with its constant preening, and a few anti-Urge campaigns were launched in the American indie-rock underground.
As the band was preparing to record its follow-up to Saturation, Quentin Tarantino picked the groups cover of Girl, Youll Be A Woman Soon for the soundtrack to his unexpected hit, Pulp Fiction. On the strength of the movies success, the song became a hit, seemingly setting the stage for a breakthrough success with 1995s Exit the Dragon. But the success never happened. Scheduled for early summer of 1995, the album didnt appear until the fall, when it was greeted with mixed reviews. The lead single from the album, The Break, was rather uncommercial, and received little airplay. The group began a tour that fall which quickly turned disastrous, with opening act Guided By Voices being kicked off amidst much controversy just a few weeks in. A few weeks later, the remaining concerts were canceled altogether and never rescheduled. Toward the end of the year, Blackie Onassis was picked up for heroin possession. No charges were pressed and the incident was kept quiet, but the album was already pronounced dead in the water by the media and DGC. Urge Overkill spent 1996 in seclusion as they attempted to regroup. By the end of the year, tensions between Nash Kato and Eddie King Roeser had escalated, resulting in Roesers departure from the band. Kato and Onassis continued on as a duo, leaving DGC for 550 Music in early 1997. As the band was preparing its first album for 550 Music, Roeser was replaced with guitarist Nils St. Cyr. However, unhappy with the results, the label soon dropped them, upon which point Urge Overkill disbanded. Nash Kato released his solo debut, Debutante, in early 2000.
