Although they had long since reformed to cut a pair of albums, Urge Overkill delivered their swan song to the Alternative Rock ‘90s in the middle of that decade with Exit the Dragon, the second of two records originally released by the Geffen conglomerate. Now, with its recent double vinyl edition, it joins Saturation in Porterhouse Records’ reissue program. Listening to the set with fresh ears finds it holding up better than expected. Indeed, it now registers as the high point of the band’s major label sojourn. For its 30th anniversary, it arrives in a pressing of 1,000 copies, with options for pink or purple vinyl.
Saturation basked in the glow of Geffen’s abundant Alternative era success through the DGC imprint (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Hole, Weezer, Counting Crows, Elastica, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, The Sundays, that dog, Boss Hog, Veruca Salt) and was the Urge Overkill record that was fresh in the store racks during the extended Pulp Fiction hubbub; the band’s solid cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” accompanies a crucial scene in Quentin Tarantino’s second feature.
Naturally, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” landed on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, but listeners new to the band who were looking for more would’ve likely gotten their mitts on Saturation or the album’s single “Sister Havana,” which was a moderate airplay hit. Saturation was also a charting album, but it’s something of a surprise that Exit the Dragon was their biggest-selling record.
The surprise is mainly due to a certain amount of Alt-rock fatigue setting in by the point of Exit the Dragon’s release. Related to this was the uninhibited gusto in Urge Overkill’s striving for Big Time commercial success and how the boldness of their collective image compounded this, as the band disdained the simple t-shirt, jeans, and Chuck Taylors favored by a large percentage of the indie rock brigade for flashy outfits befitting a trio striving for rock star dominance.
Although they started on the fringes of the ’80s noise rock scene, calling the Windy City home and releasing records on Touch and Go Records, Urge Overkill’s big swing toward a dense and increasingly streamlined punk-informed Grunge-adjacent hard rocking began long before they signed on Geffen’s dotted line.
Urge Overkill’s move toward accessibility essentially started with Supersonic Storybook in 1991, with drummer Blackie Onassis joining and solidifying the “classic” lineup, and continued through the “Stull” EP, which is where “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” first appeared as the opening track. Both sides of the band’s entry in the Sub Pop Singles Club are also heard on “Stull.”
The EP’s closing track, “Goodbye to Guyville,” has often been speculated to be a kiss-off to Chicago and to the indie scene in general as they strove to romp around in the major-label playground. Exit the Dragon, which chalked up its sales figures without too much ballyhoo on initial release, registers 30 years hence as breaking the middle ground between the Onassis Touch and Go period and the Big Brass Ring of Saturation.
Exit the Dragon reasserts the band’s hard rock inclination through the street-funk grooving of opener “Jaywalkin’” and the hard-charging riff-banging of “Need Some Air.” Proper attention is paid to the band’s increasing pop savvy in “Somebody Else’s Body” and “View of the Rain.” And they stretch out and deliver a very appealing string-tinged finale with “Digital Black Epilogue.”
Akin to dozens of CD-era album releases, there are a few too many tracks here, but to the band’s credit, it’s difficult to decide which selections to cut. And the whole thing goes down much better today than it did three decades back in a crowded field. But maybe best of all, Exit the Dragon reinforces the seriousness of a band that many were eager to write off as a joke.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
