All songs written by members of Urge Overkill except "Emmaline" (Brown/Wilson).
While displaying an excess of rock-star histrionics and cheeky, lounge-lizard postures, Chicago's Urge Overkill produced some excellent guitar rock during its short reign in the late 1980s and early '90s, and 1991's THE SUPERSONIC STORYBOOK--the band's third album for Touch & Go Records--shows UO hitting its stride. Although Urge Overkill was in many ways a product of the Chicago underground of the era, an undisguised love of '70s classic rock and arena bombast set them apart from bands like the Jesus Lizard and Naked Raygun. Opening tracks "The Kids Are Insane" and "The Candidate" are full of fat arena-rock riffs and melodic hooks that have more in common with Kiss and Cheap Trick than with punk, while the wah-pedal freak-out of "Bionic Revolution" hits a funk-rock groove worthy of James Brown.
Urge Overkill's MO was to rescue rock from the self-righteousness of punk and restore it to its rightful place on the stereos of Saturday night revelers. And while that mission was certainly stated with a heavy dose of irony, Urge Overkill possessed a genuine love of the very rock music that the indie community was allegedly against. On THE SUPERSONIC STORYBOOK, the irony and the love are perfectly simpatico, and the result is a lost gem of the '90s rock revolution.
Recorded at Chicago Recording Company, Chicago, Illinois.
Urge Overkill: King Roeser (vocals, bass guitar); National Kato (guitar, organ); Blackie Onassis (drums).
Personnel: Eddie "King" Roeser (vocals); Nash Kato (guitar, organ); John Spiegel (steel guitar); Phil Welch (strings); Blackie Onassis (percussion); Lynne Jordan (background vocals).
Urge Overkill: National Kato (guitar, organ); King Roeser (bass, vocals); Blackie Onassis (percussion).
Additional personnel: John Spiegel (pedal steel guitar); Lynne Jordan, Phil Welch.
Additional personnel: John Spiegel (pedal steel); Phil Welch (strings); Lynn Jordan (background vocals).
Spin (12/91) - Ranked #14 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of 1991. Spin (6/91, p.71) - Highly Recommended - "...a joyful celebration of being young in the United States....Loud, hard rock with a hyper-melodic edge..."
Urge Overkill - Supersonic Storybook Album Track Listing
Trk
Song
1
Kids Are Insane
2
Candidate
3
(Today Is) Blackie's Birthday
4
Emmaline
5
Bionic Revolution
6
What Is Artane?
7
Vacation in Tokyo
8
Henhough: The Greatest Story Ever Told
9
Theme From Navajo
Supersonic Storybook Review
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