Urge Overkill’s blatant rockstar overtures and sartorial sensibilities gave them an interesting edge in a noisy indie scene in the 90s.
Their satin shirts, velour jackets, tinted glasses, chunky medallions stamped with their logo, and stadium sized riffs had people cheering, sneering, or scratching their heads.
If you only came on board with their fourth album Saturation, you’d be none the wiser to their noisier, punkier roots on respected independent label Touch and Go Records.
Urge Overkill's sound started out with the murkier strains of Jesus Urge Superstar produced by Steve Albini (a former housemate of Kato's).
Their power pop/garage was further refined on sophomore album Americruiser (produced by Butch Vig), before delivering their best batch of songs to date with The Supersonic Storybook, their first record with newly (fourth) recruited drummer Blackie Onassis.
Ready to take the leap to a major label for their fourth record, and ready for a bolder sound, the group took a chance on The Butcher Bros. to produce their 1993 smash record Saturation.
It may be Urge Overkill’s sole hit album, but decades on Saturation's fizzing energy fuelled by dirty guitar fuzz (‘Tequila Sundae’, ‘Crackbabies’, ‘The Stalker’), classic rock swagger (‘Sister Havana’, 'Positive Bleeding'), and pent-up urgency (‘Woman 2 Woman’, ‘Erica Kane’) remains contagious and undeniable.
