THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511030070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
IF YOU SAW ``Pulp Fiction,'' you'll remember the scene. Just before Uma Thurman discovers a white powder in John Travolta's jacket pocket, she dances around her living room to ``Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon.''
Not the version by Neil Diamond but by Urge Overkill, who will appear at the Abyss in Virginia Beach on Sunday.
The success of the reissued track put the Chicago band's next album on hold for three months as they rode the momentum.
By the time they got back to work on ``Exit the Dragon,'' their vision of the record had changed. The result was a much darker set of songs than those on Urge's 1993 breakthrough disc, ``Satura-tion.''
``The songwriting process was more emotional this time out,'' said drummer Blackie O by phone from a tour stop in Boston this week. ``If `Saturation' had a flaw, it was the lack of true content. It all just kind of came out. We recorded about 20 songs, and we had peppier, happier songs, but they didn't really fit what this record was turning into.''
``Exit the Dragon'' became a rumination on loss and danger. The band's friend Kurt Cobain was dead, and Urge members - guitarist/singer Nash Kato and bassist/singer Eddie ``King'' Roeser - were thinking about things like the overindulgence warned against in the mournful track ``The Mistake.''
Blackie said: ``I'm not saying don't, I'm not saying we haven't. I'm just saying be careful. There's a point of moderation. It isn't easy to live day to day in the U.S.A. It's a complicated place. People are ODing every day. It's happening, and not just to Shannon Hoon (Blind Melon's leader, who died recently). It's happening to plumbers, and it's happening to students, and it's happening to 10-year-old kids. Surely there must be something they're trying to get away from.''
The drummer sees the current alternative-rock scene as barren of the real subversiveness that Cobain brought to the party. He's not happy either with the proliferation of suit-wearing punk rockers on MTV - a trend easily traced to Urge's longtime obsession with style.
``Hopefully, people can see through that bandwagon-jumping,'' Blackie said. ``We started that, whether they want to admit it or not.
``We're totally reactionary. We react against everything. I don't think `Exit' is an alternative album. Alternative right now just means really dumb, stupid, catchy ideas with nothing behind them. It's rather sad. . . .
``It's all changed since Kurt's death. Maybe that was the end.''
At the same time, this despair isn't about to lead Urge Overkill to throw in the towel. According to Blackie, the outfit (augmented by tour bassist ``Fever'') still hits the stage ``with very much a mob mentality. The band rocks like almighty God. The clothing is flashier than on last tour. The record is less flashy, and the clothes are more flashy.
``You know, you can't just give in to the negativity. You just move on,'' Blackie said. ``Thank God something like (Nirvana's) `In Utero' or `Pulp Fiction' comes along. We call that `the real deal.' As long as things like that come along, at least people will be shocked out of their systems.'' MEMO: CONCERT FACTS
Who: Urge Overkill with Guided by Voices and the Geraldine Fibbers
When: 9 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Abyss, 1065 19th St., Virginia Beach.
Tickets: $10 advance; to order, call 671-8100
More information: Call 22-0748 by CNB