Growing up in the Midwest, you get an understanding of the blue collar, hard-working mentality of the Midwest. It's an attitude saying that something will get done with a little flare for the "I'm gonna do it the way we want to, not the way you're telling me or everyone else is doing" This is indicative of the story of Soul Asylum and their, what I would call, "big rollercoaster ride" of fame. Lots of highs, but also many lows and many things that would just have your head, well, "Spinnin'".
As I grew up in Chicago, of course I would hear about the bands from the surrounding area (Illinois,Wisconsin, Minnesota)...Minnesota - The Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota nice and Soul Asylum. Minneapolis to be precise. a place where there must be something in the water because the music scene there is special and has a very hometown feel to it that I've loved for years.
Soul Asylum is one of those bands that, after I discovered them, and then saw them live, this was my kind of shit. Not just the music, but the band and the personalities that came with it. The jokes on stage, the choice of cover songs that always blew my mind, Karl's choice of shorts for the evening and everything else that went along with it. From the get-go, it was something that I enjoyed very much but I had yet to realize how much fun was to come for many, many years.
So it is now time for me to dive into the band and discover the brilliance that is Soul Asylum.
It can be said about most bands is there are two sides - the way the band sounds on their LP/CD and how they are live. Well, as for the LP/CD, yes, of course, I enjoy most of them, but live...from a person who has spent over 25 years on and off, traveling across the country to see the band over 100 times, you have to see them live to understand the full picture. It's an entirely different world. The band, in the late 80's, was called "the best live band in America" and in my opinion..yes they were... even longer. So, if all you've ever heard is that "Runaway Train" song and thought that was all the band had to offer, it time to get "Closer To The Stars"
Before Soul Asylum, there was Loud Fast Rules and they were a punk rock band, sometime even called a hardcore band. The members were Dave Pirner, Dan Murphy and Karl Mueller, who were three friends from school. Dave originally sang and played drums, and Pat Morley joined later to replace Dave on drums. They would get together in Karl's basement and rock out.
Soul Asylum's first two LPs were produced by Bob Mould of Husker Du. The bands would also tour together often and Soul Asylum was given the insulting nickname by some attendees as "Baby Huskers". Sure, it was punk rock but there was more to it. Their songs were becoming more developed and accessible, such as "Stranger." They would also sign a record deal with their hometown indie record label Twin Tone to join bands like The Replacements, The Suicide Commandos and many other Minneapolis bands.
Another place that played, and continues to be, a big part of the Minneapolis music scene is the music venue of 7th Street Entry & First Avenue. These are in the same building in two different rooms. First Ave is the famous club that is featured in the film "Purple Rain" with Prince, which is the larger venue. 7th Street is a small room that fits about 200 people. Both rooms have had their fair share of greatness and history play there. I have attended shows that I will never forget in both of these rooms over the years. The Depot is attached to the venue and is a great place to meet up before shows. It has great food and drinks as well as some of the best photo collections of bands that played next door, including a few classic shots of Soul Asylum.
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Pat Morley left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Grant Young on drums.
In 1986, the band also release "Time's Incinerator" a cassette-only release that was a collection of unreleased material.
After releasing three albums with Twin Tone and touring almost constantly for those years, it was time for the band to move on and try to get out of a small indie market. The band was signed by a major label, A&M. This gave the band much bigger exposure because their budget increased, better distribution and, of course, more tour dates.
I would like to point out that during this time Soul Asylum often played on college campuses. The crowd was generally very intoxicated. Shows involved what Dan called "male bonding." It was kind of like being in a tag team wrestling match in bumper cars with bodies flying, stage diving and lots of craziness in between. At the beginning of the show at Marquette University, you can hear one of the people in attendance tell his friend, "This is going to be like a Metallica concert"
The band's next release was Clam Dip & Other Delights, a six song E.P. that featured Karl on the cover. A&M, the band's label, was owned by Herb Albert of the famed Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass. The band had a few jabs at him over the years, including the cover of Clam Dip which was a parody of Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass' LP, Whipped Cream & Other Delights. When originally issued on vinyl, there were two different versions. The U.S. version included "Artificial Heart" and "Take It to the Root." The U.K. version contained covers of "Move Over" (Janis Joplin) and "Jukebox Hero" (Foreigner).
They also did a fine, fine version of the Herb Albert classic, "This Guy's In Love With You" at one of their famous holidays shows at First Avenue. It featured a trumpet being dropped from the top of the light, down to Dave to play a mighty fine trumpet solo, all in good fun. This is featured the the film, "Something Out Of Nothing."
By this point in the band's career, one of the famous things the band did, was play cover songs. These had no bounds in the fun and entertainment of what the cover song was going to be, did anybody know it was a cover song, and what the hell was that cover song. Their catalog just seemed endless. Some songs later became staples of their sets, but it did not start out that way. I was going to try to list a few here but it's really an endless amount of laughs and wowers and the occasionally...really? Here's a link that will be the tip of the iceberg, but it's a good start. It's something some of us collectors would someday like to have a complete list of but that's kind of a joke once you discover how many there really are. Non LP / Cover Songs
Here's a short news clip that explains 1990 "And The Horse They Rode In On."
The band released what would end up being their last LP for A&M Records with many different horse combos and, as always, a big tour followed.
Vinyl
CD
Cassette
Promo Poster
Promo CD
I was lucky enough to see more then a few shows from this tour. This is when the cross country trips for shows really started to pick up. Two of those great nights of music and Soul Asylum were captured on the live CD from the "Welcome To The Minority" that "Freaks" like myself had to wait about 20 years for. I'm glad to say that I was in attendance at these classic shows.
This is another show I did attend and, again, it was released 20 years after the fact.
This is the still-unreleased film, "Something Out Of Nothing" that documents the band writing, recording and performing, all in a fast 27 minutes. It was only shown once at First Avenue before a holiday show in 2005 and a few times in the theater at film festivals.
Best live show on video of this tour is, by far, this one. This was also a labor of love that, with the help of a fellow collector, trader and film maker, we were able to sync up better audio to this great video. This is something else that took nearly 20 years to happen.
Here's a great hometown radio broadcast from the 1990 "Horse" tour:
So the band put out a great album, toured the world and promoted the hell out of everything they had. So what was next for Soul Asylum? They got dropped by their label and had to start again by recording new demos and looking for a new label. What happened next is a part of music history and good old Midwest stubbornness.
Dave and Dan did a small acoustic show tour and the band recorded 12 demo songs which would end up being the "Grave Dancers Union" demos. This was a completely new side to the band in that they were playing "guitars with holes in them" (acoustic guitars). New songs and even old ones had a completely different feel to them. Hearing them do a Woody Guthrie song and a Leonard Cohen song in the same night was something different. All the songs were great as acoustic songs, and then later with the full band. You could feel in the air and within the crowd that something special was going to happen.
A perfect way to end the year was to see Soul Asylum play on New Year's Eve at a Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Minneapolis in one of the ballrooms. The highlight of this show was the "Midnight Medley," only played once at this special show. Remember how they played lots of cover songs? This medley is all songs that have "Midnight " in the title. No, really an entire medley, just before midnight, of all song with midnight in the title. Now that's funny!!!
Thank you and happy fucking New Year.
Next was the 12 song demo tape which included "Black Gold" and "Runaway Train."
Grave Dancers Union Demos
So that is just a small portion of the story of Soul Asylum . I will be posting more on the band in the future. I hope this helped you in some way on your musical journey.
If your looking for more Soul Asylum here's some links to check out:
Wonderful, Mike. Really only good and necessary thing. Thank you very much, your collection teaches me a lot and brings me much happiness. You are blessed!
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