Soul Asylum and Ugly Kid Joe

Formed of drummer Dave Pirner, guitarist and backing vocalist Dan Murphy and bassist Karl Mueller, before Pirner move to lead vocalist, Loud Fast Rules released two songs on the Reflex Records cassette “Barefoot and Pregnant in 1982. In 1983 the named changed to Soul Asylum and the band soon developed a devoted following around the Misseapolis/St. Paul’s area through dynamic stage shows and the honing of the rage of punk, the classic guitar power of rock and emotively entrenched lyrics of soul.

The band’s debut album “Say What You Will… Everything Can Happen” arrived in 1984 on an exclusive LP and cassette released through Twin/Tone Records, produced by Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould. Soul Asylum’s sophomore album “Say What You Will, Clarence… Karl Sold the Truck” featured all of the previous albums’ songs plus additional material.

Two albums made the light of day in 1986 “Made to Be Broken” and “While You Were Out” and marked the replacement of Pat Morley with Grant Young. The two album’s earned the band critical success within the alternative rock genre and led to a relentless touring schedule and a swelling fan base.

After signing with A&M and crafting the EP “Clam Dip & Other Delights”, a parody of A&M founder Herb Alpert’s iconic “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” album, Soul Asylum released their fifth studio album “Hang Time” in 1988. Produced by Lenny Kaye “Hang Time” has long been considered Soul Asylum’s finest, most melodic and powerfully emotional album, which saw approval from the alternative genre and college radio.

With increasingly high expectations from A&M, and after the disappointing release of their subsequent album “And the Horse They Rode In On” in 1990 – a semi-live album – the band were dropped from A&M. Riding the indie wave of Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, Soul Asylum landed a deal with Columbia and released the album “Grave Dancer’s Union” to considerable radio airplay and MTV rotation. The album spawned the single “Runaway Train” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard singles chart and earned the band a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

Soul Asylum failed to maintain such popular appeal and their two subsequent albums “Let Your Dim Light Shine” in 1995 and “Candy from a Stranger” in 1998 were comparative flops both in terms of critical recognition and commercial sales. After a considerable cooling-off period Soul Asylum’s next release arrived in 2006 with the album “The Silver Lining” and later “Delayed Reaction” in 2012.

The group’s embryonic stages trace back to 1987, Palo Alto, California. Two of the groups founding members Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt bonded over a shared interest in music and by 1989 were playing together in a band based out of Isla Vista, California. The friends eventually branched off to record a demo of their own with the help of Eric Valentine (Good Charlotte, Taking Back Sunday, Queens of the Stone age). The group went through several line up changes before settling on Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.

The group garnered it’s name from a satirization of the glam rock band Pretty Boy Floyd. Unsurprisingly Ugly Joe Kid earned a reputation not only for their catchy heavy metal tone influenced by acts like Bon Jovi, Black Sabbath, and Mötley Crüe, but also from their comedic outlook. The group slowly but steadily started building a fan base and in the early 90s were opening for acts like Scatterbrain and Ozzy Osbourne. They released their debut EP “As Ugly As They Wanna Be” in 1992. The album was a huge success producing the hit single “Everything About You”, which found it’s way on the “Wayne’s World” soundtrack and sold over 1,000,000 copies in the US certifying it as the current highest selling EP.

This EP acted as the gateway in to the mainstream for the band and helped set the stage for the success of their proceeding efforts. Their proper debut album “America’s Least Wanted” came out in the Fall of 1992 and featured the five hit singles “Cats in the Cradle”, “Everything About You”, “So Damn Cool”, “Busy Bee”, and “Neighbor”. The latter of the tracks was spotlighted in the popular TV series “Beavis and Butt-head” and garnered them even more attention. The album charted at No. 27 on the US Billboard 200 and No.11 on the UK Albums Charts and of 1995 it has gone double platinum. The group supported this release opening for Black Sabbath and Def Leppard on a sold out European tour and subsequently went on to play more sold out shows in Japan and Australia.

Ugly Joe Kid spent several more years on the road, headlining festivals in Brazil alongside Aerosmith and Poison, warming up arenas for Bon Jovi and Van Halen and fronting their own tours such as the “Excuse to Go Snowboarding Tour”, on which they shared the stage with Goldfinger and Dog Eat Dog. The band’s 2nd studio album “Menace to Sobriety” was issued through Mercury on 13 June 1995. Though the album was critically praised and spawned several successful tour legs, Mercury decided to discontinue their contract with the band. Their next album “Motel California” (a parody of the Eagles’ “Hotel of California”) was released on 22 October 1996 through the independent British label, Castle Communications.

The album failed to chart in the US, but did place at 128 on the UK album charts. After a string of small venue tours the group called it quits in 1997. Their drummer at the time, Shannon Larkin moved on to Godsmack and lead vocalist Crane joined forces with Life of Agony and later worked on two other projects: Medication and Another Animal.

Ugly Joe Kid reformed in 2010 to play several live gigs and by 2012 they released the EP “Stairway to Hell” (their 1st release of original material in almost 16 years). Their 4th studio debut “Uglier Than They Used Ta Be” is set for release in 2015 through UKJ Records.