Lack of new music means no overkill for Urge

By John Benson

One of the members said there’s not a full commitment to the band at this point.

Just like in the ’90s, Urge Overkill exists in the music industry periphery.

While core members Nathan “Nash Kato” Katruud and Eddie “King” Roeser restarted the alt rock act a few years ago, the band’s existence appears to be tenuous at best.

“I think there are various things working against us,” said Roeser, calling from Chicago. “The band isn’t totally a full commitment right now, and there’s not total agreement on what Urge Overkill is anymore.”

Emblematic of the band’s current state of affairs is the fact that it’s been more than four years since the group reunited, yet there’s no music to show for its efforts. Instead, the outfit has toured intermittently while its cult following waits patiently for new material.

“We have about 20 songs, but I think we can do better and so does Nash in terms of putting out things,” Roeser said. “We used to have an album-length project where we can say we have the [foundation] of a good Urge record, but we don’t have really those three or four central pillars that you can point to on an older album, where you can say that sounds like Urge and we’re really excited about it.”

Urge Overkill remains somewhat of an asterisk band of the ’90s. Known mostly for its cool cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” which played prominently in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction,” the Chicago-based act never really enjoyed mainstream success on its own.

Sure the band’s 1993 effort “Saturation” features minor hits “Sister Havana” and “Positive Bleeding,” but the group’s vision was never fully realized.

“I don’t think we really got to — not that we wanted to cash in but — fully mature,” Roeser said. “And there were things happening behind the scenes. We had ‘Saturation’ and that was a very sunny album, and then we really swung in the opposite direction. We made very difficult and dark records after that, and various things conspired within the business to hamper the promotion of that record.

“And when you put out a successful record and the next is less successful, it sort of had an exponential negative effect on everybody involved in the band.”

The reality is somewhat disconcerting for fans of Urge Overkill, which has added touring members “Bon E.” Brian Quast (drums) and Michael Hodgekiss (bass) into the fold.

While Roeser admits the band is guilty of resting on its laurels set list-wise when it comes to touring — Urge Overkill is scheduled to perform Friday show at the Beachland Ballroom — the guitarist feels the act does have something different to offer its fans.

“I honestly think if you’ve seen Urge or liked Urge before, we’re definitely playing more consistently,” Roeser said. “The musicianship is better than it was back in the day. We used to be a real hit or miss band. That’s a fact.

“And I guess we’re not likely to play a terrible show now, where that could have happened back in the day.”