NEW YORK, (Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings) - Soul Asylum, who helped shape the newly emerging contours of college radio alternative rock in the '80s before becoming Grammy-winning multi-platinum superstars in the '90s, will celebrate the band's third decade with a brand-new studio album (slated for release in March 2006 on Columbia/Legacy) and a hot ticket performance at New York's legendary Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday, October 26. A full-on national tour is also in the works.
The Soul Asylum lineup for the Bowery Ballroom show will include group founders Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy with an extraordinarily simpatico rhythm section: former Replacement Tommy Stinson on bass (standing in for the late Karl Mueller) and legendary Minneapolis drummer Michael Bland (whose resume runs from Prince and Paul Westerberg to the Dixie Chicks and his own band Sons of Almighty).
"I always look forward to playing in New York for obvious reasons," said Dave Pirner, regarding the upcoming Bowery Ballroom gig. Dan Murphy explained, "New York is the first city that Soul Asylum did really well in, even before Minneapolis. In the punk heyday, we did a week of sold-out dates at CBGB's. We recorded Hang Time and Grave Dancers Union in New York, so it's like a second home to us."
Recorded and co-produced by the band with Grammy Award winner Steve Hodge (Boston, Janet Jackson, Sting, Usher, Rod Stewart) at Flyte Time and the Terrarium studios in Minneapolis, the new Soul Asylum album marks the group's first full-length studio outing since 1998's Candy From A Stranger and first new release since 2004's After The Flood: Live From The Grand Forks Prom June 28, 1998.
The new Soul Asylum songs - "Crazy Mixed Up World," "Standing Water," "Success Is Not So Sweet," "Directions," "Good For You," "Be On My Side," "Oxygen," "Showtime" - capture the band at its best: swinging, soothing, and rocking. Dave Pirner's casually exacting songcraft and disarming delivery blend with Dan Murphy's intuitive mix of hard-rock chops and reflective guitar patterns while underneath it all, driving it forward and holding it together, is the alchemical flow and pulse of Karl Mueller's bass lines.
"I'm really proud of this record," said Dan Murphy. "It's a guitar record and it was really fun to record. It will always remind me of Karl when I listen to it. He was really sick, but still pulled through and finished it in Soul Asylum fashion."
"It makes me think of Karl," agreed Dave Pirner. "It was long overdue to record exclusively in Minneapolis because we hadn't done so in 15 years and the natural surroundings of home was something we needed. We feel extra proud of it because we did it on our own."
Not long after finishing work on the new Soul Asylum album, Karl Mueller - who'd been playing music with Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy since they'd formed the garage power trio Loud Fast Rules in 1981 - died at home of throat cancer on June 17, 2005. The new album and the Bowery Ballroom concert are tributes to the unassuming genius of his musicianship and the pure rock 'n' roll in his heart.
From teenage garage band to indie icons on the cover of the Rolling Stone, from the 7th Street Entry to the Bill Clinton Inauguration, from Twin Tone to the majors, Soul Asylum has seen a lot of changes, but through it all, it is a band that just keeps rocking.
Soul Asylum will also be playing a rare and unadvertised show at the fabled 7th Street Entry - site of some of the band's earliest gigs as Loud Fast Rules and Soul Asylum - in Minneapolis, on Monday, October 24, 2005.
