(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

The Urge Overkill rediscovered 1970s hard rock a few years before grunge and paired it with catchy choruses, as Cheap Trick had done before them.

Formed in Chicago by Nash (Nathaniel) Kato and Ed Roeser, the early Urge Overkill had been influenced by experimental bands such as Big Black. The 1986 EP Strange, I (Ruthless, 1986) is anchored in those experimental sounds. The album Jesus Urge Superstar (Touch & Go, 1989) is a dark tangle of harsh riffs and uneasy melodies.

Americruiser (Touch & Go, 1990) began the progression toward a sound that fused art-rock and bubblegum, and established their new image as well-groomed young men. Faroutski and Ticket To L.A. assimilate classic hard rock (Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Free, AC/DC).

Supersonic Storybook (Touch & Go, 1991) rewarded that idea. The race toward the charts was crowned by the anthem Kids Are Insane, and by the subsequent EP Stull, featuring the grunge of What's This Generation Coming To, the ballad title track, and two successful covers.

Having understood which way the wind was blowing, Saturation (Geffen, 1993) is then a perfect concentrate of clichés. Sister Havana (in the style of ZZ Top), Bottle Of Fur (in the style of Boston), and Positive Bleeding nevertheless demonstrated the limits of this approach.

Urge Overkill resumed their march toward the charts with Exit The Dragon (1995), an album even more compromised with pop models, though not entirely lacking authentic “street” inspiration (the seductive, sinister whisper of Jaywalkin', the riff of The Break in the style of Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones), the Joe Jackson–style rock and roll of Need Some Air, the electric jug of The Mistake). However, the band increasingly favors ballads, oscillating between the worst Beatles (Somebody Else's Body) and the agonized style of Soul Asylum (This Is No Place), while finding eight minutes of real inspiration in the gospel of Digital Black, contaminated by Tex-Mex and “Dylanesque” pathos. After the fourth song you realize this is an album full of singles. And you get tired of playing “who did they copy in this song.”

Nash Kato's solo album Debutante (Will, 2000) is generic alt-rock, although sometimes catchy and driving (Zooey Suicide, Queen Of The Gangstas, Born In The Eighties, Cradle Robbers).

Rock & Roll Submarine (2011) was the first Urge Overkill studio album in 16 years. After another long hiatus they recorded Oui (2022).