By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) –
MINNEAPOLIS — Due at the airport in three hours for a gig in Washington, D.C., Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy wanted to make sure his bandmate of 31 years, singer Dave Pirner, did not get lost finding the coffee shop arranged for our interview last month. It was in Uptown Minneapolis, about a half-mile from Pirner’s house.
“Let me check on Sunshine,” Murphy said, picking up his cell. He chuckled as he hung up.
“He told me he’s parking ‘right by Knut Koupee guitar shop.’ I didn’t bother telling him that Knut Koupee closed in about 1984.”
OK, so Soul Asylum is not exactly in step with the times. Some other solid reminders of how long ago the band’s commercial heyday was: They played the Clinton inauguration party (the first one); taped an “MTV Unplugged” episode (same season as Nirvana’s) and were featured on the soundtrack to “Reality Bites” (in which Pirner made a cameo with then-girlfriend Winona Ryder).
As Pirner and Murphy this week release their first album together in six years — made with the stalwart replacement lineup of drummer Michael Bland (ex-Prince) and bassist Tommy Stinson (ex-Replacements) — certain things are being done to update their old band’s image. For instance, they’re pitching for NPR radio play and taping an on-air session with Minnesota Public Radio, which has their new single, “Gravity,” in steady rotation. They even have a Twitter account, though a mention of it drew a blank, talking-in-Greek look from Pirner.
Of all of Soul Asylum’s 10 full-lengths, this one boasts a little of everything the band has done since its inception. Punky and slightly snotty garage-stormers such as “Let’s All Kill Each Other” and “The Streets” bump greasy elbows with the anthemic, radio-tuned rockers “Gravity” and “Into the Light.” The album also meanders into mellower territory with the Faces-like soul-twang gem “By the Way” and a charming jazz-piano ditty, “Cruel Intentions.”
Pirner wrote all the tunes but credited his bandmates for setting a high standard. He thus also blamed them for “Delayed’s” delay.
“There are the guys I call ‘The Royal They,’ which is Danny and Michael,” the singer explained with a smirk. “I just write songs and keep writing songs until I write some that Danny and Michael like. That’s really what takes so long. If those guys are not into a song full-heartedly, it’s going to seep out on stage, so it has to be good.”
The other reason for the album’s slow gestation was geographic challenges. Only Bland lives in the Twin Cities year-round. Pirner lives mostly in New Orleans. Murphy winters near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Stinson moved from Los Angeles to upstate New York during the making of the record and eventually had to bow out of Soul Asylum altogether, mainly because of his commitment to Guns N’ Roses. The permanent new bassist, Winston Roye, from New Jersey, makes his local debut this week. Most of their touring consists of “fly-in” weekend dates, so they often just meet up at gigs.
Pirner still retains his Minneapolis house — “I’ll always feel like I’m a part of something here,” he said — but he emphasized how much of an impression his adopted hometown has had on him. Some of the nihilistic, reckless, devil-may-care lyrics in “Let’s All Kill Each Other” and the new album’s closer, “I Should’ve Stayed in Bed,” sound NOLA-induced (i.e., “There’s nothing I gotta do today except for blow you off”).
“After everything that’s been lost and done to New Orleans, people there are still fully committed to making art and leading an artistic and spiritual life,” he said. “It gets left behind in terms of business and money, but it still leads the way, I think, in art and creativity.”
There seems to be a similar, unfettered credo to Soul Asylum, which has watched its riches fade and its members come and go — or get buried — but lo and behold, the band still carries that spark. As Pirner bluntly put it: “The notion of giving up at this point of Soul Asylum’s career is just kind of ridiculous.”
