Every music fan has a favorite album, and taken a level deeper, a favorite songwriter. My favorite album of all time is Soul Asylum's "Grave Dancer's Union," which hit like a shotgun blast when I first heard it in 1993, about a year after it came out, when it started finally hitting the charts with unbelievable singles like "Somebody to Shove," "Black Gold" and the Grammy-winning classic "Runaway Train."
Who knows why a song speaks to someone? But this whole album did, 12 songs that reached me at my soul and made me instantly relate - lashing out at my hidden frustrations and rage on the fast-rocking tracks, moved by the slower ones, and feeling like I'd found my personal anthem in "Without A Trace."
The album sold 3 million copies, but they didn't stay major stars for long. Their followup, "Let Your Dim Light Shine," had the anthem "Misery" as its only hit, even though some of the songs were even better than those on "GDU." But after that, the next album ran into label troubles and tanked, and then the band faced the longterm illness and eventual death of their bass player, Karl Mueller.
Since then, they've released three indie albums: "The Silver Lining," "Delayed Reaction," and their latest album "Change of Fortune," which came out last spring. All three are terrific returns to form, and show that even if you're not at the level of McCartney or the Stones in terms of mass popularity, you can still rock out with integrity and maintain a thoroughly loyal fan base.
What i've been thrilled to find is that Dave Pirner, the band's singer, songwriter, and sole original member, is also an incredibly nice and thoughtful dude. He's taken the time to be interviewed three times on Radio Titans now, and to record a quick fun video with me that you can find on the RT (www.radiotitans.com) home page. I'm posting the links to two of the three past interviews below, and have to search for the first one. But last night, he rewarded this superfan again with the coolest experience ever: a 15 minute in person interview that i'll be recording on audio and video before watching the band crank it up at the legendary Whisky a Go Go in LA.
It was in the club's green room upstairs, and this was a place that was filled with history: everyone from The Doors to Motley Crue had played there. And now my guys were in there as legends as well.
The green room was a little odd, as we settled in on a couch that appeared to have DNA samples from 6000 rockers all over its white cloth, and a VCR nearby had an array of actual VHS tapes for the musicians to watch. But I came there for the interview and Dave delivered a great one, as we discussed the band's new record (its first without founding guitarist Dan Murphy, who quit in 2012 after 30 years), Dave's creative process and the story behind his outrageous '90s hairdo (you know the one, it was the most unique in rock history!).
Great writing and a greater heart for his fans is why Dave and Soul Asylum remain able to keep rocking more than 30 years after they first began as Minneapolis teens in the early '80s. May they keep pulling it off another 10, 20 or 30 years.
Here's the interview he did with me last spring for the new album: bit.ly/2a2b3W7 and the one from 2013 or so for "Delayed Reaction" was here: bit.ly/29VyYcd. The new video and audio go up in a couple days. and we'll share them here too. Enjoy!
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