Illegal Foreign Object

Before Soul Asylum took over radio by telling us they wanted somebody to shove, the Minnesota-based, Hüsker Dü-worshipping foursome spent a dozen years pummeling clubgoers with their brand of noisy post-punk. Like fellow Twin/Tone Records labelmates the Replacements, Ween, and Jayhawks, Soul Asylum had a small but ardent fanbase that always turned out for the band’s high-energy live shows.

Local critical acclaim caught the attention of A&M Records, and Soul Asylum recorded and released a handful of records with the label before singer/guitarist Dave Pirner developed tinnitus. The band pondered disbanding. “I thought I was going deaf, so I withdrew from playing loud electric music and started writing on the acoustic guitar,” said Pirner. “It turned out to be a pivotal move for both me and the band, and things began to improve on all fronts.”

The shift in sound not only allowed the band to shuffle on, but the new tunes caught the attention of Columbia Records. Future labelmates Alice In Chains had already broken into the mainstream with Facelift and was in the process of recording the groundbreaking Dirt. Columbia paired Soul Asylum with mega-producer Michael Beinhorn to flesh out the band’s new direction, and executives believed they had another hitmaking “grunge band” to add to the roster. Sure, any connections between Soul Asylum and bands like AIC, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam were purely circumstantial, but that didn’t prevent the Columbia marketing machine from positioning it as such. After a decade of trying to break out of the “local legend” scene, it had to be cool for Soul Asylum to have that backing.

The first single off Grave Dancers Union, “Somebody To Shove”, was released during the summer of 1992. ♫“I’m waiting by the phone/Waiting for you to call me up and tell me I’m not alone/Cause I want somebody to shove”♫. “Somebody To Shove” had a ‘sad tough guy’ feel that was perfect for the time — it was the same kind of vulnerability that many of the rock bands of the day were selling to great success. MTV and radio gobbled it up. The video for the song, a low-budget “live” piece, showcased a tank top-clad, dreadlocked Dave Pirner in all his anti-rockstar rockstar glory. He became an instant heartthrob a la Kurt Cobain for disaffected youth everywhere. This was “grunge” for the Reality Bites crowd — for that segment of people who wanted to rock, but just a little.

That’s not a knock on Soul Asylum in the least. Grave Dancers Union is a fun listen and an important album. It bridged the gap between mainstream and indie to greater success than most bands of that era.

On the back of “Somebody To Shove”, Grave Dancers Union was released on October 6, 1992 — it became an instant hit. “Black Gold” followed and it too became a hit in early 1993, but it was the band’s third single, a little acoustic thing that Pirner had been playing around with for years, that would cement the band’s place in rock history.

“Runaway Train” is a beautiful song. A jangly, mid-tempo ballad about depression, Pirner initially kept finding his way back to the words “two souls laughing at the rain”. Somewhere in the songwriting process, he connected the idea with runaway trains (an early childhood fascination). “After that,” said Pirner, “I pretty much wrote it all on a napkin.” “Runaway Train” became a runaway hit, hitting #5 on Billboard’s Top 100 en route to selling 600,000 copies of the single in the U.S. The Hammond organ on the song was performed by Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the M.G.s fame. 

The video for “Runaway Train”, a heart-strings tugger that shined a light on missing children, blanketed MTV. “I can’t overstate the power of the video,” Pirner says. “A lot of missing kids were found because of it, so to have played a part in that, it’s beyond amazing. I met a couple of those kids and their parents at shows. What a unique experience.”

Grave Dancers Union isn’t just a “singles album”. “Keep It Up” sounds like something Mick and Keith would have been thrilled to sneak onto Exile On Main St., and the lyric ♫“So why sit and wait/For the new world to begin”♫ on “New World” has stuck with me for 30 years. It’s a big, sweeping chorus that feels as wide as the sky used to look to me when I stargazed as a kid. “The Sun Maid”, the final song on the album, has a Tom Petty-like quality that I find inescapable.

Marketing will do what marketing will do, but there was an optimism to Grave Dancers Union that was never present on albums like Nevermind or Dirt. This ultimately proved to be its saving grace, keeping the album from being lumped in with so many other bands that became short-term marketing concepts for the major labels. Grave Dancers Union showcased plenty of the same emotions that were present on many of the better rock albums of the day. Where it stepped away from the pack, however, was by never giving the listener the idea that the band members had given up.

Track List:

1. Somebody To Shove 10/10
2. Black Gold 10/10
3. Runaway Train 10/10
4. Keep It Up 8/10
5. Homesick 8/10
6. Get On Out 7/10
7. New World 9/10
8. April Fool 7/10
9. Without A Trace 8/10
10. Growing Into You 7/10
11. 99% 6/10
12. The Sun Maid 9/10

Grade: 83