Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill tabs Urge Overkill discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Urge Overkill guitar tabs

CD reviews

Exit the Dragon

Urge Overkill - Exit the Dragon Audio CD

A fair review of the Urge Overkill "Exit the Dragon" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Urge Overkill reviews here, or go back to the Urge Overkill tabs.

Band: Urge Overkill
Title: Exit the Dragon
Rating:

Release Date: 1997-11-04
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Jaywalkin' 2: Break 3: Need Some Air 4: Somebody Else's Body 5: Honesty Files 6: This Is No Place 7: Mistake 8: Take Me 9: View of the Rain 10: Last Night/Tomorrow 11: Tin Foil 12: Monopoly 13: And You'll Say 14: Digital Black Epilogue

A Lost classic, a truly great Rock album *
Forget all the hipster-snob critics who trashed this upon it's release in '95. Forget what you've read. This is one great record! Urge Overkill will always be underrated, and this follow-up to the more power pop Saturation, is a bit darker and moodier, but every song works. Great band, amazing Rock album. Songs that stand out as favorites include "Need Some Air", "Last Night/Tomorrow", "Monopoly", "This Is No Place" "Jaywalkin'", Somebody Else's Body" and the ballad "View Of the Rain". If you dig good rock and roll with thick, vintage guitars, strong soulful vocals, catchy riffs, killer Thin Lizzy meets Tom Petty style arrangements, with a little 70's era Cheap Trick for good measure. . . check this out- UO's best album. I saw the band at one of the last shows on the Exit The Dragon tour, December of 1995, at La Luna in Portland, Oregon. Great show, the band really rocked that night.

One of my alltime favorites
It is one of my personal favorite albums EVER. I love how "Exit the Dragon" is always referred to as a colossal F-up. The jacket and interior pictures are awesome [especially the LP]. The story behind it and the fact that it got no promotion is interesting. And most importantly, the music is beautiful. It is one of the few albums I enjoy listening to front-to-back, side a-side b all the way through. They hit every mood, which is something very few albums accomplish. In fact, I think I'll go listen to it right now . . . .

The Rolling Stones of the 1990s
Whatever the reason this album wasn't properly celebrated as a growing of Urge Overkill, the fact remains that "Exit the Dragon" remains the band's best, most mature release in an impressive canon of albums. Maybe it was because the members of Urge Overkill chose to sing about the perils of a hard-partying lifestyle instead of reveling in it that music publications like Rolling Stone ineptly panned this CD upon its arrival in stores in 1995. If you love rock and roll, it's simply pointless to complain about the juicy guitar crunch on such great songs as the opener, "Jaywalkin,'" and "Need Some Air. " Along the same lines, just as UO did on the great Saturation album from 1993, the band flavored many of the songs on "Exit the Dragon" with an irresistable barroom swagger, topped off with a wide array of despondent lyrics. Though sonically and lyrically this album is great, it would be a disservice not to mention the bleakness of such darker-tinged songs as "The Break," "Honesty Files," "This is No Place" and "View of the Rain. " Clearly, UO were a road-weary band during the making of this record.

Still, despite whatever problems they may have been going through during the mid '90s, there's a real chemistry and sense of soul on "Exit the Dragon," an album miles above the murk of UO's first two non-major-label efforts. As always, there's a great trade off between the vocals of Nash Kato and Eddie "King" Roesser, and some of the best UO songs seem to feature a subtle musical tension that makes for exciting music. One such song on "Exit the Dragon" is the utterly radio-ready "Take Me," which, in a perfect world, would have been this band's biggest hit. Sadly enough, I don't recall any of these songs getting radio airplay, but if any song from this album deserved it, "Take Me" was the one.

Other cool tracks include the one-two-three punch of "Last Night" (mid-tempo swaggering song with hopeless lyrics)/"Tomorrow" (confident punk tune complete with hand claps) and "Tin Foil" (just a great, sorrowful love song). Like other albums from Urge Overkill, "Exit the Dragon" might slightly overstay its welcome by two or three songs, but considering the band has been on a (permanent?) hiatus for so long, at least in terms of putting out new material, this transgression actually turns out to be a welcome turn of events.

Bands like Urge Overkill don't come along every day. Pick this one up if you want some great music at a great price. .

Worth way more than $1.00!!!
Well let me tell you--this is one great rock and roll album that, as I write this, can be had at a bargain. Hey folks--I've noticed that a lot of great music like "Exit the Dragon" is in ending up in the old dollar bin because the used merchants have too much and nobody cares anymore (uh, supply & demand I think).

These guys were a great band and they released their best when they were at the end of the rope they eventually hung themselves with. The tension and desperation are palpable, particularly on the Eddie Roeser tracks like "This Is No Place" and "Tin Foil. " "The Mistake" is a regret-filled dirge about a drug suicide written by the drummer Blackie, who subsequently quit/was fired, allegedly for reasons including his own substance abuse problems. The Nash "Girl, You are a Woman Now" Kato tracks are generally more upbeat and help lift the gloom momentarily, but this one is a delightful downer(think Big Star's "Third/Sisters Lovers" or Sly's "Riot" but not as good).

I saw these guys in Athens, GA at the 40 Watt on the "Saturation" tour and I can attest that they were the real deal. They hit the stage barechested and wearing giant "UO" gold medallions around their necks. Too bad they had their chance when it was becoming uncool to act like rock stars.

So buy a copy now because I think its out of print and it will probably be worth BIG BUCKS someday. . . or maybe not, but you can still listen to it and think about how little you paid for so much listening pleasure.

4 1/2 stars for a lost classic of 90's alt rock
I bought Saturation and thought it was such a brilliant rock album. I got in to Urge Overkill thanks to "Sister Havanna" which had heavy rotation on MTV's "Alternative Nation" (back when MTV was OK to watch, now it's just horrifying). I remember buying "Exit The Dragon" when it first came out in '95. It was much darker then "Saturation" but I really thought it rocked harder then that album did. Little did I realize that the band were about to break up after that.

10 years later, listening to ETD, it's even better then it was when I first bought it. "The Break", "The Mistake", "Monopoly" are just as great as when I first heard them. Though they have been pretty much forgotten by todays music lovers I will always love this little piece of musical heaven. I have heard they are launching a comeback. If they are I would be extremely excited to pick up anything new from UO.

You can see a complete list of all Urge Overkill discography, or go back to the Urge Overkill tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.