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Since the ’80s, Soul Asylum have been a group known for their raucous and emphatic combination of punk energy, guitar-fueled firepower, and songs that range from aggressive to heartfelt. All of these things are present in spades on the Minneapolis band’s gloriously, joyously loose 13th studio album, Slowly But Shirley.
For Slowly But Shirley, it also helped that Soul Asylum—which also includes drummer Michael Bland (Prince / Paul Westerberg), lead guitarist Ryan Smith and bassist Jeremy Tappero—turned to a familiar name for production: Steve Jordan, who had also produced the band’s 1990 effort And the Horse They Rode In On. Back when they first worked together, the members of Soul Asylum were still figuring out how best to capture their sound in the studio—and Jordan’s approach of having the band play live together in one room was ideal. “He taught us a language of players playing music in the studio,” Pirner says. “Which we were not at the time. We still didn't really understand what you were supposed to do in what order.”
Decades later, both parties are in different places. Jordan is currently the drummer for the Rolling Stones, and Soul Asylum remains one of the most inspiring and hardworking bands in the rock scene, having broken through commercially with the double-platinum 1992 album Grave Dancers Union, which contained the Grammy-winning Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 hit "Runaway Train" and No. 1 Modern Rock smash "Somebody to Shove.”
But for Slowly But Shirley, they nodded to their previous collaboration and recorded live at the Terrarium in Minneapolis, with vocal overdubs in legendary New York City studios Electric Lady and The Hit Factory. For good measure, Jordan also added overdubbed drums and tambourine. “I've learned a lot since then, and so has Steve,” Pirner says. “But we knew each other's language. And we went back to, ‘Let's just record the band live,’ so the record has a feeling that you can't get if you're just cutting up things digitally.”
Despite the pun-driven name, Slowly But Shirley has a rather touching (and serious) backstory. The album cover and title honor Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, a legend in the drag racing community whom Pirner idolized while growing up. “When I was a kid, I loved drag racing,” he says. “And she was the first woman of drag race. It meant a lot to me that she was willing to stand up against all these men in racing. My manager called her up, and she gave us her blessing, which means a whole lot to me because she was a childhood hero.”
Initially known as Loud Fast Rules, Soul Asylum formed when Pirner was still in high school, and quickly became part of the celebrated Minneapolis music scene along with peers like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. After leaping to mainstream success with Grave Dancers Union, the band kept up the momentum with 1995's platinum-certified Let Your Dim Light Shine, which featured the international hit "Misery,” and appearances on the soundtracks of the Kevin Smith cult classics Chasing Amy and Clerks.
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