Classic or Utter Masterpiece: Soul Asylum - Hang Time

Currently in Pilsen (Jefferson & 18th) but heading to the north soon.

I recently re-bought it and it still does the trick.

Anyway, don't know much about Soul Asylum. I saw 'em play live once on the University of Chicago campus to a couple hundred people in the early 90s. I wasn't too into it, except for the end when they did one of their encore sets of covers. I can't remember what they covered but I enjoyed it. Actually I can't remember much at all about that show, except that my friend Mike who has pretty good taste raved about them. Then again that kind of stuff is more his speed. He's like the world's biggest Pontiac Brothers and Todd Newman & the Leatherwoods fan.

Yup, but I'm pretty sure Pirner sings it.

Usually I bike to work, but today I got dropped off from the wife. Getting home late meant that hike home, cuz the 18th St bus wasn't running. Worked out well as I am so freakin' glad to hear said cover. Plus the weather was so right in line with my definition of perfect today.

I always liked Hang Time, but still prefer their live shows, which were still great as recently as last year. Now Karl is sick...
http://www.citypages.com/databank/25/1225/article12149.asp

the night of the gig, and their were so few people there i could literally count the audience, it was less than 30 people and nearly all of those had turned out to see the support band- local favourites Crane.

soul asylum played and it rapidly became clear that no-one there had heard them. they abandoned their set list and took requests- playing an evening of covers. i distinctly remember they did "ain't no sunshine", it was a great, GREAT gig.

hang time, when i finally heard it, was (and remains) a fantastic album. if it had come out two or three years later it would have sold a billion copies.

Kinda neat to see The Gunbunnies mentioned up there, too.

very close to my heart, seen them numerous times - in fact, they were my first show.

Anyway, Hang Time is a total classic that holds up today. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if you can't hear a little "Made to be Broken" or "While You Were Out" in the Afghan Whigs' "Congregation".

Um, success was the only thing tarnishing them. Some shitty records had a hand in that.

Was listening to this today for the first time in a while. Wow, still pretty smart and rocking with little to no self-awareness dragging it down.

I feel their music was best consummed in more concise doses - even back in the day i would typically only listen to a single album side at a time. I still prefer the Clam Dip... E.P. to anything else in their catalog - and when that gets pulled out, usually gets played at least twice-through (and i never get enough of "P-9").

https://melmagazine.com/the-children-of-runaway-train-19ee8f6aabf8#.62l4m84vt

I am going to preface this comment with this: I only know their biggest hit. And if I've ever heard another song of theirs, I was totally unaware of it.

So, anyway, I just heard 'Runaway Train' in the grocery store this morning for the first time probably since the 90s. And, for whatever reason, it just grated on me. The vocals are so faux emotional and contrived sounding. The lyrics are worse. "I was a key that could use a little turning" <—that is fucking wretched. And then, memories of the video clip. Absolute fucking dreck.

early soul asylum is pretty underrated at this point tbh esp compared to the cult of the replacements

Well, if they're anything like the Replacements, I've steered clear with good reason. Another painfully boring band.

sounds like this band might not be for you Austin!

Oh, I have no doubt about that. Sorry for reviving this just to be an angry negative guy. I'm having a day.

i mean. it's soul asylum they had some good stuff i don't think anyone's life will be incomplete w/o soul asylum

Listened to Hang Time driving home from a 16-mile hike. It still rocks.

But man, SA were the kings of lopsided albums.

Still. Put it on some Honda speakers with the windows down as you roll through Mount Ida, and hell, you could almost fool yourself into thinking you were listening to Skid Row.

Soul Asylum
Goo Goo Dolls
Buffalo Tom

All these bands kinda started a bit more raw and came clean with more success but they seemed to lose something.

Really Drivin N Cryin actually had a rock sound that is not all that dissimilar to these bands when they kinda went 'mersh?' Although they came from a very different rock scene in Georgia. They played with so many odd bills from metal to alternative to vet rocker opener.

I had 'Hang Time' on cassette, heck I had a few Soul Asylum on tape. I'm a sucker for that anthemic husker/squirrelbait rawk.

They kinda went acoustics instead of doubling down on the powerchords. They made money, but I always wondered how much that diss that the Beastie Boys put on them (i think in spin) kinda hurt them. I kinda think Soul Asylum was strangely absent from most of the whole big alterna show live scene.

They were kinda the Foo Fighters with not a big budget sound before the Foo Fighters in a way. Their best few tunes of that ilk hang in there and 'seem' to be what was really big on Z rock radio etc., but they kinda went more Mellancamp (which isn't bad, it's just maybe missing the zeitgeist of those moments perhaps.)