Johnny “Blackie Onassis” Rowan died on 13 June 2023, at the age of 57.
Oui , their first studio album in 11 years, was released on January 28, 2022.
By 2019, the band had begun working on new material for the follow-up to Rock & Roll Submarine .
On September 19, 2010, on the free form radio program Anything Anything with Rich Russo on WRXP-FM in New York, the first Urge Overkill song in 15 years was played. The song was called “Effigy”. Russo also announced an Urge Overkill show on October 4, 2010 at Mercury Lounge in…
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In 2004, Kato and Roeser reformed Urge Overkill without Onassis, recruiting former Gaza Strippers guitarist Mike “Hadji” Hodgkiss to play bass, keyboardist Chris Frantisak, and drummer Nate Arling. The reformed Urge Overkill performed shows at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Double Door in Chicago, First Avenue in Minneapolis and the…
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After a break of several years, Kato released a solo album in 2000 titled Debutante . Six of the album’s 13 songs were co-written with Onassis.
Urge Overkill retained their sound for Exit the Dragon , released in 1995. Kato and Roeser started feuding, resulting in Roeser leaving the band. Roeser went on to perform with Jim Kimball (formerly of The Jesus Lizard ) as L.I.M.E. and with his brother John in the band Electric Airlines.…
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In 1993, the band contributed the track “Take a Walk” to the AIDS relief benefit album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization . As the band recorded a follow-up album, cult filmmaker Quentin Tarantino used the group’s cover version of the Neil Diamond song “Girl, You’ll Be a…
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After opening for Nirvana on the American Nevermind tour, Urge Overkill returned to the studio to record another EP Stull in 1992, which featured the tracks “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” (produced and mixed by Kramer ) and “Goodbye to Guyville”. Having a strong following by this time, they…
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Watt returned to Baron Lesh and was replaced by Blackie Onassis (real name: John Rowan) on the next album The Supersonic Storybook , which was named by Material Issue ‘s Jim Ellison and was released in 1991.