Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, RIP [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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MindGoneHaywire
06-17-2005, 02:04 PM
I don't have a link on this, but I do remember reading he was battling cancer awhile back, so it's not a shocker. If it's an untrue & unsubstantiated rumor, then my apologies, but I don't see why someone would put that out there on a guy like this. Anyway...

I only saw them twice, so I don't know if they were as consistently great as they were the first time I saw them...but I can say with no hesitation that Soul Asylum put on the SINGLE GREATEST SHOW I EVER SAW. Nearly 20 years ago now. When you've blown Husker Du off the stage & out of the building, that's saying something. A year or so later I remember one of Husker Du's road people commenting that they themselves were taken aback at that show, they knew they'd been scooped to an extreme. Bob Mould had produced two of their records at that point. I don't think that relationship would've continued even if they'd wanted it to. Not that any of that really matters. If it's the case that HuDu were bothered at being blindsided with a monster set from their opener at a show that I read later was heavy on the press--almost a showcase, I don't think there were too many tickets made available to the public, so I felt lucky to have snagged one--then they got over it, obviously. But I've seen some amazing shows over the past 20 years, and none of them really compete in my mind with that Soul Asylum set.

In spite of a few great moments, I don't think they ever really captured their magic on vinyl to the extent that their live show promised. But I've always thought of them as one of the absolute best bands of the 80s, part of the great Minneapolis run of the Replacments, the Huskers, & Twin/Tone Records. Their career seemed to have been interrupted with the success garnered from that hit album they had, but I think they maintained their rep as a great live act even if they descended into last-week's-flavor-of-the...whatever. I haven't spun it in awhile, but I'm going to dig out the live album from 1997 that came out awhile back to, uh, confirm this.

Swish
06-17-2005, 03:31 PM
saying they were the best live act you ever saw, and I was quite surprised. Not to demean S.A., but considering the number of bands you've seen, and get to see, living in NYC (lucky bastard), I would never have guessed they were your favorite of all. If it's true that he died, that really sucks. Cancer sucks actually. It recently took a sister-in-law of mine (I have 8 others, believe it or not) and it's going to be the cause of the death of my best bud's mother very soon. I wasn't able to find anything about his death, but I did find this link that describes the cancer he was suffering from and a fund that was set up. http://www.thekarlfund.com/

I was just in Minneapolis for the first time this past week, but music was far from my mind. Actually, the only "music" I got to hear was the dreck playing on the juke at lobby bar of the Marriott. You would have loved it J. One small group sang along to "Hotel California". I decided to go back to my room and stick pins in my eyes. Oh, the humanity!

Swish