Soul Asylum, Columbia To Sever Ties?

11/23/1999 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(11/23/99, 7 a.m. ET) - From the "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" category comes news that Soul Asylum and Columbia Records might be parting company.

"We've signed off on our end of the paperwork saying that we want to be off the label," guitarist/vocalist Dan Murphy told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "They [Columbia execs] haven't signed off yet. You could say at this point we're at a Mexican standoff." The news follows disappointing sales of the band's 1998 effort, Candy From A Stranger, and its predecessor, Let Your Dim Light Shine. Neither album was able to replicate the triple-platinum status of the quartet's 1992 breakthrough disc, Grave Dancers Union, which featured the band's biggest hit, "Runaway Train."

The Star Tribune further reports that the label gave a thumbs-down to several new songs that Murphy and vocalist/guitarist Dave Pirner recently recorded.

Still, the band is looking forward, reportedly planning to release a compilation album in January that will include a couple new songs. Meanwhile, Murphy continues his participation in several Minneapolis-based projects, including Golden Smog, which features the The Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Marc Perlman, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, and Big Star's Jody Stephens.

To read a Wilco feature click here.

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

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