Soul Asylum Sheds Its Little-Brother Tag : Rock: The post-punkers are finally casting a shadow over the Twin Cities scene rather than toiling beneath it. They play tonight at Bogart’s.

Because Soul Asylum emerged from the Minneapolis alternative rock scene during the mid-1980s, the group has most often found its work being measured against the resident gods of the movement: Husker Du and the Replacements.

But with the Huskers three years buried and the Replacements reportedly having met the same fate, Soul Asylum now finds itself casting the shadow over the Twin Cities scene rather than toiling beneath it.

Dave Pirner, Soul Asylum’s chief lyricist, vocalist and musical virtuoso, for years has outspokenly chafed over the little-brother complex bestowed upon his band.

“When I decided to form a band, I didn’t even know who the Replacements or Husker Du were, and I didn’t care,” Pirner said by telephone from his Minneapolis residence.

Soul Asylum owes more to the city’s little-known punk icon, Suicide Command, than either of those bands, he says.

Although the enigmatic, guitar-oriented quartet has yet to make the popular or critical leaps of the two seminal post-punk bands, its new album, “Soul Asylum and the Horse They Rode In On,” is attracting widespread acclaim and may be the band’s strongest effort to date. The initial single from the record, “Spinnin,’ ” is the band’s first song to receive heavy airplay on rock radio, other than on college stations.

And for the first time in its eight-year career, Soul Asylum has performed in mid-size venues: The group opened three shows for the Pixies, including last Thursday’s bill at the Universal Amphitheatre. The Minneapolitans now return to the clubs to headline shows, including one tonight at Bogart’s in Long Beach.

Pirner, however, said he does not worry about whether the band is reaching a crucial point in its career.

“When you want to make it big, that becomes the reason why you do it,” he said. “And we don’t have that. . . . For us, it was never a goal we were trying to achieve.”

”. . . And the Horse They Rode In On” is Soul Asylum’s most accessible collection among its catalogue of four LPs, two EPs and one cassette-only release, but it also marks a return to basics for the band.

By recording all 12 tracks live in the studio, Pirner said, he and his band mates (guitarist Daniel Murphy, bassist Karl Mueller and drummer Grant Young) hoped to better capture the flavor and energy of their much-hailed concert performances.

The most immediately striking quality of the new record is how vividly it documents the spirit of the band. Only upon further excavation is the listener likely to get around to the songs’ arrangements and lyrics.

Pirner said the band owes much credit to producer Steve Jordan, who had impressed the group with his work on Keith Richards’ 1988 “Talk Is Cheap” album.

“His attitude was really different than anyone else we’d worked with,” Pirner said. “It was like, ‘Let’s throw the formalities out the window and have some fun and make a rock record.’ He’s sort of a working-maniac personality. And he ended up pushing the band beyond our greatest expectations.”

Originally known as Loud Fast Rules, the band has frequently waxed soft, slow and wacky since its 1984 debut EP, “Say What You Will . . .”.

Its body of work is embedded in a pop-thrash hybrid, but by turns draws upon metal, country-bluegrass, Beatlesque melodies, industrial, cool jazz and bass-slapping rhythm. Where other bands have defined the parameters of post-punk, Soul Asylum has explored the crevices in between.

That musical pilgrimage continues in the new album, developing many of the sounds and ideas introduced on 1988’s high-charged “Hang Time.”

From the hook-laden “Spinnin’ ” to the countrified, not-quite-hokey “Brand New Shine” to the Stones-like ballad “We 3” to the metallic “All the King’s Friends,” the new record traverses a skewed course across the musical spectrum. Yet there is a passion and sincerity, spiced with humor, that melds the songs into a cohesive work.

Lyrically, this album builds upon the advances Pirner made on “Hang Time.” While his earlier work focused upon the pain and anxiety of an idealistic individual’s struggle against the stilted conformity of his surroundings, on the last two records he has examined the issues and episodes that create and stem from that disposition.

“A lot of it, I think, is about trying to (aspire) to sort of a higher ideal,” he said. “It’s about trying to really have some sort of righteous attitude without sounding like some hopeless romantic.”

Most remarkably, however, Pirner’s songs manage to so without resorting to heavy-handed moralizing.

For example, “Nice Guys (Don’t Get Paid)” expands upon the perilous world of drug trade, into which he delved in “Beggars and Choosers” from the previous album. But where “Beggars” was more an indictment of dealers, “Nice Guys” is an insightful allegory observing the drug scene’s vicious, dehumanizing circle, but without pointing any fingers.

“I think one can have a pretty strong attitude about something without taking a side,” Pirner said about the song. “This is a situation that is a big part of modern culture, and these are my observations that cause me to think. . . . Being moralistic about the drug situation is what makes it such a (fouled)-up topic, . . . because nobody can deal with it practically. They only respond to it emotionally.”

But while the new songs are wrought with morose emotions and observations, Pirner ultimately provides in them a glimmer of optimism through the saturnine fog. The album’s underlying theme is that however distraught one becomes with everyday tribulations, the troubles themselves always provide a source for the strength to overcome them.

“These things build character. Like what we like to say about the winter in Minnesota,” he said, chuckling. “It’s unrealistic to say ‘Everything’s going to be great’ or that ‘Everything’s going to suck.’ What you really have to say is what’s going to get you through the day.”

As for the Twin Cities’ alternative-music scene that Soul Asylum now fronts, Pirner said that, although media attention upon the movement has waned, the scene continues to thrive. Bands such as the Gear Daddies are moving into the national spotlight, while scores of others continue to flourish within the ever-vital local circuit.

“We’re constantly dealing with people from out of town making analogies and telling us what our scene is all about,” he said. “It’s like people talking about your family. There rarely is some (unique) artistic phenomenon like you’ll hear or read about. The lineage of rock bands here goes way back. And there are still lots of great bands. . . .

“It’s a homespun, very non-hype-oriented scene. We all support each other. And I expect it will always be that way.”

* Soul Asylum will headline tonight at 9 on a bill with Chris Cacavas & Junkyard Love and Naked Soul, at Bogart’s, in the Marina Pacifica Mall, 6288 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach. Tickets: $10. Information: (213) 594-8975.