Don't Forget The AlcoPOLL (ooh baby! ooh baby!): ILM Artist Poll #109 - The Afghan Whigs - RESULTS

my ranked covers ballot:

Come See About Me
Band of Gold
The Temple
Lost in the Supermarket
Lovecrimes
Don't Call
Mr. Superlove
Creep
Little Girl Blue
Miss World

i was the number one voter for lovecrimes, which runs rings around the frank version

my short, ranked covers ballot

Lovecrimes
Creep
Regret
Lost In The Supermarket
Beast of Burden

what are y’all’s dream whigs covers? i mentioned the following on the voting thread:

neil young - powderfinger
tears for fears - woman in chains

yeah "woman in chains" would be a great fit

hmm... "Why Don't You Move In With Me?" by Roberta Flack?

just spitballing here but i could imagine them taking the Cure's 'fascination st' by the scruff of the neck and making it tuff and funky and vicious

iirc the Lost In The Supermarket cover was recorded after the band split (it's just Dulli and Curley, plus Susan Marshall and the drum track), so they go from that to Lovecrimes

great work ufo!!

it was released march 1999 and they were still touring behind 1965 until september or so

the tracks released between then & 2012 are "nightime" (a big star cover) which was recorded in 1996 but not released until 2006 for a tribute album, and "i'm a soldier" and "magazine" on the greatest hits comp, which were tracks they originally demoed in 2000 in the failed sessions for their planned next album before breaking up, but they finished recording them in 2006 for the greatest hits album

yeah I was cheating the Unbreakable tracks as not-entirely-new recordings there. ty for fact check

Live With Me video not available.

ah it was available for me here in australia. replaced it with one that should hopefully work worldwide?

Yes, now I can see, thanks!

going to count down albums now, and then tracks #50-41

https://i.imgur.com/Jao7t2Z.jpg
10. The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
18 points, 4 voters

about half of the tracks on this record are perfected rawk gloom

https://i.imgur.com/2tguNGE.jpg
9. The Afghan Whigs - Do to the Beast
28 points, 6 voters

manages to split the difference really nicely between self-consciously returning to the classic Whigs sound and continuing on with the sound of the Twilight Singers, even if McCollum's absence is noticeable

it was nice for poll purposes to reconfirm that do to the beast is significantly more inspired than dynamite steps (even though dulli never really steps below "good" ever)

yeah he certainly seemed a bit reinvigorated from the whigs reunion, even though he never put out a bad album from congregation onwards

https://i.imgur.com/n93cUDO.jpg
8. The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
32 points, 5 voters

contains like eight of dulli's best songs ever and one of his worst

Yeah nice to see powder burns show up, I felt bad not voting for it considering how much I love some of the songs on it but it’s just so inconsistent

which one's the dud? it's got some real gems on it but ultimately feels just like blackberry belle except not quite as good to me. i love blackberry belle so that's fine of course

https://i.imgur.com/w96PjJc.jpg
7. Twilight as played by The Twilight Singers
44 points, 6 voters

I'm really sorry but I do not like that other guy's vocals. lots of good stuff in the mix though

which one's the dud

"my time (has come)"

i love shawn smith and harold chichester and twilight is way too low

it's a pretty weird exploratory record, not quite like anything else he's done. there's parts of the sound dulli brought over to the later twilight singers records but a lot that's very distinctively on its own. i'm not huge on the other two singers either. there's a few great tracks and a lot of stuff that's just fine?

I couldn't get into Twilight at all, sorry.

"my time (has come)" is not good but not bad enough to actively bother me i guess

again, twilight is his sade record

it's possible i'm unduly influenced by the fact that it was my introduction to dulli. i listened to it on repeat while reading watchmen for the first time in hs. huge record for me

but like... every song is awesome and beautiful

twilight also interesting because it's technically the... follow-up to black love? not really of course, but it was recorded before 1965 iirc, fila brazillia percussion added later

yeah iirc dulli recorded a bunch of demos with smith & chichester while the whigs took a year off to deal with their legal issues with their label. the demos leaked out & after 1965 he revisited them and finished them off with fila brazillia?

i wish it was all like the best parts of it because the highs are so high to me, there's a lot there he could have explored further for sure

https://i.imgur.com/DXJd1JW.jpg
6. The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
56 points, 7 voters, 1 #1 vote

TOO LOW

Had that at Number Four.

i think this record is at least a little bit better than congregation. incredible sustained atmosphere

yeah! way too low, that was my number 1 vote. The first 7 songs are just outstanding.

i'm listening to twilight and i really should've found room on my ballot for "clyde"

shot dead [time-delayed gun sound]
by you again

it's just really hot

yeah everyone who hasn't heard blackberry belle absolutely needs to check it out. there was definitely a bit of a divide between ballots where people were either into twilight singers stuff as well as everything else, or only really the pre-reunion whigs albums.

the shoegaze soul sound of it is incredible

and i don't think it falls off after the first 7 tracks or anything, "follow you down" is one of his prettiest ballads and i love "feathers" and "number nine"

"feathers" -> "fat city" -> "number nine" is a really strong ending, love it when lanegan's voice rises like a phantom through the floor of that last track

lanegan really does sound incredible on "number nine"

posting these two together because they're a tie on points at least

https://i.imgur.com/pgxtiNn.jpg
5. The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
58 points, 8 voters

album cover (NSFW)
4. The Afghan Whigs - Congregation
58 points, 9 voters

another thing i just remembered is when i got really into twilight i was also listening to joseph arthur's our shadows will remain a lot and i had no idea they knew each other

in retrospect, maybe i should've noticed something, as those records are doing similar things at certain points!

brad

indubitably

I think a lot of it's just time constraints, but I can be quite monomaniacal about bands - only really sticking to or only needing/able to handle a single record, maybe two or three at a push. What I love about the polls on here, among other things, is how they open up discographies and force one to listen to a wider range. Short version: this band, and offshoots eh?

This isn't any great revelation, but it strikes me that Dulli does quite a lot with not very much: particular rhythms, themes of betrayal and desperation, the endorphin rush of drugs and love and fucking, the vocal lines that complement those themes and don't venture a huge amount beyond 'baaayybeee, let me/can I/will you...' Which is his own kind of monomania and thank god for it.

Current top 10 would be something like:

Crime Scene Part One
Summer's Kiss
There's Been An Accident
When We Two Parted
Faded
Fountain and Fairfax
Candy Cane Crawl
Into the Street
Debonair
What Jail is Like

Good posts, Chinaski.

I've only heard Black Love, and only liked "Night by Candlelight" on that, which I see got no votes. Is there likely anything else in their work for me?

Doubt it

what are y’all’s dream whigs covers? i mentioned the following on the voting thread:

neil young - powderfinger
tears for fears - woman in chains

― the mai tai quinn (voodoo chili), Monday, June 14, 2021 10:48 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

was listening to Talk Talk yesterday and "Living in Another World" reminded me of this question

meant to post here, whatever

they just played “gentleman” in full over the p.a. at camden yards during the yanks-orioles game

― grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Thursday, September 16, 2021 7:50 PM (0 seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wow

haha according to lindsey adler warmups was a festival of 90s deep cuts