In honor of Greg Dulli's return, Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers C or D?

That's a minor complaint though really - they have a really interesting idea of groove. Both Gentlemen and Black Love are worth searching, Congregation too. When it was new, I loved 1965, but it hasn't stood up as well as the others, which still sound really fresh to me.

For some reason I can't get excited about the Twilight Singers.

(snarly trebly but mildly funky anxious yearning stuff that's capable of real grandeur)

is a really ace summing-up of what makes the Whigs good

I tend to WORSHIP new Dulli albums when they get out, and the Twilight album was no exception. Though Gentlemen and probably Black Love are better overall, Twilight Singers is the album I'd probably throw on now if I wanted to hear some Greg Dulli. It's definitely aged better than 1965.

Here's the total list of Twilight Singers for the new album. I found this on Howlin' Wulf Media: greg dulli, mathias schneeberger, mike napolitano, michael sullivan, jon skibic, brian young, scott ford, petra haden, apollonia kotero, mark lanegan, stanton moore, greg wieczoric, steve myers, chris phillips, matt hergert, hoss, nikki crawford, jesse tobias, rick steff, richard ford, kamasi washington, josh lampkins, chris gray, amay

Twilight: There's a very important name missing from the list above:
Shawn Smith.

He of Satchel, (the somewhat "meh" band) Brad, and (the totally great) Pigeonhead. He has one of the all time grat Prince rip-off voices. You might remember him from such hits as Lo-Fi All-Stars remix of "Battleflag." He is on the first Twilight Singers album here and there, and then....well, I have no idea. It seems as if he and Dulli had some sort of wicked falling out, suddenly he's not a Twilight Singer anymore, suddenly he's back w/ Brad, and the long promised follow-up to the last Pigeonhead album has yet to arrive.

Yes, although anyone who knows why isn't talking.

The key to the Afghan Whigs discography is that a lot of their best stuff is on the early Big Top Halloween and various b-sides, and therefore not as available as the albums. The mailing list put together a b-sides and rarities compilation that is worth seeking out.

Right now I think Black Love is their finest readily available album, and Gentlemen is aging poorly. Congregation is an honorable precursor to Gentlemen. Up In It is their most grungy and therefore a bit of an aesthetic dead-end, compared to Big Top Halloween. 1965 doesn't live up to previous albums, in my opinion, because Dulli cleaned up psychologically before recording this -- I'm glad he got help, but his performances were never the same again. When I heard the first Twilight Singers album I was disappointed, but it would have been pretty hard to live up to my expectations. It's mellow, in a way that could work in a "quiet is the new loud" manner.

J0hn D.: You're probably right about GD's lyric writing. Part of the reason for the delay between the first and the forthcoming Twilight Singers albums is that the man is a perfectionist, and without an outside producer to pull it out of his hands Dulli will fuss and tweak and worry himself right up his own rear end.

I'm excited for another Twilight Singers record. The first one was pretty damn fantastic; certainly better than 1965 or Up in It (though I love both of those as well). I take it he's not working with Fila Brazillia on this one?

I was fortuante. Dulli and Co. rocked my town hard (repeatedly) throughout their formative years. I thought things went Dudsville with the record with the children on the cover and the subsequent fancy-pants videos. I dropped out when Gentleman arrived. It seemed more contrived. I guess I preferred the wailin' to the faux soul-crooning.

Both are so stylishly menacing, the conjunction was extremely creepy.

One of my most potent musical memories.

i never get sick of "come see about me" even though i think i listened to it about a gazillion times between the ages of 19 and 21
is there a dulli covers thread?

(also black love has long been my favorite because it's so epic and seems to be the apex of his "go for a ride" phase.)

is "come see about me" (another?) one of the motown songs he transposed from major to minor?

is there a dulli covers thread?

Dunno, but I used to love the Whigs' version of 'Creep'.

black love is still onna my fav albums of all time

yes -- s uptown avondale and what jail is like EPs, as well as honky's ladder single

there is also a quasidisco version of rebirth of the cool on uptown avondale

when i have seen them live they've done "i could never take the place of your man" with shocking aplomb

honky's ladder has creep on it, as well as 'if i only had a heart' which is like WHOA

i remember seeing them on the black love tour and doing if i only had a heart, one of the best shows ever

Black Love is my fave too, they were great live on that tour.

i saw them a couple times on that tour too. it was seriously still one of the best shows i've ever seen, or at least one that i enjoyed the most.

they played creep, could never take the place of your man, and one other cover. superstition maybe? i have a bootleg from that era somewhere.

black love is still onna my fav albums of all time

^

"beware" on uptown avondale is a perfect example of what dulli can do to a song
al green's version is great, but dulli just makes it into a totally different song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRbKRDe9Pvg

original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYNYdtTA7o

New album soon or something? Or did I dream that.

Also, he's the one really bright spot in this ridiculous story:

"To this day I'm confused about what exactly a hipster is, but I'm sure we've served a few based on our sales of Pabst Blue Ribbon."

"We weren't going to be a cop bar anymore," Dulli says. " Garth Brooks is not going to be on the jukebox anymore. The foosball tables are leaving too, and electric darts — what were you thinking? But if you're cool with Johnny Jenkins and Black Flag on the jukebox, you'll be fine."

ahahahahaha <3 <3

ned you missed the crucial "ohio is the worst place ever" sentence:

"To this day I'm confused about what exactly a hipster is, but I'm sure we've served a few based on our sales of Pabst Blue Ribbon," says Dulli, who grew up in Ohio watching his grandmother drink Pabst on the rocks.

on the rocks

New album soon or something? Or did I dream that.

First Twilight album in five years, yep. He's out on his first ever "solo" "acoustic" tour at the moment (ie he has a couple of players with him, plus guests getting up.)

(including, at some US shows, John Curley for a set of Whigs songs in the middle)

love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJpULEdRQRU

The last time I saw them, back in 1998, was one of the best shows by anyone I'd ever seen. Last Saturday night was possibly even better. Holy Christ, how is that possible almost 15 years later?!

I mean, with the horns? Come on!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOlVIFm5CQo

i just bought a ticket for their second chicago show (in oct) and I AM OFFICIALLY PSYCHED and need no further convincing that this is going to be great
i think i was just holding out so it would be more exciting when i finally got to see them again

last time i saw them was on the black love tour

My friend wrote the "Gentlemen" 33 1/3, and like me saw them last in '98 and then on Saturday, and he agrees it was just mind-blowing.

man i wanna see these guys again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y7A8e9sjMY

Here's a better version of that John The Baptist, with the intro tape and Blame included, plus broader vision:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwEcQIARcw

and mooooootherfuck, there were only six of them* in Australia last week - if they keep touring as a 12-piece I want to go to America


* 7 when Steve Kilbey got up in Sydney

Caught one of the solo shows last night. Dude def knows his way around a big cathartic chorus; guess I was in the mood for that.

kind of can't believe i never posted in this thread. i went to the boston show the other night and it was absolutely incredible.

Ooh good to know. I was on the fence about seeing him in Mpls.

Hm. Played at Roulette on Friday. Couldn't have gone anyway, though.

Like the sound of this praise, will try to go Friday.

The show last night in DC was incredible; do catch the other dates if you have the chance.

OK, saw maybe half of the late show last night (which was too late, so no way was I going to stay to the end, sleep>>>almost any act). His voice has held up remarkably well. But beyond that, the most entertaining part of it was the friend I brought, someone who last saw Dulli/Whigs in 1992 and has since become a kind of well-intentioned music snob, obsessing over old 78s and stuff and generally poo pooing anything pop or mainstream. I mean, that's cool, he's still a really nice guy. (His wife has the same affected problem, sort of; when someone asked her if her son listened to rap, meaning stuff on the radio, she said oh yeah, he loves rap! "What's his favorite?" (long pause) "Talib Kweli. Um, Kendrick Lamar?" At which point I called BS. Their kid is 8, they might want him to listen to cool stuff and he might pretend to listen to cool stuff when subjected to it in the car, but there is no 8 year old kid in the world requesting Talib Kweli, sorry.) But I digress! I really wanted to see how my friend reacted to Dulli so many years later, and true to ironic form, the songs he dismissed outright as lame (without knowing what they were) were the Marvin Gaye and "Black is the Colour" covers, which is hilarious, because he is exactly the sort of guy to subject his kids to Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone while dismissing less authentic stuff. Anyway. That's my story.

So yeah, Dulli was good, but I think his songs really need the dynamism of a full band. Which is I guess what we got last night, minus a drummer, so maybe what he needs is a drummer. A lot of his songs are sort of impassioned vocals over drones or repetitive progressions, so they really benefit from more musical range in volume, aggression, etc.

I can get with that -- Congregation/Gentlemen/Black Love = some of my favorite rock drumming of the last 25 years... I'm not much of a drums guy so I have trouble expressing what exactly it is that those albums get right

... also, this:

Black Love is my favorite album of all time, when push comes to shove. Listening to it over and over in my dark bedroom when I was thirteen was a pivotal moment in my relationship with music (and kind of a loss of innocence in a way).
― Clay, Monday, 14 July 2003 03:31 (12 years ago) Permalink

don't get me wrong I f/w Gentlemen back in high school, but only cuz the Get Up Kids' singer covered "When We Two Parted" in his acoustic side-project (lol) which inevitably got file-shared back to me as a Get Up Kids original or w/e -- anyway, when I heard the Whigs for the first time I was disturbed & unprepared for Dulli's sex game. now I'm older & listened to Black Love alone in my dark bedroom for the first time this past year, aged 27; I think it's wonderful but if there is an overarching design to the album of which these songs are so many pieces, then I've probably missed it through inattentive piecemeal singalong-while-driving listening, which I generally prefer to the dark room (although these days, I'm tempted)