Gutter Twins: Italy
From thetwilightsingers.com:
Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan will perform as the Gutter Twins for the first time as part of a special two show collaboration with Italian band, Afterhours. The shows will be on September 10 in Pordenone and September 11 in Rome.
Cesare Zappala of Mescal/Italia conceived the shows after learning that Greg and Mark would be in Europe at the same time in September. Lanegan is touring Europe w/Queens of the Stone Age in August/September and Dulli is reprising his role in Afterhours on guitar and piano for seven shows starting in Brescia on August 25. These will be one off shows, as the duo are busy completing their individual and collaborative projects.
Dulli Unearths
Dulli Unearths One Twilight Singers CD, Preps Another
→ Billboard.com
By John Benson, Cleveland
Shocked by the sudden death of friend and Hollywood producer Ted Demme over three years ago, Greg Dulli shelved a nearly-finished nine-song project to begin work on what would become a tribute of sorts to his pal, the Twilight Singer’s 2003 release “Blackberry Belle.” As for the unreleased album, “Amber Headlights,” it will finally appear later this summer.
“I kept having a bunch of people ask me about it and like I do a lot of times, I forget about stuff,” Dulli tells Billboard.com. “I went back and listened to it and it sounded good. It wasn’t done but it was going to be done and I think after all of the drama of the loss of my buddy, I was able to look at it with perspective. I thought it sounded great and I thought it should be out there.”
Due Sept. 6 via Dulli’s own Infernal Recordings label, “Amber Headlights” features three tracks that have already been released in some fashion (EP, B-side and promotional release), including “So Tight,” “Domani” and “Wicked.” Other “Amber Headlight” tracks that fans will be familiar with stem from elements of “Cigarettes” and “Get The Wheel,” which were released in a different form as “Follow You Down” on “Blackberry Belle.”
As for the next Twilight Singers album, “Powder Burns,” Dulli has given himself a Nov. 1 deadline to complete the project for a hopeful late winter release date. However, it should be noted he told Billboard.com last year a similar self-imposed deadline would be followed by a hopeful spring 2005 release for the project, which quickly came and went without a new Twilight Singers album in stores.
“I tend to labor over these things quite a bit and I think the fact that I toured until December of last year kind of slowed me down,” Dulli says. “And then I went back over and toured with After Hours, the Italian group I produced. I’m going to go play with them again [in September].”
While in Italy, Dulli has also scheduled two Gutter Twins dates with partner Mark Lanegan. As for their anticipated collaborative record, “It’s going to be done someday,” he says. “I think we have 13 songs now.” He’s also looking forward to fronting the DKT/MC5 show set for Sept. 17 at Royce Hall in Los Angeles.
As it stands now, “Powder Burns” features guest appearances from Ani DiFranco, Joseph Arthur and Lanegan and is bound to both challenge and surprise longtime fans. “It’s rock and sometimes hard rock,” Dulli says. “It’s the way I’m feeling. It’s just what’s coming out. Its multi-layered and very textured and there’s soft ones but there are a preponderance of faster, harder [ones].”
Dulli says with or without a new Twilight Singers album in stores, he plans on touring in February.
Jeff Klein (w/ Special Guests) in LA
Jeff Klein will be performing at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA next week on August 3rd. Greg Dulli, Brian Young (Fountains of Wayne) and Scott Ford (Twilight Singers) will be the backing band.
It goes without saying that this is a must-see event. The Hustler is one of my favorite albums of the year.
Mighty Fine: Steve’s Birthday Bash
For those in New York, Thursday night is Steve Myers’ birthday. To celebrate, head out to see his band, Mighty Fine, perform at Snitch. Doors at 7, show at 8:30.
Live in Newport DVD
300 copies of The Twilight Singers live in Newport, KY DVD are available via eBay.
Not Whig-ed Out
Today’s (7/24/05) Cincinnati Enquirer features a preview of the Steve Girton directed film “Ladies and Gentlemen,” premiering at the Lite Brite Indie Pop and Film Test 2005. The Whigs are featured on the cover of the A&E section, as well as the banner-tease on the front page of the paper (way above the fold, baby).
It was a nice surprise, as I’m spending the weekend in Cincy, and just getting in from a Reds game at 2 AM. The crazy paper guy handed me a freebie and there it was.
nearLY, One Year Later
It’s been a while since the last time we talked about nearLY, the album from Nine Inch Nails drummer Jerome Dillon.
From the NIN Q&A page, we get the following tidbit. Nothing new, other than the project will hopefully still be released. It seems that things with their label fell apart.
Jerome:
..it’s basically myself with a few friends guesting here and there. Claudia Sarne and Greg Dulli sang and Petra and Tanya Haden played violin and cello.
thx Kevin
Twilight DVDs are Back
From the eBay item description:
The demand for the last batch of 100 was so dang overwhelming that we had a mess of copies actually PRESSED! THESE ARE NOT DVD-R BURNS - THEY ARE THE REAL THING WITH SILK SCREENED ART ON THE DISC AND WILL PLAY IN ANY DVD PLAYER OR YOUR MONEY BACK!
The sleeves are still hand-made by my boy Danny here at Twilight HQ on the Eastern fringe of Los Angeles - only the discs are different than the first batch. I am going to leech them out in batches of 250 so Danny doesn’t lose his mind or kill the Pitney-Bowes machine. Now abou the show! The show was in Newport, KY April 6, 2004. 21 songs total spanning all Twilight albums. 1 hour 51 minutes total. The 2nd encore features Whigs bassist John Curley and a bad ass version of the Whigs “My Curse” sung by Marcy Mays herself.
The DVDs are $24.99 and the auction will close when all 250 copies are purchased.
Black Love Photo at eBay
An original print of the Afghan Whigs portrait for the album “Black Love” has found its way to eBay.
The photo was taken by photographer and director Danny Clinch. The seller states they originally bought the photo for $1,000 (yikes) and the starting bid is $400. The auction ends on July 17th at 4:19 PM, PDT.
→ Afghan Whigs photo by Danny Clinch at eBay
Lanegan/Campbell Collaboration
From Aversion.com:
Belle and Sebastian’s Isobell Campbell and solo artist/sometime Queen of the Stone Age Mark Lanegan will release a collaborative album this fall.
Campbell originally recruited Lanegan to lay down vocals on a single song for her upcoming Ballad of the Broken Seas, due out in September, but the chemistry between the two prompted the former Belle and Sebastian singer to collaborate more. The result is a full album stuck between the indie songbird’s light voice and Lanegan’s growl.
Hopefully, this project won’t delay the Gutter Twins release.
XX - Congrats to Meghan from Ohio who won today’s newsletter trivia contest! If you’re not on the mailing list, you’re missing out!
The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia The long awaited debut from Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan
Order CD at Amazon.com
