Dulli on Scott Ford Radio
Greg Dulli will be stopping by Scott Ford Radio next Thursday afternoon. Have a question for Mr. Dulli? Send it to fordradio@gmail.com and Scott just might ask your question live on the air.
Scott’s also looking for a new co-host. So if you live in LA, put together an audition video and see what happens.
Afghan Rebels
BY Brian Baker
Like anyone who was in Cincinnati in the late ’80s and aware of local music, I have profound and personal recollections of The Afghan Whigs. The first came just before the band’s 1988 self-released debut, Big Top Halloween, when Bucking Strap frontwoman Anna Scala dropped in to Wizard Records one afternoon to relate studio tales from her recent session providing background vocals for “Scream” and “Sammy.”
“They’re like the Replacements overdosed on Coltrane,” she noted with fervor. “They’re going to be massive.”
Fast forward nearly a decade, after the Whigs had long since gone on to belong to the world at large. I ran into bassist John Curley and his wife at the Hyde Park Art Show and, after a couple of subsequent conversations, Curley — knowing my graphic design background — invited me to submit design suggestions for the gatefold vinyl issue of the Whigs’ upcoming album, Black Love.
One evening, after tweaking the concept (which was never used) in the Curleys’ kitchen, we retreated to the living room where John cued up the unmixed version of Black Love. As “Crime Scene Part One” poured out of the massive speakers, I was aware that the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck were standing straight up, a state in which they would remain for nearly an hour. When the tape drew to a close, I looked at John, wide-eyed, slackjawed and wordless. He smiled his stoic bass-player smile and said quietly, “Yeah, I know.”
Unfortunately, Black Love didn’t strike the rest of the world the way it should have and the Whigs made only one more album, 1998’s 1965, before the band bowed out on their own terms in 2001 with their dignity and their friendships intact. In the six years since the dissolution of the Whigs, Greg Dulli has found further success with the Twilight Singers; Curley has become an in-demand producer/engineer locally and plays with Staggering Statistics; Rick McCollum has enchanted the Minneapolis scene with Moon Maan; and original drummer Steve Earle fronts Cincy’s Earle Grey on vocals and guitar.
All of the band’s members routinely field questions about the possibility of a Whigs reunion, questions that will likely be renewed with the June 5 release of Unbreakable, an 18-track compilation featuring two “new” songs.
The term “retrospective” is required in cases like this, as the Whigs had no discernible chart hits to collect and exploit. The loyal fan base that followed the Whigs faithfully over their 15 year run is more than ready to sign up for Unbreakable, particularly for the new tracks that it adds to the band’s canon.
“Magazine” was one of a handful of songs the band had demoed when they split in 2000; some extra tracking buffed it up for the collection. The other new track on Unbreakable, “I’m a Soldier,” was made specifically for the album. The band members — including latter-day drummer Michael Horrigan — convened in Memphis last year and threw around bits and pieces until the song took shape.
“Greg had some ideas, a general kind of song that he felt would be good to do, but it was just kind of a general description, not any sort of musical thing,” says Curley. “We talked about it in subjective terms the way most people talk about songs, and once we got down there we started trying out riffs, like we usually would.”
“I’m a Soldier” shows just how quickly The Whigs’ comfort level returned, as the track is a showcase of the Whigs’ best qualities: slinky, sinewy Soul interwoven with noisily melodic Indie Rock, a chaotic and visceral combination that threatens to spin out but never quite loses its center.
Once Dulli and Rhino Records agreed on the need for a Whigs retrospective, Unbreakable took shape with Curley and Dulli trading wish lists of the Whigs’ tracks that would make up their dream collection.
“Greg and I sent each other a couple of e-mails and we both picked out a list, and most of our stuff matched up,” says Curley. “These songs were popular among our fans and songs that we were proud of songwriting-wise, where we thought we had stretched our abilities. And we wanted to put a cohesive record together, something that would stand on its own as a record, so that was a consideration.”
That depth is plainly evident in Unbreakable’s historical significance — opener “Retarded” from Up In It, three from Congregation, their dark, minor-key cover of the Supremes’ “Come See About Me” from the Uptown Avondale EP, all from their Sub Pop days — blended with appropriately toned selections from their Elektra and Columbia catalogs.
The best news to come from the release of Unbreakable might be Curley’s admission that the success of “I’m a Soldier” has hinted at the possibility of a full-fledged Afghan Whigs reunion. While everyone’s hectic schedules would make it difficult, all four are receptive to the idea of working together again, as no one expressed an opinion against it.
“I think with any Whigs event, there’s always a certain amount of that,” says Curley with a laugh. “We don’t have any plans to (reunite) right now, but who knows? The door’s open for anything.”
Considering the disparity between the Afghan Whigs’ critical and commercial success, you could make the case that Unbreakable represents the legitimacy of their legacy. When Curley considers the concept of Unbreakable as vindication, his answer is humble yet confident.
“I feel like we were a great band, and I feel like the people who found out about us and got to see us think we were a great band,” says Curley. “I don’t feel like we need to be vindicated. I’m glad that we stand the test of time for people.”
Pitchfork Reviews I’m a Soldier/Magazine
Pitchfork: Forkcast
New Music: The Afghan Whigs: “I’m a Soldier” / “Magazine”
Pretty much every song Greg Dulli has ever written is about how he wants to have sex/do drugs with you or how he used to have sex/do drugs with you and doesn’t want to anymore. Somehow, he’s been doing this for two decades and it hasn’t gotten boring yet. So when the Afghan Whigs reunited last year to record two new songs for the Rhino Records anthology Unbreakable, and Dulli told interviewers that one of the tunes, “I’m a Soldier”, was inspired by the war in Iraq, it seemed like a recipe for disaster.
Luckily, you can’t teach an old horndog new tricks. Although “I’m a Soldier” might actually be about a soldier in Iraq, it sure sounds like it’s about how Greg Dulli wants to have sex with you. The song begins with a martial beat and Dulli grunting like a private on the march… or a man thrusting his pelvis into the object of his affection. Soon enough, he’s panting about guns and “unload[ing] the lead into the night” and “giv[ing] ‘em everything you got” and stuff, while powerhouse background vocalist Susan Marshall (who you might recognize from her tours with Cat Power or her work on the Whigs’ final album, 1965) moans and wails.
“Magazine”, the second new Afghan Whigs track on Unbreakable, began its life right before the band broke up in 2000, but wasn’t finished until last year. The song also appears to be about doin’ it, though where, with whom, and under what circumstances remain unclear. It’s one of the more genuinely pretty tunes in the Whigs catalog, with muted synths and electronic twitches. Dulli’s voice is in tender, caressing loverman mode, even if he refers to the person he’s seducing as “my enemy,” and the girl (played by Dana Hamblen of the Cincinnati band Fairmount Girls) sweetly coos, “You think that I don’t know how to destroy ya, don’t cha?”
Ah well, love and war were always pretty much the same thing to the Afghan Whigs.
[both from Unbreakable: A Retrospective 1990-2006; due 06/05/07 on Rhino]
Posted by Amy Phillips
Unbreakable - Pitchfork
The Afghan Whigs: Unbreakable (A Retrospective): Pitchfork Record Review
Rating: 8.8
There’s about eight years between the first and second tracks on Unbreakable (A Retrospective), immediately revealing how much the Afghan Whigs developed over a decade, what was gained in the process, and what was lost. Opener “Retarded”, from 1990’s Up In It, a lo-fi maelstrom of raw, threatening guitars, introduces the band’s defining elements: the knife-fight between guitar players Greg Dulli and Rick McCollum, soul and funk melodies ratcheted to aggressive tempos, and Dulli’s in-character performance (”Motherfucker lied to you,” he snarls), which detractors would label “posturing” throughout the 1990s. Following “Retarded” is “Crazy”, from the band’s 1998 swan song 1965; it’s slicker and more controlled, dialing down its tempo and filling its empty spaces with “Soul Finger”-style party chatter, yet sacrificing not one iota of menace.
Unbreakable, a best-of collection that democratically gathers tracks from every facet of the band’s career, along with two newly recorded songs, is a sort of last laugh. Despite their stature today (there’s a 33 1/3 book on Gentlemen in the works), the band– and especially Dulli– were largely neglected during the 1990s, relegated to second-tier status behind alt- bands such as Live, Alice in Chains, and Candlebox. Formed in Cincinnati in 1986 and defunct by 2001, the Afghan Whigs were one of the few alt- bands to flourish on a major label, where greater control and bigger budgets allowed them to indulge every sinister urge. While alternative rock radio still sported untucked flannel, the Whigs looked dapper in all black or tailored suits. When popular music was at its most studiously PC, the Whigs emphasized the sexual, and Dulli played power-struggle games that many read as misogynist.
While their peers could barely see past the Who, the Whigs were digging through the Stax Records catalog and covering the Supremes (”Come See About Me” is included here). Even on their early tracks, the band found a way to integrate African-American sounds and influences into their white rock: “Turn on the Water”, from 1991’s Congregation (whose album cover infamously features a nude black woman holding a white baby, no less) uses Isaac Hayes’ wakka-chikka guitars as a punk accessory, and its jumpy guitar riffs instill these songs with a sense of motion that suggests amped-up r&b. Black Love, the band’s 1996 blaxploitation-rock epic, should have been the culmination of this trend, but in 1996 it sounded overdone and obvious. Unbreakable, however, reveals Black Love to be a closet singles album, fitting three still-visceral songs into the tracklist but making “Blame Etc.” and “Honky’s Ladder” the most glaring omissions.
With more dry wit and intelligent frustration than was often recognized, Dulli’s lyrics were also intensely personal in their intimate sadomasochism, to the extent that he invited Scrawl’s Marcy Mays to sing “My Curse” on Gentlemen because he couldn’t bring himself to do it (nor could the producers include it here). Taken at face value, though, Dulli’s songs made him out to be an asshole, so that’s what people assumed he was. And he likely played that up, too. But on Unbreakable, the hyperbolic tension of his lyrics plays as an amplification of his own angst, not as a one-to-one projection. He wasn’t necessarily the people he sang about, but they were certainly part of him. The leering threats of “Be Sweet” and “66″ might best be read as useful exaggerations. And yet, Dulli’s voice wavers on the quieter, slower numbers. He misses notes on “Faded”, muddles his phrasing on the new track “Magazine”, but never self-censors. He lets the moment stand, powerful in its imperfection, the sound of someone trying to convey overwhelming inner conflict. At a time when so many 90s alt- bands favored pained self-expressions– and even a decade later when emo and goth-lite bands lucratively fetishize their own anguish– Dulli keeps his performances as raw as the hurt he’s singing about.
The two newly recorded tracks– the band’s first since their break-up in 2001– are surprisingly strong, picking up pretty much where 1965 left off. It’s nice to hear McCollum’s guitar slicing at Dulli again and Curley’s bass trying to break them up. After the military grunts that count off “I’m a Soldier”, the band launches into a massive gospel assault that prominently features Memphis vocalist Susan Marshall (who also appeared on 1965), as if they had the audacity to rewrite “Gimme Shelter” with a three-note chorus and cagier lyrics. Written shortly before the band split six years ago, “Magazine” begins as a slow ballad, but builds into something more angular, lacking a hook but still intriguing.
Rather than presenting these songs chronologically– starting with their earliest Sub Pop singles and ending with their newly recorded tracks– Unbreakable is sequenced more organically and intuitively, mixing together songs from each phase of their career so that they comment on one another. Ultimately, the tracklist comprises a larger, self-mythologizing narrative– culminating in the sweeping drama of “Crime Scene Part One” and “Faded”, both from Black Love– that fits well with the Whigs’ album-as-song-cycle approach. Unbreakable is one of those rare career compilations that shows its subject in a new and immensely flattering light, with the potential to clear up past misperceptions and to reveal vast complexities that were previously overlooked.
-Stephen M. Deusner, May 30, 2007
Moon Maan, Afghan Whigs To Both Release New CDs On Same Day
PlugInMusic.com : News : Moon Maan, Afghan Whigs To Both Release New CDs On Same Day
What do Moon Maan and The Afghan Whigs have in common? Two things, actually: guitarist extraordinaire Rick McCollum, for one, and also the release of a CD on June 5th.
From its first cut “Be Good to Me” throughout the CD, Minneapolis-based Moon Maan’s debut is a ghostly, groovy, grisly and bluesy sound that emerged along city streets and in the shadows of skyscrapers. For frontman McCollum, who contributes vocals, guitars and theremin to the four-piece band’s Zeppelin- and Whigs-inspired debut, that kind of layering of experiences to create an entire sound makes sense. “I love things that require a lot of tracks to make one sound,” he says. “I’m inspired by artists like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus…I like using all these little things, all these voices, all these sounds, to try to make something else.”
The Afghan Whigs will also be releasing a retrospective on the very same day called Unbreakable (Rhino). Rick McCollum’s guitar work is featured prominently, of course, on such tunes as “Retarded,” “Turn on the Water,” “Let Me Lie to You,” “Debonair” and “I’m Her Slave,” among many others…
The simple-yet-supercool video for “Be Good to Me” can currently be seen on YouTube, and there is a fall tour currently being planned.
Somethin’ Hot Cover
Two Dollar Hooker’s Superman EP is now available via iTunes and includes a cover of The Afghan Whigs’ “Somethin’ Hot.”
The band was also recently featured on the Scott Ford Radio Show.
“Magazine” at Myspace
The Afghan Whigs Myspace page is now streaming “Magazine” the second new song from Unbreakable, out June 5.
Unbreakable - Chord Magazine
4/5 Chord Magazine
If you missed the Afghan Whigs in the ’90s, now is the time to discover them. Produced by bandleader/singer/guitarist Greg Dulli and bassist John Curley, Unbreakable marries 16 songs from the Whigs’ impressive catalog with two new songs recorded in 2006 with guitarist Rick McCollum and 1965-era drummer Michael Horrigan. Written shortly before the band’s 2001 split, “Magazine” easily could have been found on the Twilight Singers’ mellow lounge debut. “I’m a Solider” is soulful and chorus-driven like much of the Whigs’ 1998 swan song, 1965, and finds Dulli sharing vocal duties with Susan Marshall, who contributed to that album’s “Uptown Again” and “John the Baptist” (both are included). Compiling tracks for an album-oriented group with an ardent fanbase is no easy task, but this CD covers most of the singles and creative high points of a band that came close but never quite made it - by major label standards, anyway. The legacy preserved here is proof of another kind of success: a lifetime of expressive music; Dulli’s frank, relatable words; and incomparable, unforgettable songs cherished by fans for generations. The exclusion of a companion DVD with concert highlights and a music video archive is the only real oversight.
-Natasha Padilla
YouTube - Twilight Singers “Sideways in Reverse”
YouTube - Twilight Singers Pro DVD
Moon Maan on iTunes
The debut album from Moon Maan is now available at iTunes.
You can also order the CD from Catlick Records.
The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia The long awaited debut from Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan
Order CD at Amazon.com
