July 14 – Cafe 322, Sierra Madre
July 21 – Hotel Cafe, Hollywood
July 31 – Redwood Bar, Los Angeles

From Scott:

I strongly encourage you to come out and see us play, and if there’s advance tickets it might be wise to snap them up. I hope to see some of you in July, and don’t be afraid to come up and say hi.

Rating: 7/10

Although they made five critically acclaimed and genre-defying albums, Cincinnati’s Afghan Whigs were another one of those bands that never received the widespread adoration they deserved.

Too soulful and cinematic to ride the coattails of grunge, Greg Dulli and his band eventually split up in 2001 leaving a collection of raw, sexy and sinister music behind, only for critics to retrospectively slot them into Top 100 lists. Now the website dedicated to the Whigs and their subsequent musical projects has put together this tribute compilation.

‘Gentlemen’ was their breakthrough album in 1993 but four of the 13 tracks here are taken from the final most soulful, swaggering record, ‘1965’. New York’s Mighty Fine bring a touch of Prince to their funky version of ‘Somethin’ Hot’, while Sonny Oaks find new dynamics in ‘Uptown Again’. But so much of Dulli’s devilish, cocksure personality was in the delivery of lines such as “I got the devil in me girl” or “I got a dick for a brain / and my brain is gonna sell my ass to you” that it’s hard to hear someone else sing it convincingly. Curiously, Susan Marshall’s honey-coated effort leaves you wishing there were more female interpretations of Dulli’s playboy words.

Dulli’s good friends and the two biggest names on the album – Mark Lanegan and Joseph Arthur – do justice to their respective songs. Arthur delivers a sublime version of the woozy ‘Step Into The Light’, while Lanegan uses his sinister persona to full effect on the ominous ‘Tonight’. Growling “Come outside and play with me,” he mischievously ends the song ad-libbing: “Scared you, didn’t I?”

Revisiting the ‘Whigs deep, potent melodies is a tough but pleasurable task for any band and hopefully the renewed interest will inspire others to imbue their rock with a little more danger and a little more soul.

Words: Lianne Steinberg

Summer’s Kiss: A Tribute to the Afghan Whigs will be released on June 23, 2009. The compilation album features contributions from Mark Lanegan, Joseph Arthur, Matthew Ryan, My Jerusalem and more. View the full tracklisting and hear excerpts at Summerskiss Records.

As if you need an excuse to head out to your local record shop on a Tuesday morning, Susan Marshall’s new album, Little Red, is on sale now.

Little Red was recorded with Jeff Powell (who also has a long history with the Afghan Whigs) and features guest performances by Greg Dulli (on Lou Reed’s “Femme Fatale”), Lucinda Williams (for a duet of “Don’t Let Me Down”) and Al Green’s sideman Teenie Hodges (on “Oh My Soul” ). The album opens with a cover of the Afghan Whigs’ “Going to Town.”

Susan is a frequent Dulli collaborator and performed with the Afghan Whigs on the 1965 album and tour. She recently contributed vocals to the in-progress Twilight Singers album.

→ Buy at Amazon

→ Susan Marshall at Myspace