Afghan Whigs Do It To The Beast

Rick McCollum may no longer be part of the Afghan Whigs, but singer-songwriter Greg Dulli still managed to pull off the improbable. With a little help from Dave Rosser, Jon Skibic and Mark McGuire on guitars, Dulli and bassist John Curley made the first Afghan Whigs album since 1998.

The album was largely unexpected only because Dulli does  fine with his abundance of side projects, most notably The Twilight Singers, which he has manned with a rotating stable of musicians like Mark Lanegan, Ani DiFranco, and Nick McCabe. But like many reunited lineups it seems, the Afghan Whigs couldn't confine themselves to a handful of shows in 2012. They kept playing.

In fact, it was during a post-show dinner that Dulli and Curley discussed the possibility of making another record. They started working on it two months later. They wrapped it all in December.

Do To The Beast breaks a different Afghan Whigs. 

News of the album might not have made it out so far in advance, but Bob Odenkirk broke the story on Twitter as soon as he found out about it. Dulli was playing golf with Odenkirk and his long-time friend Mike Brillstein, who mentioned mixing a track for the album. That's all it took.

Dulli had asked him not to tell anyone, but the deed was done. As soon as the label learned the news, Sub Pop Records stepped up on the first video in support the album, Algiers.



The video, of course, is an homage to High Plains Drifter. The idea of a spaghetti Western came to him almost immediately after he finished the track. The video matches the song's sense of melodrama.

Among the tracks, Algiers probably comes closest to sounding like a close cousin to The Twilight Singers. Most of the other tracks do not, building largely on where the Afghan Whigs left off years ago. The Afghan Whigs are a rock band whereas The Twilight Singers were created in response to the Afghan Whigs. Do To The Beast is almost a response to The Twilight Singers, full circle.

The opener Parked Outside is one of the hardest rocking songs ever recorded by the Afghan Whigs. It is propelled by a driving riff that clearly casts the album as less of a homecoming and more as of a evolution. Dulli proves that he is open to making this a restart with some equally savage moments.

But that is not to say he isn't open to other ideas. The wildly composed disco-infused and oddly sinister nomadic undertones capture his inventive nature on Matamoros. Listen to the track a few times because it is easy to dislike it on the first pass but relish it by the third.

More palatable on an immediate uptake is It Kills. The standout moment in the song, of course, is in the Huff-style orchestration with Van Hunt lending a howl to the song after Dulli asked him to do anything he wanted but without words. The howl isn't lost in the diversity of the album.

Lost In the Woods is a haunting centerpiece. The Lottery returns to the band's rock-centric roots. Can Rova comes across like an atmospheric dream. Royal Cream and I Am Fire also lend something to vital to the album when played in entirety.

Along with Curley, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, and the guitarists mentioned earlier, Cully Symington delivers some standout moments on drums. There are also several dozen cameos too, everyone from Dave Catching and Patrick Keeler to Ben Daughtrey and Alain Johannes.

Do To The Beast By The Afghan Whigs Hits 8.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Almost more than the Afghan Whigs, anyone who has an appreciation for Dulli will love this album. There are moments when all anyone can do is stare slack-jawed while taking in everything he manages to meld together.

Do To the Beast by the Afghan Whigs is available on Amazon or you can download it from iTunes. The vinyl release of Do To The Beast by the Afghan Whigs can be found at Barnes & Noble. The full tour schedule of the timeless Cincinnati-based band can be found on Facebook.

Mark Lanegan Has A Blues Funeral

As frontman for Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan needs no introduction. Both bands broke enough ground that they sometimes swallow up some of his numerous projects like Soulsavers, Gutter Twins, The Twilight Singers (on occasion), and others.

And then in 2003, of course, there was the gritty and tenacious release of Here Comes The Weird Chill by The Mark Lanegan Band. It was a brazenly dark and delicious exploration of expression that was much loved but still somewhat left lurking on the fringe of his other solo work, like Bubblegum.

Not this time. Blues Funeral is an alternative blues rock powerhouse that pulses up from six feet under. It's not Bubblegum or Weird Chill, but something better. It carries forward some of the same shuddering feelings but often with a bigger, bass-heavy voice and thick lyrics.

Blues Funeral is a meticulously haunting love affair with everything under the veil.

The nearly decade long wait to revive this remarkable direction catches Lanegan exactly where he needs to be to deliver it. The music is intensely intimate, reaching out and enveloping everything.

The album leads off with The Gravedigger's Song, a driving introduction that sets the tone of the album with a beautiful gloominess. It's a crushing contrast to anything being produced by the pop quarters and momentarily makes you fall in love with music all over again, right down to the French verse.

Everything is black, my love. Everything is white. I love you, my love. As I like the night.



The obsessiveness isn't all spent on ghostly love and infatuation. It's only the beginning. The surrender in Bleeding Muddy Water with its slow beat blues is infectious. The brooding lament of St. Louis Elegy captivates with its twisting end-of-the-line lyrics. And Riot In My House retracks the pace of the album with some crunchy guitars and an uptempo beat fronted by a celebration of savored chaos.

The album doesn't miss a beat becoming more eclectic as it carries on. Ode To Sad Disco is an awakening song, both spooky and romantically melodic. Phantasmagoria Blues washes over with a regretful sorrow, someone trading in integrity for success. Harborview Hospital is both sad and thoughtful, referencing the life, death, and sickness found inside the song's namesake.

The entire album strikes hot and heavy, with the last three songs sure to be among my underplayed favorites. Leviathan, Deep Black Vanishing Train, and Tiny Grain Of Truth are all contemplative and end-of-life exposes like only Lanegan can deliver. Sometimes it's as if he glimpsed other people's last chance at redemption or maybe he remembers one of his own.

The best made better by some of the finest collaborators in music and film. 

The album was produced in Los Angeles with Alain Johannes (Them Crooked Vultures) and Jack Irons (Pearl Jam) handling most of the production. Irons also guests on some of the tracks, along with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and Greg Dulli (The Twilight Singers).

The Gravedigger's Song video was crafted by Allstair Legrand. The entire intent of the video was to translate the music into something dark and elegant, much like the song and entire album. Everything is surreal and dream-like, which is undeniably sinister in its literal moments but oddly comforting in how Legrand wants you to be unafraid, an ever-present theme across the album.

The video was shot at a house built on a secluded hillside near Salinas, Calif. According to The Masses, it remained untouched since the retreat of its last residents. Legrand said it was waiting for them.

Blues Funeral By The Mark Lanegan Band Digs Up 9.7 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

For someone as talented as Lanegan, it's difficult to come right out and call this his best work. It would be like saying Warhol is better than Basquiat or Gauguin better than Van Gogh. The fullness, texture, completeness, and songwriting are different, much like Weird Chill or maybe Bubblegum.

Although I'm not especially fond of the repetitiveness in Gray Goes Back or peppiness of Quiver Syndrome, Blues Funeral deserves to be listened to in entirety, start to finish. You can find Blues Funeral on iTunes or pick up the CD at Barnes & Noble. The album is also available at Amazon.

Lanegan is already on tour in support of the Blues Funeral. After tonight in Los Angeles, he will embark on a heavy European schedule (first stop Norway) and a couple of stops in South America. He'll be back in the U.S. for the Sasquatch! Festival in May.

Twilight Singers Take Dynamite Steps

Singer/songwriter Greg Dulli, former frontman for the Afghan Whigs, loves side projects. His pairing with longtime pal, singer Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), put him under the Gutter Twins banner. But then there's The Twilight Singers.

The Twilight Singers is a band with a rotating roster of members who perform with Dulli. You would never know it. It has just as much cohesion as any band out there.

The newest release is Dynamite Steps, the fifth album since the Twilight Singers first made an appearance in 2000 with the CD Twilight As Played By the Twilight Singers. What makes Dynamite Steps especially worthwhile is that it looks like Dulli's side project will become his primary focus.

The lineup is hot. Released by Sub Pop Records, the guest list includes appearances by Lanegan, Ani DiFranco, and Nick McCabe (The Verve). It was produced by Dulli.

Dynamite Steps is a dark album, rife with dark tales, and equally dark music.

The new album is indicative of everything that happened since the band's last release, Powder Burns, in 2006. Powder Burns almost paid homage to excess. But the new darkness makes Dynamite Steps arguably Dulli’s best work to date.

He’s just as charismatic and literate, and his pained, yet seductive voice is sublime. He takes listeners through songs that “explore the thin line between life and death, mortality and immortality, resignation and celebration.” On the Corner is one of them.


On The Corner, with its driving piano, isn't the only winner. Most of the songs on the album are quiet, stripped down, yet soulful.

Two other tunes that stand out are Blackbird And The Fox, an excellent duet with DiFranco; and Get Lucky, a confessional that is as close to a power ballad as the Twilight Singers get. Be Invited is not to be missed either. It's a duet with Lanegan, which would have fit perfectly on the Gutter Twins’ acclaimed Saturnalia CD. But I'm glad it's here.

In all, Dynamite Steps includes an 11-song journey of highs and lows, but all of it is filled with passion and redemption. It's a journey well worth taking. And it might even make the Twilight Singers a more permanent attraction to look forward to.

Dynamite Steps By The Twilight Singers Hits With An 8.5 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The Twilight Singers world tour begins in March 2011 with concerts scheduled throughout Europe and the United States. Touring with Dulli will be special guests Margo & The Nuclear So & So's, a riveting band in their own right. You can track them on Facebook.

Dynamite Steps by The Twilight Singers is on iTunes. You can also find Dynamite Steps on Amazon. There is also a limited vinyl edition.