You all have no idea how happy this makes me.
Download their new song, a cover of “See and Don’t See” by Marie “Queenie” Lyons, via the widget below. Meanwhile, I’ll continue marking off my jailhouse calendar until I get to see them in September.
I’ve been fighting (and losing to) the flu for nearly a week now, and because of that, I very sadly missed Patrick Sweany’s recent CD release show for That Old Southern Drag at the Zephyr Pub in Kent, Ohio, this past Friday (if anyone who did attend the show would like to contribute a review and/or photos, please let me know – contact information can be found to the right), so we’re missing the final big event of Patrick Sweany Month here at NTSIB.
And as I’ve mostly been listening to comfort music (the Godfathers, the Parting Gifts, the Dirtbombs and the Black Keys… I may have a skewed sense of comfort) when I haven’t been laid up on the couch, watching old movies and making my own music (i.e., whining about being sick), there’s not been a lot of new music intake going on here at NTSIB HQ. And the closest I can get to a live performance right now is via television. So, I give you my favorte televised performance to date: the Afghan Whigs’ fierce cover of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”, performed at an MTV-hosted party for the film Beautiful Girls (the soundtrack for which Greg Dulli was an executive producer) in 1996.
And, submitted by the esteemable Brucini of the Black Keys Fan Lounge, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion pretty literally tearing it up while playing “2 Kindsa Love” into “Flavor” on an Australian Saturday morning show called Recovery in 1997.
Do you have a favorite sit-up-and-take-notice television performance? Comment!
Once upon a time, in the relative infancy of rock ‘n’ roll, rock instrumentals were such a popular form that some artists were dedicated entirely to instrumentals and some who, while having a few songs with vocals, built their reputation on instrumentals – artists like the Ventures, the Fireballs, Duane Eddy, The Surfaris and Dick Dale. In time, the popularity of rock instrumentals faded until today when it seems like rock instrumentals are mainly the domain of dinosaurs and noodlers.
Here are a few of my favorite rock instrumentals, ending with what I hope is a glimmer of hope for the future of good rock instrumentals.
Link Wray was a man ahead of his time. A stone cold and cool greaser with a dangerous sound, you can still hear his influence today on some of today’s music. If cool has a soundtrack, Wray’s 1958 hit “Rumble” is definitely a featured number.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NAq4HyoNe4?fs=1]
Released a year later, it’s difficult to believe that “Sleep Walk” by brother duo Santo & Johnny could even exist in the same universe as “Rumble”. It’s a dreamy piece with some of the most evocative guitar ever recorded.
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In the late ’50s and early ’60s, studios had house bands who played support to a label’s roster of solo and vocal artists. One of these bands, Booker T. and the MGs, had such a distinctive and compelling sound that they went on to become a major contender on their own as well as making huge contributions to the sounds of artists like Otis Redding and Bill Withers. Their most popular song, and still one of my all-time favorites, is 1962’s “Green Onions”.
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(Keys man Booker T. Jones is still going strong, releasing Potato Hole last year, which he recorded and subsequently toured with the Drive-By Truckers. Incidentally, the father of Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, David Hood, was the bass player for the house band at Muscle Shoals Sound around the same time Jones was playing for Stax Records.)
In 1993, the Afghan Whigs ended their benchmark album Gentleman with a string-heavy and slightly ominous instrumental called “Closing Prayer”. I probably don’t have to go into any further detail about my feelings for the Afghan Whigs.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5f8n42RGJE?fs=1]
Which brings us up to now. The Black Keys are not new to recording instrumentals, having closed out their 2002 debut The Big Come Up with the hip hop rhythm of “240 Years Before Your Time” (and then closing it again some 20 minutes later with a hidden instrumental track that kicks off with a recording of Dan Auerbach’s grandmother) and recording “Junior’s Instrumental” during their Chulahoma sessions. But “Black Mud”, their tasty chaser to “She’s Long Gone” on this year’s Brothers, may be the song to bring the band their first Grammy as it is nominated for Best Rock Instrumental.
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Craig Wedren
Given my long-standing love for Greg Dulli (generally referred to in my world by his proper name: Greg fucking Dulli), it was a given that I would jump on tickets to this special acoustic show, Dulli’s first solo tour. When it was announced that Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think would be opening, my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. In the later 1990s, before bands began breaking up and band members died, my holy triumvirate of music was topped by the Afghan Whigs with Morphine and Shudder to Think anchoring the other corners. I was fortunate enough to see each of these bands play before tides turned, and I cherish the memory of those shows. To be able to check in with the frontmen of two of those bands in one night was a special treat.
Wedren looked exactly as I remembered seeing him back in 1997 when Shudder to Think toured in support of 50,000 B.C.: fresh, lean and handsome with a spectacular smile and a sparkle in his eye. Mixing his solo and film work (including a song from his project Baby) with a few Shudder to Think favorites – like the ubiquitous “Red House”, “Hit Liquor” and “X-French Tee Shirt” – Wedren switched off between acoustic and electric guitars and occasionally employed a loop station to create a rich layers of sound. And he was as at ease on stage as ever, cracking wise, musing and making dedications to his mother and his wife.
Craig Wedren’s best instrument has always been his voice, and it remains strong and supple. He ranges from baritone to falsetto and back again with ease, sometimes using the loop station to create eerie harmonies with himself. Beautiful from start to finish.
Greg Dulli
When Greg Dulli took the stage, flanked by frequent collaborator Dave Rosser on guitar and Rick Nelson on cello and violin, it seemed he might be satisfied to rest on his laurels for this low-key “Evening with”. While the first four songs of the set, which included the Gutter Twins’ “God’s Children” and brand new Twilight Singers’ track “Blackbird and the Fox”, were good, something was missing. The renowned Dulli fire was set to low. But with the Twilight Singers’ stormy “Bonnie Brae”, the burner was turned to high, and that familiar, scorching howl rolled forth from Dulli’s ragged throat.
Though the evening was heavy with Twilight Singers songs, Dulli did, as promised, trot out some Afghan Whigs classics like “Let Me Lie to You”, “If I Were Going” and “Summer’s Kiss”, and even, per an audience request, an unscheduled turn on “66” (the first time played on this tour, Dulli quipped that Cleveland had broken his cherry).
The encore, which kicked off with the Twilight Singers epic “Candy Cane Crawl”, contained the only true non-album cover of the night, a passionate take on José González’s “Down the Line”, culminating in Dulli’s repeated howl warning “Don’t let the darkness eat you up”. It was a goosebumps moment.
Dave Rosser already has a solid reputation as a stand-up guitarist and didn’t fail to impress, but it was Rick Nelson who really shined on the strings this night, sometimes flowing a layer of incomparable beauty under a song and sometimes ramping up the passion to roof-blowing proportions.
But it wasn’t a perfect evening. In attendance was the drunkest crowd I’ve ever experienced in such a small venue, and they kept sending their loudest, gabbiest emissaries to stand right in front of the stage and chit chat, both to Dulli and among themselves, through both sets of the night. One particular offender, who had bullied her way rudely in front of people who had been holding their spots for two hours, had to be called out by Dulli twice before she got the message to “shut your fucking mouth”. It was possibly the first time I’ve ever left a show annoyed.
I find myself drawn to the music of Ohio artists. It could be some innate loyalty to or a sharing of basic ideas with my fellow Ohioans. Or it could be that Ohio turns out more excellent music per capita than the rest of the world. I may be biased, but I’m going with option B.
Die, Sloopy, Die is a tribute to great Ohio bands of the past and present. The name is an anti-tribute to our official state rock song “Hang On, Sloopy” by the McCoys because, while it is awesome that we were the first state to declare an official state rock song (and, so far, we are one of only two states to do so, Oklahoma having declared the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” their official state song), we chose one of the lamest songs it was possible for us to choose.
“Ladies, let me tell you about myself…”
The facts: The Afghan Whigs formed in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1986 with Greg Dulli on vocals/guitar, Rick McCollum on guitar, John Curley on bass and Steve Earle (no, not that Steve Earle) on drums. They were the first band not from the American northwest signed to Sub Pop Records. They released six studio albums, beginning with Big Top Halloween in 1988 and ending with 1965 in 1998.
The first time I heard the Afghan Whigs, they scared me. I was about twenty years old, and while I was not prim and proper, I had a frigging lot to learn. The tones of anger, which projected both outward and inward, that colored Greg Dulli’s vocals in the songs on their seminal album Gentlemen translated to menace in my ears.
It took me a couple of years to come around, and I don’t remember how it happened, but it seems like I went from being horrified by them one day to wanting to be all up in Greg Dulli’s business the next day. My then-husband and I set about collecting every album, EP, single, video, magazine article and any other items emblazoned with “The Afghan Whigs” that we could get our hands on (I retained possession of the collection when the husband and I split up, possibly because he feared grievous bodily harm if he tried to come between me and my treasures). They became, and remain, my favorite band.
“I’ve got a dick for a brain…”
If I had to use only one word to describe the Afghan Whigs cannon, it would be “swagger”. The story set forth when listening to their albums in chronological order is one of a group of angry, young punks who got into their mamas’ Stax and Motown collections one day, put on suave suits and never looked back. The anger remained, but now it was topped by a layer of strutting, smooth-talking cockiness.
Gentlemen is considered by many to be the Afghan Whigs’ masterpiece, concisely marrying their early punk energy to the soul spirit that would become their trademark. While their earlier albums showed promise, they were scattered, directionless. Gentlemen was a clear vision, sharp, slickly jagged, cleanly dirty.
Their next effort – and one of my all-time favorite albums – Black Love, pushed the music further into soul territory while still retaining a metallic edge. A Curtis Mayfield influence weaves itself throughout, wrapping around images of sex, violence and religion. The whole album is a challenge: Step up or be stomped.
Then everything fell apart in the glorious mess that was 1965. It is an unrepentant party album, though it still carries Dulli’s characteristic Catholic guilt and flashes of brilliance within its decadent atmosphere.
“And my brain is gonna sell my ass to you.”
The Afghan Whigs became known for their way with a cover song, often taking songs that seemed innocuous, cutting them open and turning them inside out to expose their viscera. Songs like the Supremes’ “My World Is Empty Without You” and Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” became suicide notes of abandonment in their hands. Al Green’s “Beware” turned from a plea to a threat. And if you never thought you’d want to get naked to a song from The Wizard of Oz, just listen as the quartet turns “If I Only Had a Heart” into a slinky, steamy torch song.
The Afghan Whigs-If I Only Had A Heart
In 2001, the Afghan Whigs went their separate ways (with a two-song reunion in 2006 for their Rhino Records retrospective Unbreakable), McCollum, Curley and their Spinal Tap-esque succession of drummers moving on to other projects, but none as successfully as Dulli. He has released four albums under the aegis of the Twilight Singers, with a fifth album on the way as of this writing. Additionally, he put out a solo album in 2005, an album with Mark Lanegan as the Gutter Twins in 2008 and in 2005, played in a live-only covers band called Uptown Lights – along with numerous other production jobs and guest spots.
Greg Dulli will be embarking on his first solo tour this October and on through November, playing stripped-down versions of his songs – including Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers titles. He’ll hit the Grog Shop in Cleveland on October 16.
Summer’s Kiss: A Greg Dulli, Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers & Gutter Twins Compendium
The Twilight Singers Official Website
The Gutter Twins Official Website
Moon Maan Official Website (Rick McCollum)
Staggering Statistics Official Webstie (John Curley)
Ultrasuede Studio (John Curley)
