Get Your POLL On, Baby: ILM Artist Poll #109 - The Afghan Whigs

ok i'd really forgotten how good amber headlights is. i know when the whigs broke up dulli talked about how he'd demoed songs for their next album but recording with the band just wasn't working out, so that material must have turned into amber headlights, surely?

the songs are remarkably fully formed for being apparently unfinished - the only real tells are the drum sound is especially pretty rough, and it's pretty short. i'm amazed this was largely panned when it came out, even those negative reviews don't really seem to say much except being sick of his lyrical schtick.

really feels like a bridge between 1965 and blackberry belle. it's a shame these songs never quite got the treatment they deserved, like imagine it with the sort of arrangements that blackberry belle got, but what's there is already great.

Here’s a playlist Dulli apparently Or allegedly created himself: https://open.spotify.com/user/1217927207/playlist/4XJK1Fcl2tTdTtiHVWu5Q8?si=6oYnIa02TzK9XW9HxFa6LA
Now You Know

Maybe the rollout thread should be called Now You POLL.

I’m going have to scramble to fill in the gaps to vote in time. Meanwhile I am just listening to In Spades over and over.

Also gonna lobby for “Isn’t It A Pity - Atlantis” in the covers section.

Trying to get Sund4r interested based on the BÖC influence that I just noticed and is acknowledged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyrIPrjiT-g

when the whigs broke up dulli talked about how he'd demoed songs for their next album but recording with the band just wasn't working out, so that material must have turned into amber headlights, surely?

He talked a lot at the time abt how it was going to be the second Twilight Singers album, but got scrapped when Ted Demme died. (Blackberry Belle is written in reaction to that loss.) Maybe some writing carried over, but it was v much framed as material planned for a specific album.

yeah i knew that much but i was speculating some of that material probably started out intended for the next whigs album before they broke up

god in spades is the best. the best!!!!

the bridge/outro of "copernicus" is just one of those perfect dulli-brand turns from funk into ethereal melody

at least three songs from that record are gonna be on my ballot and i think they're "demon in profile," "oriole," and "the spell"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA72uClWz-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtTLsfPN1PU

multiple potential no. 1 placements have occurred to me as i've been putting together my ballot but i'd like to lobby for this one in particular

i think there are at least 5 tracks just from black love alone that could end up being my #1, such an incredible album

really enjoying (re)thinking about this band for polling purposes, thanks to the instigator/s

i saw the afghan whigs once only - it was in Sydney during the early-ish part of their reunion and rick mccollum was still part of the band, which i'm glad about

knowing full well that they had a reputation as a killer live band back in the day, i still can't imagine them ever having been better than they played this night, it was just a firestorm. great set of mostly gentlemen/black love tunes. dulli's singing was ferocious and much better than in any old clips - has he had lessons or something? he was always a bit pitchy right? anyway, there was a cellist you couldn't hear. it also made me think that more reformed bands should drop their OG drummer for a younger energetic monster like whoever was on the kit that night.

as an odd tonal break from the onslaught, they got Steve Kilbey from the Church up to sing One Day from Seance - i love how Dulli just looks like a delighted kid in this clip. apparently it was a song they covered in their early days as the Afghan Whigs or something? after this they talked about doing a record together but i don't think anything ever came of it. and if Kilbey's dancing is a bit uncomfortable to watch, i guess it's cos he might not be used to singing without a bass? and people who can sing and play bass at the same time are incredible IMO so i'll forgive them some awkward moves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKHOu49qdI

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/afghan-whigs-church-frontmen-debut-new-project-100027/

kilbey & dulli played a solo show together in 2013 where they played a single new song they wrote together:

“Greg came to Australia for three weeks and we wrote one song,” Kilbey explained. “At this rate, I’ll be 70 before our album comes out.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwEc6kwII-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ndwYL8svPo

here's said song which eventually made its way to one of kilbey's solo albums

Dulli has a fascinating rolodex damn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joIR_qQ4-aw

oh wow i didn't know this footage existed. "omerta"/"the vampire lanois" with a brass section from the final show of the 2012 tour

gonna vote in this for sure, and will definitely include this gem from dulli's 2020 album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zhlSNa1zfs

unchain your mind
become divine
surrender, surrender, my love
and get on down here
and say it with me

YEAHHHH YEAHHHH YEAHHHHH

I did the thing where I recommended the m to Sund4r and now I am wondering if I really like them after all. Am I the only one this happens to?

his last solo record was solid as hell, feel bad I probably won't have room on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba-cEOlVbPg

really love the drummer they had for the 2012 shows tho of course steve earle is ultimately responsible for the deep deep pocket of this track

also one of my favorite facts ever is that steve earle was bryan devendorf (of the national)'s drum teacher

Personal trivia: Afghan Whigs are one of the few bands outside of growly metal that my wife makes me turn off. I don't think she even knows what it is, honestly, just finds it abrasive.

knowing full well that they had a reputation as a killer live band back in the day, i still can't imagine them ever having been better than they played this night, it was just a firestorm.

And yeah, this. I've seen them a few times, and this was my feeling each and every time, that if I never saw another rock show by anyone I would be satisfied.

Personal trivia: Afghan Whigs are one of the few bands outside of growly metal that my wife makes me turn off. I don't think she even knows what it is, honestly, just finds it abrasive.

the biggest afghan whigs fans i know are all women idk

I'm still mad the only time I saw them it was a co-headline and thus slightly truncated set. they were incredible

what are everyone's favorite twilight singers jams. i'm def voting for this, on some days it's my favorite dulli song, but i never see anyone else but me talking about it lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzOo0wNk0o

also really enthusiastically voting for "there's been an accident"

twilight the closest dulli will ever come to making a sade record imo

oh also voting for "candy cane crawl," which i think is a black love-quality ballad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prfONFZSS6Q

yes there are at least 40 songs on my ballot rn

candy cane crawl will be high on my ballot, one of those songs that seems to pour out fully formed from note one, the most natural thing in the world

xp!!!!!!

also I know I am already predisposed to loving dulli's ballads but I may vote for "I wish I was", the arrangement is heavenly

john curley plays bass on "candy cane crawl" so you could technically call it a whigs tune lol

i would like for greg to work with ani difranco again, her backing vocals on powder burns are too beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFHZK-Jdf1I

uhhh had no idea this existed

sorry to flood this thread today lol

Distant xpost, but there is no way my wife has any idea what he is saying. She just doesn't like how it sounds.

holy shit it's a.....shame that wasn't on the "official" covers record, it rips so much harder than it has to

dulli should've put out at least five cover comps by now but i'm guessing it costs more money than it'd make

I'd settle for him doing a new covers record in the style of the lanegan one

horniest whigs song? it's "neglekted"

second side of 1965 is the core, the [erogenous zone] music

Heh.

Why does Alex Chilton get a credit for this album?

there are so many different flavors of horny in there to consider

I love how no one in any greg dulli song, that I can think of, has an actual "job". like presumably theirs jobs are just to have feelings

happy 420

Stanning for this track from Black Love, maybe it's already been mentioned. Seems to have been release as a single ahead of the album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMN7qrwLr7E

Oh, of course. Thought it had something to do with the cover of Congregation.

Converging. Should be able to submit tomorrow.

good luck!

if there's any other more ballots to come there's a bit over a day left

another song that the whigs should cover: "woman in chains" by tears for fears

hell yeah

Ballot sent

ballot sent!

ok i think that's it then? closing the voting. we've got 16 ballots which is decent

roll out should start tomorrow with the covers

Im puttin mine together can you give me 30 mins?

that's fine!

Thank! just sent. I sent unweighted for the tracks is that ok? i can try to order them real quick if not.

unranked is fine

boom, thanks again for getting me in.

....

Don't Forget The AlcoPOLL (ooh baby! ooh baby!): ILM Artist Poll #109 - The Afghan Whigs - RESULTS

they just played “gentleman” in full over the p.a. at camden yards during the yanks-orioles game