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

There is something very cinematic and anthemic about them.

idk they had a few songs that I could see making more of a dent but the single choices were often odd and idk that there was much room for dulli's vision to expand saleswise

honestly in terms of label support it seems to me they fared better than many

as a music store manager circa that time, i can say that 'the soft bulletin' (released seven months later) got a *lot* more label support. that might be down to differences between WEA and sony/columbia but tbh i never ever understood warners' steadfast love of the flaming lips

One of the things that (sorta) hurt 1965 was that during the first leg of the tour Dulli got banged up pretty bad after a show in Austin, and some shows were cancelled.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/1998-12-18/520831/

Afghan Whigs singer Greg Dulli was in the hospital with a fractured skull following an altercation with a Liberty Lunch stagehand after the Whigs' show there on Friday. Dulli has since been released from Brackenridge (the hospital itself declines comment), and reports are that he's OK, but the big question around town since last weekend has been, "What the hell happened?"

...

Lunch representatives say their lawyers have told them not to comment on the matter at this time, but previously published reports quote the club's co-manager Mileah Jordan saying that Dulli was the aggressor, first threatening and then attacking a stagehand. Witnesses say Dulli, apparently angered over a confrontation earlier in the day, stayed after the club closed to take care of "unfinished business" with the worker, going after him with a two-by-four, at which point the stagehand hit Dulli once and caused the singer to fall backwards and hit his head on the pavement. Police reports seem to back this story as no charges have been filed against anyone, but needless to say, lawyers have been burning the midnight oil on what could turn into another long, drawn-out case involving the troubled Liberty Lunch.

Dulli--who was reportedly in a coma for two days after the incident--sued but the case didn't get anywhere because (as forecasted in the link) the venue went out of business the following summer.

Forgot about that. One time one of the security guys was a wee bit aggressive in denying me entrance to that place, but I guess I got off easy compared to GD.

I’m definitely only referring to 1965 - the first half of that album should have ensured it sold millions.

Black Love is a denser record and ‘Honky’s Ladder’ doesn’t scream ‘first single’

iirc with black love it was the classic situation of the a&r guy at their label who signed them had left the label and now their label didn't care at all about them & didn't support them at all, so the album flopped instead of building upon gentlemen's mild success. dulli also said "honky's ladder" was the label's choice for single which he strongly disagreed with, idk what he wanted but "my enemy" always sounded like the clear single to me?

then they tried to sue their label to get out of their contract & ended up getting columbia to buy out their contract, but it didn't seem like columbia really pushed them that hard either idk. the first side of 1965 really sounds like it should have all been big radio hits.

i thought 'honky's ladder' was a good single! oh well

It was imo but I think Going to Town would have kicked things off better

HL - follow up single

Actually id go for Going/Enemy/Ladder in that order

^ yeah

"Algiers" is their most-streamed song on Spotify by a pretty fair margin. soundtrack placement?

How do people feel about Congregation?

very good album let down slightly by weird production. voted for fewer songs from it than i expected but i have always been more into the three records after it tbf

singles are all amazing tho

What were they aside from "Conjure Me"?

"turn on the water" and "miles iz ded"

("miles" wasn't released officially as a single but it does have a promo video)

How do people feel about Congregation?

the production on that hurts my ears - sounds like lots of guitar on it with open strings just ringing away, and it's all just way too high in the mix. feel like it's very of-its-time, loads of sonic youth-inspired bands flooding all the frequencies with guitar, makes me think of steelpole bathtub or someone. i'm sure there are plenty of less obscure examples of that aesthetic but they're not sprining to mind right now. swervedriver kind of did the same kind of thing with a load of guitar parts going off all over the place, but i think they're a good example of where that approach actually works really well. all the parts seem so focussed on their stuff, it's a really cool knot for your ears to untangle, but 'congregation' just feels like there's a whole exhausting layer of extraneous noise. the shift from that to 'gentlemen' is huge, they stripped it down and it's got so much more room to breathe. got some cool songs though!

"Algiers" is their most-streamed song on Spotify by a pretty fair margin. soundtrack placement?

― intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Sunday, May 30, 2021 6:09 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

according to the youtube comments it was on an episode of ray donovan

“Turn on the Water” has a melodic fragment borrowed from “I’ll Be Around.”

congregation feels like their real debut album - you can hear their classic sound for the first time but it's a little rough & not as fully formed as the later albums, and the production is pretty bad yeah.

"miles iz ded", "i'm her slave" and "let me lie to you" are all very good

“Turn On the Water” is such a jam!!
Whigs rhythm section was unstoppable and way better than like 99% of their peers

I like Congregation but the cover image is definitely cringe. Lotsa good songs and I like the JCS cover. It shows a lot of promise.
Up in It sounds fairly conventional but Congregation solidifies the appeal of the Whigs sound. No other band I’m aware of would have made that album.

enjoyed this recent interview w/ Dulli where he mostly just lists off what he's been listening to, should be something new in there for just about everyone

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/greg-dulli-talks-solo-album-random-desire-and-its-influences-in-bv-interview/

Yeah,, I didn't know about a lot of that stuff.

he also has some pretty awesome spotify playlists, it must be said

https://open.spotify.com/user/1217927207?si=b4bbc65f3236480e

haven't listened to it for ages, stupidly, but reminded now the first Twilight Singers lp is so so good. prefer it to the two Whigs reunion albums actually.

twilight is one of his very best records, you speak the truth

Haven't even listened to that one yet. How much time until the ballot is due?

deadline was intended to be midnight on saturday but there've only been a few ballots so far so i'm certainly happy to extend it if anyone needs it

I will definitely vote whatever the deadline be

I will try to make that deadline but...

I’d appreciate an extension.
Has any attention been paid to how Dulli is a master cover-chooser?? The Whigs’ (Dulli’s??) choice of cover songs has been a defining aspect of my love for the band, beyond the songwriting and musicianship of the band

Always has the band’s strengths and the audience’s needs in mind and I swear I’ve lost my shit at more Whigs covers than any other band??

they're a rock band whose taste is part of their appeal and their ongoing project in a way i can't really compare to any others

by "band" there i think i kinda mean the whigs and the twilight singers and dulli solo all at the same time. but it's also down to the way rick mccollum plays guitar like he's a '70s r&b session dude with his distortion pedal cranked

mccollum is really such a fantastic player & it's a shame he wasn't able to stick around for the reunion albums, like those are still great without him but imagine what could have been.

I think it's neat that Dulli seems to only get good enough at instruments himself to convey his ideas, but then also surrounds himself with incredible talent to make up for it. It's a good approach!

Is Black Love the closest anyone gets to the paranoiac muddle of Exile on Main Street's production?

lol, possibly for many of the same reasons!

if you haven't been reading dulli interviews from the mid to late 00s...there's a lot of wild shit in there

Was he a big heroin guy? I know nothing about him.

coke, as the 1998 bootleg evidences

there are other subtle indications elsewhere lol

have sent out confirmations to those who've sent ballots so far

i'll extend the deadline until at least monday

This is impossible

Temptation comes not from hell
But from above

your kisses scourge me, hyssop in your perfume

This is impossible

yeah, I've got all my Dulli stuff by the stereo but everything's far too consistently great, how to choose