Band of the Week: The Afghan Whigs

Yeah, it’s embarassing to admit, but I held back from listening to my friend Mike’s recommendation about what a great band that The Afghan Whigs were for a long time because I hated their name.

It’s the sort of strange, arbitrary reasoning that probably makes me come off as some monocle-twirling, music elitist, but, you know, we all have our quirks. Naming is mine.

But years later when I finally heard them -- long after they’d broken up and lead singer Greg Dulli was into his Twilight Singers recordings – I would routinely go around hollering at my friends and saying, “Why didn’t anyone tell me what a fantastic band they were?!”

My friend Mike eventually heard this, laughed, and said, “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen…”

I’d picked up pretty much the entire works of the band in one fell swoop and had my mind blown by how many incredible songs they’d created… I learned my lesson, both about not listening to Mike’s advice and judging a band by their title.

The tracks that straddled the line between slinky and sleazy like 66 and Neglekted… The raucous Going to Town and John the Baptist… The charmingly self-destructive Uptown Again and Omerta… Even the strange, improbable covers, like their rendition of TLC’s Creep and The Ass Ponys’ oddly misogynistic Mr. Superlove… They all destroyed me.

And now the band has announced that “The Afghan Whigs will convene in Cincinnati in two weeks to rehearse their first new material in eight years for an upcoming Rhino Records retrospective of the band entitled Unbreakable. After rehearsing the songs for four days, the band; John Curley, Greg Dulli, Rick McCollum and Michael Horrigan will travel to Memphis, TN to record at Ardent with longtime Whigs collaborator, Jeff Powell.”

It’s unclear if the group will tour together again, but Dulli’s current act The Twilight Singers will be playing The House of Blues here in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 25th. As you might imagine, I’m going to try my best to be there.