Greg Dulli and The Afghan Whigs

I discovered The Afghan Whigs about a year ago and proceeded to devour their entire back catalog. But the catalyst for this Whigs obsession was this video for the title track of their 1993 album “Gentlemen”. Greg Dulli stalks around a house that looks like it’s a set from 90210, peering out the windows at the neighbors, as the band rocks out behind him. Though he bears more than a passing resemblance to Joaqiun Phoenix, at various points he seems to change into an old man and a large black man. I kid you not. The song itself is an all out attack. Dulli doesn’t sing the words so much as he spits them. “Do you understand?! I’m a gentle man!” The delivery of the line would lead us to believe otherwise.



One of the biggest influences on the Afghan Whigs was the soul singers and groups of the 1960s. This became more and more apparent with each album as the band revealed a much more soulful side to their music, immediately setting them apart from their Sub-Pop grunge contemporaries. “Crazy” is my favourite song from their final album, appropriately titled “1965”, and shows a slower, smoother Afghan Whigs.



After the break-up of the Afghan Whigs, Greg Dulli immediately formed the Twilight Singers to make more diverse, even more soul-influenced music. In recent years, however, the band has shown a harder edge and more or less picks up where the Whigs left off. “Forty Dollars” is a song that quickly rose to the top 5 of my ipod’s most played tracks. And really, that’s better then being top 5 on Billboard or something, am I right? I am not.