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What if I tried to listen to all my music-in order? Every song, on every album, by every artist (alphabetically)- in chronological order. ...

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

The Afghan Whigs

I remember Gentlemen, of course, but the song more than the full album. It's a pretty great song from 1993: a little early for me, but it was still floating around college radio by the time I got there a couple years later. I was shocked to see that "Gentlemen" is actually their second most popular streaming song. "Retarded," a college-radio hit that predates their major-label debut, is actually #1. I'm not sure how I feel about that title. In fact, I'm not sure how I feel about a bunch of the things the band has to say. I really don't care for the cock-sure swagger or the creepy vibe evidence in the videos and song. It seems to almost revel in its misogyny. Front-man Greg Dulli delivers every sneer as if to say, "Come on baby, you know you like it." For better or worse, the anti-hero charm offensive sorta worked. He's a famous rock star. It's not just that I can't name anyone else in the band off the top of my head. He's got both the simmering good looks and writes most of the songs. Still- I don't like the attitude.

Actually, besides knowing the song "Gentlemen," prior to this listening the only other Afghan Whigs song I could truly name was "Fountain and Fairfax," which is on the same album, but I knew it from the My So-Called Life Soundtrack. It just plays briefly in the background when the kids go to a club at some point, but being on that soundtrack CD put it in heavy rotation, right next to Juliana Hatfield and Buffalo Tom.

Dulli is incidentally also the only guy other than Dave Grohl to play anything on that first Foo Fighters album. They would play together again in the Backbeat Band, playing as the early Beatles for the Backbeat movie soundtrack. That is some truly excellent material with Grohl on drums and Dulli ably handling most of the wild vocals. He's also got this whole other thing called The Twilight Singers, that plays during Afghan Whigs's hiatuses. Plus he plays with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees as The Gutter Twins.

His first band was called The Black Republicans (LOL). He formed The Afghan Wigs in Cincinnati all the way back in 1986, so good for them to still be making music to this day without burning out or starting to suck. The long breaks worked. Dulli originally said he wanted them to sound like "a cross between the Temptations, the Band, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse," which is actually both a great concept for a band and not that far off from what they actually sound like. Their first album is self-produced and gets them signed to Sub-Pop (they toured with Mudhoney).

Their first EP audaciously ends with a track called "Rebirth of the Cool," which is presented as cover but has got to be tongue in cheek. Then 1992's Congregation ends with "Miles Iz Dead (Bonus Track)," so something's going on there. I'd say there are pre-rock influences, but they are subtle: watch that live video (above) of them playing "Retarded" and tell me how soulful they are. Yet critics have noted "the combination of Stax and Motown influences with indie-rock sonics." Yes, it is there. When "Retarded" comes out they are kinda a big deal on MTV, and although I missed all that completely, they were right there touring the U.S. with Teenage Fanclub, just when I was super into Bandwagonesque. Thus their major-label debut, Gentlemen (1993) is released on Elektra and recorded in Memphis's Ardent Studios, just like Big Star, Dylan, and Zeppelin. Critics go nuts for it, but partially maybe the band just got lucky because people were hungry for something other than grunge, which was heading towards saturation. I get that, but I also see them being incapable of escaping grunge's influence too, at least early on. But then later stuff like this happens. Although particularly strong songs don't exactly jump up at me after a single listen, Up In It and Congregation were fine, and there is somewhat of an evolution towards Gentlemen. . It hit a nerve and resonated at the time for sure. While it is a fairly unique rock sound, especially for the time, I found it hard to get excited about individual tracks without the zeitgeist at their back. The next album, Black Love, follows in the same vein; it is supposed to be a good one too, but I didn't find it any better or worse than than the previous album, if anything a tad less impressive. The conceptual elements don't always come through clearly, but there's a definite darker theme. OK, when they draw attention to it with a killer performance on Letterman, I noticed "Going to Town" is a good one from Black Love.  They toured extensively, despite being post-peak here, even opening for Neil Young (along with Jewel). 1965, recorded in New Orleans after they leave Elektra following disappointing sale and charges of managerial neglect, might be a disappointment itself if I was looking for more, but it was fine too; my expectations were moderated. I wasn't always underwhelmed. A consistently good rock band is nothing to scoff at.

They split amicably in 2001. They reform a decade later and start recording and touring again. By some point the drummer has switched out and the original other guitarist has left. Their cryptically named Do to the Best is their first in 16 years and a return to Sub Pop, which probably makes more sense for them. It was the album that I finally recognized this evolving sound people were always talking about with them. It's clearly a more mature, evolved sound- and it works. It's dark still but fresh and engaging. The songs are deeper and more complex, and the overall shift in sounds is reminiscent of the way the Dandy Warhols's sound evolved as they grew from pop-indie darlings to grizzled veterans of the scene. While these new Afghan Whigs were similarly more likely to get spacey and deep, some will inevitably bemoan the loss of their more jagged punkish aggression. I, for one, appreciate the more complex emotional pallet. It's not just mean sneering anymore, but the topics are still generally ominous. Their latest, In Spades, came out in 2017 and continues the positive trend of the reformed band, but it just didn't resonate with me as well as Do to the Beast did, even though I was excited for it by the previous album. Guitarist Dave Rosser, an original member who had been around for both reunion albums, died shortly after the release, so it might turn out to be their last album.

People seemed to particularly appreciate the concept that this is an indie rock band that listens to stuff like rap and soul, occasionally letting such influences slip into their college-rock. Ten years later this musical blending would be de riguer. So they must get some innovation points for that. They are clearly a well-playing rock band that gels and keeps it interesting for several albums over many years. They even get some Rolling Stones comparison, particularly regarding the influence of black music, that is to say the contributions of African Americans to popular music come through similarly in both bands. OK- sure. And lots of times when they do covers they are old soul and R&B numbers. I also hear they covered The Wall in its entirety, or at least "Another Brick In the Wall," which is somewhat unexpected. In 2012 they were covering contemporary R&B rapper Frank Ocean.  They can be considered influential in a sense, maybe, but only on a narrow field of fairly recent bands of the late 90s or early 2000s. In fact they are frequently references as 90s alt-rock heroes, which is weird for me: 90s alt-rock is my bread and butter, but I just barely missed the window in which to worship these guys. Or maybe it was the pervasive mean attitude that turned me off. It's not to say I don't like aggressive music, but I suppose I want to keep the menace with the punk and metal albums, and my indie rock to be alternately cerebral, uplifting, or mopey. I'm trying to not be rigid yet explain away my distaste for tropes here that I would find tolerable in less-accessible, more-extreme music. Dulli seems downright cruel on occasion, with a complex relationship with women. Or just misunderstood? Their fan sites will have us believe that their albums (and perhaps this what makes Gentlemen most famous) are noted for "frank and uncomfortable exploration of masculine tropes and expectations." OK. At the time, I just thought Gentlemen was creepy, and trying to be so. Now I'm even less likely to see it as critique of this extreme masculinity; it comes across as a ironic celebration, which muddles the message. It might be the frequent use of first person voice that adds the consistent tone of menace. Is that him, the lead singer, talking about his personal life in such creepy detail? Is that a Voice? Is there a consistent character telling these stories, a coherent persona?




As their classic-yet-eerie album cover alludes to, these guys seem eager to publicly simmer in their own creepy vibe. What are we seeing here on the famous cover of Gentlemen? Children recreating an unhealthy relationship: the female looks enamored with the indifferent (at best) male. Why? The lyrics seems to support this preoccupation with seedy relations. The lyrics are personal yet vague and always snarled meanly. They aren't goth, but it's really mostly all creepy stuff. Cruelty towards women seems like an all-too common theme. I do appreciate a consistent theme, but...Why should these guys get a pass for some of the same meat-head shit that I held Aerosmith accountable for just because they are indie darlings? I mean, I'm not trying to view all pop culture through the lenses of 3rd wave Feminism and Marxist New Historicism...but I am who I am. I also don't know how to process the fact that in 1998 they opened for Aerosmith.

I'll never be a super-fan. Still, it's good rock music that matters, and I'm glad I finally got to listen to it all because it is theoretically in my wheel house but had slipped through the cracks, perhaps with reason.




Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Interlude: Best Music of 2017

The day after Christmas is apparently now the annual day I release my Best Music of the Year list,
which gets me to finally stop tinkering with it. So here it is!

Best Songs of 2017


  1. Portugal, The Man “Feel it Still”
  2. The New Pornographers “High Ticket Attraction”
  3. The Go! Team “Semicircle Song”
  4. The Mavericks “Damned (If you Do)”
  5. Cold War Kids “Love is Mystical”
  6. Temples “Certainty”
  7. N.E.R.D. & Rihanna “Lemon”
  8. LCD Soundsystem “tonite”
  9. Outcalls “No King”
  10. Overcoast “Leave the Light On”
  11. !!! “Dancing is the Best Revenge”
  12. Kitty “Mass Text Booty Call (feat. Sprightly)”
  13. Paramore “Hard Times”
  14. Selena Gomez “Bad Liar”
  15. Charli XCX “Boys”
  16. Halsey “Now or Never”
  17. Zedd & Alessia Cara “Stay”
  18. Hurray for the Riff Raff  TIE “The Navigator”/”Hungry Ghost”
  19. Sharon Von Etten “The End of the World”
  20. Nicole Atkins “A Little Crazy”
  21. Nikki Lane “Jackpot”
  22. The Wild Reeds “Only Songs”
  23. Cayetana “Mesa”
  24. Son Volt “Back Against the Wall”
  25. HAIM “Want You Back”
  26. Waxahatchee “Never Been Wrong”
  27. Alvvays “In Undertow”
  28. L7 “Dispatch from Mar-a-Lago”
  29. Arbouretum “Fall From an Eyrie”
  30. Max Richter “Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works / The Waves - XVI. Tuesday” + Every damn song played on new Twin Peaks, but especially Chromatics and Lissi

Honorable Mentions
Sea Battle, Larkin Poe, Krokofant, Princess Nokia, Priests, Japanese Breakfast, Kehlani, June Star

Best Show
1. RVIVR and Hemlines @ Comet Ping Pong in DC
2. Best Coast w/ Snail Mail @ The Ottobar
3. Municipal Waste, NAILS, Macabre @ 930 Club


Best New Artist
Sheer Mag


Best Album
1. Kesha Rainbow
2. Roger Waters Is This The Life We Really Want?
3. TIE: Ride Weather Diaries / Slowdive Slowdive
But also the triumphant returns of Grandaddy, Gorillaz, and The Jesus and Mary Chain  


Playing over the End Credits of 2017
“Rainbow” (From The My Little Pony Movie) by Sia


“I can see a rainbow
In your tears as they fall on down
I can see your soul grow
Through the pain as they hit the ground
I can see a rainbow
In your tears as the sun comes out
As the sun comes out”



It sure didn't feel like this was the year that dreampop came back, but those Ride and Slowdive albums are both on equal footing with their earlier stuff. Plus The Jesus and Mary Chain finally got around to to recording a new album; it doesn't change the world, but how many times are they expected to up-end popular music? I know that Portugal, the Man song ended up getting over-played, but that's virtually the definition of crossover success; it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys, and it was great to hear an actual band on pop radio again. Kesha wins for her album simply because it's one of few album this year with more than than two standout tracks: "Woman," "Praying," and "Learn to Let Go."; plus I'd long promised that I'd buy her album, or t-shirt, or I'd go see her live (no, it cost $200), and I didn't - so instead she gets this top honor for a triumphant album.That Roger Waters album leans heavily on late-middle period Floyd; it wins with salient commentary and outstanding production, possibly his best solo work since The Final Cut. New stuff by Lorde, Sleigh Bells, The War On Drugs, First Aid Kit, Arcade Fire, and The Flaming Lips fell just outside the Top 30, but I couldn't connect much with other new stuff by Saint Etienne, The Charlatans, NIN, and especially not that new Bjork or Taylor Swift, despite liking all those artists previously.

So - what do you think? As always, I'd love to hear about the artist or songs that I have egregiously neglected this year.


See ya in 2018!
Yours in Rock,
Mark