Your Sweater's Fuzzy Against My Skin

Ah dear readers, welcome back to the Cuddle. After a re-energizing week's vacation from work, including 3 days in the Boston area (that's Rockport, MA above), it's back to the daily grind tomorrow. Before then, I would like to wax poetic on my newest musical obsession - Lambchop.

My latest love affair was spurred by reading the recent history of Merge Records, Our Noise, an oral history of the label and some of its flagship bands, primarily narrated by the label's two founders, Mac MacCaughan and Laura Ballance (who also happen to be founding members of legendary power-pop band, Superchunk). The book is a wonderful testament to the perseverance it takes to maintain an independent label in our world of major-label giants. It makes a compelling argument for bands NOT signing with a major label (and the pitfalls, loss of creative control, and nightmarish relationships related with that process).

Merge has always been home to some of our favorite bands - Spoon, The Arcade Fire, Camera Obscura (until they jumped to 4AD with My Maudlin Career), Destroyer, M. Ward, and The Magnetic Fields to name a few. It is interesting that, to survive as a label, Merge not only required the smarts that Ballance and MacCaughan provided, but the luck to have ownership of some of the past 20 years' greatest independent label hits, such as The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs, Spoon's entire catalogue from Girls Can Tell onward, and The Arcade Fire's Funeral - the surprise juggernaut of the Merge catalogue.

Those bands are all fantastic, but not the focus of today's post. The band in question is Nashville's Lambchop, an ever-changing conglomerate of musicians, helmed by songwriter, lead singer, and indie-music original, Kurt Wagner. A cross between Porter Wagoner, Dean Martin, and Dan Bejar, Wagner weaves strange non-sequitors with gorgeous melodies of almost every genre. The entirety of Lambchop's discography lives on Merge (except for early, privately released material), some volumes can be hard to track down in "typical means" (i.e. independent record stores), but the Merge website has you covered - almost every disc is available through their web store (accessible here).

The Lambchop sound cannot be pinned down (although I love Merge's description most - "Nashville's most fucked-up country band"). Their songs range from chamber music dirges to funky R&B rave-ups, all fronted with Wagner's plain-speak drawl. The band isn't an "easy" one to just jump into, so, by point of explanation, some starting points (click on the titles to go to Merge's web site for samples of each song on each record) :

2000's Nixon - A broad jump into a retro-soul sound previously unexplored by the band - consistently ranked amongst Top Records of the 2000's lists. May have made this blog's list, had this writer not stumbled upon it so late in the decade. Highly recommended.

1996's How I Quit Smoking - Consistently rated as one of the band's best, this album gives a more broad swatch of the band in full force.

2002's Is A Woman - A purposeful step into more quiet, piano-driven balladry. This album is almost hushed from start to finish, with only small flourishes of saxophone, drums, bass, and guitar.

2008's OH (Ohio) - An album that matches the pastoral beauty of Is A Woman with the full band sound of How I Quit Smoking in a more mature and well-thought-out direction. Not to be missed.

2009's Live at XX Merge - I was lucky enough to find a CD copy of this disc at Newbury Comics in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. It hasn't left my CD player since. The album includes an HD video of the show, shot beautifully at their performance at the Cat's Cradle. Anyone who was at there insists that Lambchop stole the show from other more high-profile label-mates such as Spoon and Superchunk. I wasn't, but can't imagine that anyone else could put on a show full of such musicianship, fire, and joy. Each song seems faster in tempo than the one that preceded it, and each song is a gem. From the off-kilter romantic observations of everyday life in "I Will Drive Slowly" to the barn burning set closer, "Give It" with its quotes of "Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads, Wagner, despite minimal interaction with the audience, has them in the palm of his hand. The show is a tour-De-force and could not be more highly recommended.

Check the songs out below and please, visit the Merge Records website for more info on Lambchop and many, many other bands worth your time and cash. The label stands as a success story in a field littered with failures and the indie level.

Lambchop - "Your Fucking Sunny Day" - From Thriller

Lambchop - "I Will Drive Slowly (Live on KCRW)"

Lambchop - "Grumpus" - From Nixon

Lambchop - "Slipped, Dissolved, and Loosed" - From OH (Ohio)

Until next time, be well, check out the fucked-up poetry of Kurt Wagner and Lambchop, and listen.

Lock Your Bedroom Door and Listen To Your Records...

Yes, Ideological Fans, the drought is over. After two long hiatuses, we are back at it at the Cuddle. And what a hiatus it has been. Since Record Store Day, we have been working hard at keeping up with all of the new vinyl releases out there, while stocking our shelves with old favorites as well.

That beautiful creature you see above is none other than the Ideological Dog, Jack, with two of his favorite new purchases. On the left, you'll note a beautiful 12" single of Billy Bragg's classic, "You Woke Up My Neighborhood", a single more famous for its first B-side - "Ontario, Quebec, and Me", a song that holds an esteemed place in Bragg lore. The sleeve has a couple of blemishes (note the slight peel on the record sleeve's lower right corner) and the vinyl has been well-loved (at least on side A), but it's still a welcome addition to the Cuddle's vinyl museum.

On the right in the picture above is our favorite new release, the record that allows The National to stake its claim as the best, and most important, band of the moment, High Violet. While it's not the highly-sought limited edition version on violet vinyl (no stores in the Buffalo area carried it... closest location would be Lakeshore Record Exchange in Rochester and a trip down the Thruway after a long day at work was NOT in the cards this past Tuesday), it was the only vinyl copy that our esteemed Record Theater had (thanks, BFF!!!!).

Now, those of you who know me know of my extreme love of The National, so anything that I say about how amazing this record is needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Look no further than Metacritic.com's current metascore of 86 to see that almost everyone agrees with me. Pitchfork's review really hits the nail on the head of how I feel about this album. It is a literate, mature, brooding work by a group of upwardly mobile thirtysomethings lamenting the slings and arrows faced by upwardly mobile, literate, educated, thirtysomethings as they face the drudgery of everyday life, the realities of marriage and parenthood, the fears of one's future, the examination of one's past, and insecurities that each of these challenges creates. It is definitely NOT for those who like their music wrapped up into tidy, neat little pop-radio-ready packages, with easily understandable themes. You won't hear "Afraid of Everyone" or "Bloodbuzz Ohio" on Top 40 radio anytime in the near or distant future (waaaaaay too intelligent for the average music fan - and if that's snobbery, so be it). Matt Berninger's voice is in it's usual state of baritone perfection (and sounds even more sonorous on vinyl). "Bloodbuzz Ohio" perfectly deals with coming to terms with one's past and one's hometown with the stellar lines - "I never thought about love when I thought about home" and "I still owe money/to the money/to the money I owe" - words that anyone with higher education school loans can commiserate with. "Runaway" is my runaway favorite, as the singer stands in the face of his issues and boldly declares, "I won't be no runaway, 'cause I won't run", yet admits that he'd prefer to be elsewhere - "What makes you think I enjoy being left to the flood?". Rarely do the songs hit an uptempo, driving pace (no "Mr. November" or "Abel" to be found here), but they don't need to. The dour mood of the album reflects the subject matter. It sucks facing reality in all of our daily lives - whether you're a physician from Buffalo or an indie rock front man from Brooklyn...

The National - "Runaway" - from the 4AD release, High Violet

Adding to a banner three weeks of new releases (which will conclude with Tuesday's releases of The Black Keys latest barn burner, Brothers and an Audiophile 180g 2 LP remaster of The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street) were the newest gems from favorites The New Pornographers and The Hold Steady. Each of these records are gems, but one is more flawed than expected.

Whenever The New Pornographers choose to release a record, it's a time of rejoicing in indie pop circles. Together is, simply put, their strongest album since, their first, 2000's Mass Romantic. Each of the band's songwriters is in strong form throughout the record with Neko Case, Dan Bejar, Kathryn Calder, and Carl Newman trading lead singing duties. The Pornographers finally make use of the combination of Bejar and Case's voices together in the standout "Daughters of Sorrow". In an alternate reality, this band's power pop songs would top the Billboard charts. It's fine with me that they never will.

The Hold Steady have always had substantial buzz preceding their records. Unfortunately, their latest, Heaven is Whenever, had plenty of negative buzz surrounding it. Gone is keyboard and mustache maestro Franz Nicolay, and along with him goes some of the go-for-broke, over the top sound that the band has been famous for. Now, some of the reviews for this record have praised the fact that Craig Finn and company sound a little more in control - more "mature" as some would put it - but this truly works to the band's detriment. I can only get into a couple of songs on the record and album opener "The Sweet Part of The City" can't come close to touching any of the previous three openers - "Hornets! Hornets!" from Separation Sunday, "Stuck Between Stations" from Boys and Girls In America, or "Constructive Summer" from Stay Positive. I want to think that, when played live, these songs will take flight (a recent performance of "Hurricane J" on The Colbert Report seems to back this up), but I'm not holding my breath.

As for vintage vinyl that has come into our clutches lately, we've added some beauties by Miles Davis, including a pretty nice copy of In A Silent Way, each of the two different sleeves of Tribute to Jack Johnson, and a passable copy of At Fillmore. We were also able to snag a nice copy of the Concert for Bangladesh 3 LP set with beautifully intact booklet, a first pressing of Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk masterpiece, Thrust, and an excellently preserved first pressing of Rush's first live album, All The World's A Stage (which sounded AWESOME being blared on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning while Mrs. Cuddle and I puttered about). Mrs. Cuddle has even gotten in on the act, seeking out old pop/rap/dubstep/club records for her new DJing hobby. She even encouraged a trip to check out some record stores in St. Catherine's on this past week's trip to The Great White North (we had a lot of fun digging through dusty crates of LPs and finding her a copy of her favorite Aerosmith record, Draw The Line - lots of sentimental value with that one).

Hopefully there's much more vintage vinyl to be had, as the BFF and I venture to Boston to visit friends, visit The World's Greatest Sporting Venue for Red Sox vs. Royals, and do some shopping. I've already got my vintage record stores planned out for the trip...

Until next time, be well, for heaven's sake, pick up the new National record (vinyl preferred), and listen...

It's Record Store Day!!!

I know it's been a while, dear readers (if there are any of you left)... between work and home and everything else that occupies our daily lives, it's easy to lose track of the things that help us feel better about ourselves and our places in life. Today, we here at The Cuddle were brought back into sharp focus by the high holiday on the vinyl-obsessive's calendar...

Record Store Day! Now, while I would argue that every day should be record store day, it's not every day that some of the Ideological Cuddle's favorite bands release limited vinyl editions of their work. Here in the B-lo, we only have two independent record stores left - Record Theatre (with its two remaining locations... alas, once there were 4) and Spiral Scratch (an almost exclusively vinyl house of worship... very cool, very under-the-radar). When the dinosaurs roamed the earth (and the economy wasn't in the toilet), Buffalo was lucky enough to be blessed with two additional independent record stores - the legendary Home of the Hits and New World Record. Each of those locations catered to vinyl-philes as well, but exist no more...

So, bright and early at 10 am (what I thought was the opening time of Record Theatres' Main and Lafayette location), the BFF and I were off to plunder some wax treasure. Much to our surprise, we arrived to find that they were already open... and already plundered to some extent by area hipsters who had flooded The Theatres' usually empty lobby area. The kind folks at RT had set up all of the exclusives at the front of the store, cutting out some of the fun of a treasure hunt across the entire store, and raising the possibility of a fist fight. Luckily, everyone was on their best behavior, despite the lack of copies of the extremely limited edition of the Hold Steady's forthcoming Heaven Is Whenever (I hear there will be a drawing for "the only copy in Buffalo"... whatever) - OK, I assume people other than yours truly were looking for that record. They did have other things in plentiful supply, including the ultra-cool Mastodon Blood Mountain 45rpm remaster in limited edition 2LP gate fold (a little pricey at $44.98), the Tom Waits Mule Variations 11th Anniversary 180-gram 2LP reissue (already own it on vinyl), tons of 7" singles (the Elvis Costello and the Attractions Live at Hollywood High 7" was tempting along with the Neil Young "Heart of Gold" 7" with picture sleeve). I settled on the limited Black Keys 12" single of "Tighten Up", the early release of Josh Ritter's latest masterpiece, So Runs the World Away (with CD version packaged with the LP - bonus!), the beautifully packaged White Stripes double LP version of Under the Great White Northern Lights, and the limited re-release of Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits (not a Record Store Day exclusive, but a cool purchase none-the-less).

It's good to see so many people jazzed about vinyl again... it's really the best way (other than live in person) to experience music... so long as you have a functioning turntable (as I was writing this post, mine decided to make distorted liver out of the White Stripes tearing through "Jolene". This turntable has been back to the manufacturer once already... really don't want to send it back again).

Until next time, I hope that everyone out there finds some new treasures or discovers some old ones - be it on fresh wax or dusty vinyl. Enjoy.

I've Got Style, Miles and Miles, So Much Style That It's Wasted

Just a short update and some recommendations from your friends here at the Ideological Cuddle. The first week of big releases of 2010 was last week, and with it came 2 wonderful records. First, Ted Leo and his Pharmacists dropped The Brutalist Bricks - now fighting with Spoon's Transference for first place in the early Best of 2010 race. It's filled with Leo's trademark hooks, political rants, and enough guitar RAWK to satisfy the most jaded of rock fans. Leo always brings the indie cred as well, as most of our favorite indie outlets (pitchfork, Stereogum, et al) are drooling over this record. As usual, I suggest the vinyl version - available at most music outlets worth their salt, or at matadorrecords.com. Unfortunately, the local Ideological Cuddle turntable had to be sent back from which it came for repairs (it's never good when you can't get through a track without significant motor slowdown), but hopefully it will return very soon.
The second of last week's important new releases (ok, there were plenty more, including The Broken Bells record - Danger Mouse and James Mercer of Shins fame; Titus Andronicus' The Monitor; and The Gorillaz' Plastic Beach) is the first "greatest hits" record from THE MOST IMPORTANT BAND IN MUSIC HISTORY (according to Pitchfork and hipsters everywhere). That I am this late to this party (15-20 years by my calculations) comes from avoidance. There was just soooooo much hype around this band that I purposefully didn't listen. Now that I am completely obsessed, I wish I wouldn't have been so foolish.
The band is Pavement, the record is Quarantine The Past. Since the band only had one "hit" (90's alternative anthem "Cut Your Hair"), this isn't really a "greatest hits" album. It's more of a love note to fans old and new. Since most Pavement devotees will already have all of these songs, Matador likely put this together as a means to capitalize on the band's reunion tour and a means to rope in younger fans. Their plan worked with this new convert. When I initially considered picking up the record, I checked out Pitchfork's review - the critic described each of the album's 23 tracks as "unimpeachable gems" and gave the record a 10 out of 10. Hmmm. Sounded like typical Pavement wankery to me... until I actually listened. "Cut Your Hair", "Summer Babe (Winter Version)", and "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" I knew. But tracks like "Stereo", "Golden Soundz", "Two States", "Shady Lane", "Range Life", and "Spit on a Stranger" just blew me away. Slightly off-kilter but genius none-the-less, I slowly began to agree with Pitchfork's assessment. Needless to say, the CD hasn't left my car's stereo. I look forward to digging deeper into the band's back catalogue (which isn't that extensive and has been exhaustively expanded through Matador's re-releases) along with Stephen Malkmus' work with The Jicks.
A final word for today's post. This month's issue of Paste magazine contains a great little one page editorial article by Maura Johnston that describes why MP3s and digital music don't have the power of physical forms of music like albums and CDs. I encourage all of you to check it out, as it beautifully sums up my feelings. Check it out at Paste's website HERE.

Until next time, check out Matador Records' latest two-headed monster - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' The Brutalist Bricks and Pavement's Quarantine The Past - while thinking about thumbing through some albums that you might have forgotten about. Enjoy.

I Don't Get Out So Much Since I Acquired St. Vitus' Dance

Greetings faithful Cuddle Readers. A quick one today. Have found myself listening to a lot of Spoon lately. For the uninitiated, their literate, minimalist approach to indie rock is unparalleled. Their roster of albums is as consistent as you'll find in all of modern rock. Their 2010 release, Transference, is the current leader in the clubhouse for The Ideological Cuddle's favorite album of the year (but faces a lot of stiff competition in the next couple months from the likes of The National, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, The Drive-By Truckers, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - whose The Brutalist Bricks comes out on Tuesday 3/9/10 and sounds FANTASTIC - check out the entire album at Ted's MySpace page HERE.)
After that exceedingly long run-on sentence, I think I should get to the point - here's a great soundboard recording of Spoon live in concert that was sent my way from some fellow Spoonophiles. It's got a great mix of songs from throughout the band's career to that point and showcases songs from the recently released Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. As always, click on each song to access the downloads. Enjoy:

Spoon Live at the Moon in Tallahassee, FL, November, 8, 2007
1. "The Delicate Place"
2. "Don't You Evah"
3. "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb"
4. "Stay, Don't Go"
5. "The Beast and Dragon, Adored"
6. "Rhythm & Soul"
7. "Metal Detektor"
8. "The Way We Get By"
9. "The Ghost of You Lingers" - TRACK FIXED!
10. "Everything Hits at Once"
11. "Don't Make Me A Target"
12. "It's Gonna Take An Airplane"
13. "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine"
14. "They Never Got You"
15. "I Summon You"
16. "I Turn My Camera On"
17. "My Mathematical Mind"
18. "Black Like Me"
19. "Japanese Cigarette Case"
20. "The Underdog"
21. "Fitted Shirt"


We here at the Ideological Cuddle are working hard to get some other live bootlegs uploaded to our server so that we can share some unreleased music with all of our faithful readers. Until then, enjoy this great Spoon concert. Feel free to leave a comment in the comments section (and I'd be impressed if anyone out there knew the medical origin of the reference in the title of this post - I'm happy to take a blog post request for anyone who correctly describes the medical cause and reason for the name - no fair Googling!!!!).
Until then, enjoy Spoon in all of their glory, and listen...

I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart

Greetings Ideological readers. Today's post has a very somber tone, as our beloved US men's hockey team was thwarted from attaining an improbable gold medal by none other than Sidney Crosby in overtime (and yes, those of us in Buffalo who follow hockey could have told you that he would be the one to beat Ryan Miller - we've seen it way too many times). We're still very proud of our team and its silver medal, but being rewarded for losing is never the way to go.

What better way to "celebrate" our collective melancholy than with a post about Mark Oliver Everett and the Eels. Unquestionably modern rock's greatest hopeless depressive, Everett has lived the life to back it all up. Check out his fantastic autobiography Things the Grandchildren Should Know for the full details of how absolutely fucked up his life has been - available from the official Eels website here.
He is truly an artist who has channeled his pain into great art. Sometimes, as with the Eels latest album - End Times, Everett takes depression to the extremes and ends up barely listenable. When he's on, though, his songs are achingly beautiful and, in paradoxical fashion, almost uplifting.
There's no bad place to start with the Eels. Their first "official" album (Everett put out two albums as E in the early 1990s), Beautiful Freak, almost became nothing more than a one hit wonder vehicle, as its first single, "Novocaine for the Soul" hit big. With time, the album was recognized as the quirky masterpiece that it is. Some find Electro-Shock Blues (written in the wake of his sister's suicide and mother's death from cancer) to be the "essential" Eels record, but 2000's Daisies of the Galaxy is better, for my money (not that you can go wrong with the Eels - all of their albums are solid). As outlined in this previous post from the Decade's Best List, With Strings: Live at Town Hall is another favorite of ours from the Eels catalogue, for its reworking of classic Eels tunes and perfectly-chosen covers.
For the uninitiated, here are some of our favorite Eels tracks in chronological order (links to tracks courtesy of Lala.com):
From Beautiful Freak:
"Spunky"
"Beautiful Freak"

From Electro-Shock Blues:
"Going to Your Funeral - Part I"

From Daisies of the Galaxy:
"Grace Kelly Blues"
"It's a Motherfucker"
"Wooden Nickles"
"Jeannie's Diary"

From Souljacker:
"Dog Faced Boy"
"Souljacker Pt. I"
"Bus Stop Boxer"

From Shootenanny!:
"Dirty Girl"
"Saturday Morning"

From Blinking Lights and Other Revelations:
"Blinking Lights (For Me)"
"Suicide Life"
"Railroad Man"
"I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart"
"Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)"
"If You See Natalie"
"Losing Streak"

From With Strings: Live at Town Hall:
Screw it, you need to hear the whole thing: HERE

From Useless Trinkets:
"Fucker"
"Mr. E's Beautiful Blues (Remix)"
"My Beloved Mad Monster Party (BBC)"

From Hombre Lobo:
"That Look You Give That Guy"
"In My Dreams"

From End Times:
"End Times"
"Little Bird"

Sit back, relax, don't have any sharp objects nearby, and enjoy.
And, oh yeah, screw you, Sidney Crosby.

I Need It Bad, I Need It Now, Won't You Come and Gimme Some?

Ah, fellow readers. We here in the good old U.S. of A. are celebrating a tremendous olympic victory last night, over bitter hockey rival and home ice favorites, Canada. Especially here in Buffalo, the excitement leading up to the game and carrying over to today's celebrations (even if the game didn't win us anything) has been uplifting and just what this writer needed after all of these dreary winter days.
In honor of the Americans' passionate victory, we celebrate one of the most passionate (and yet, vastly underrated) bands in our country's recent history. They didn't last long, but their canon is obsessed over by devotees.
The Afghan Whigs came storming out of Cincinatti, OH on the SubPop label in the late 1980s, and released their swan song, 1965, a mere 10 years later. In that time, they evolved from a bunch of guys making garage band noise, to a band that could write neo-soul and funk with the best of them. Along the way, they became famous for their live shows, where they were known to cover everything from Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" to John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" (yeah, that goes in the "must be heard to be believed" column).
Their driving force, front man Greg Dulli, has always been obsessed with three things: good love gone bad, bad love gone worse, drugs, and debaucherous sex. Not a bad collection of topics, huh? (Let's keep in mind that Dulli included a track on 1965 called "Sweet Son of a Bitch" - it was basically the sound of that night's conquest moaning in pleasure...)
I think that their entire album collection is vital (there are only 6 full length LPs if their greatest hits collection isn't counted... and let's not for these purposes) but their last 4 records are where the gems lie.
1991's Congregation ushered in a new dawn for the band - still a hard edge, but more polished. The album's cornerstones are clearly "Turn on the Water" and "Miles iz Dead". Each song is rambling, sounding like each could careen out of control at any moment. Here's a great version of "Turn on the Water" with the band moving seamlessly from a Rolling Stones classic into the tune:

The Afghan Whigs - "Gimmie Shelter -> Turn on the Water" - Live at the Gino Theater, Sweden, 1996

After the breakthrough of Congregation, fans wondered what Dulli and company would do for an encore. How about put out the finest album of the 1990s? Gentlemen stands as a towering achievement of 1990s rock. Although overshadowed by other behemoth rock releases from 1993 (such as Pearl Jam's Vs., Nirvana's In Utero, and Dinosaur Jr's Where You Been), Gentlemen may have more legs - it sounds more fresh today than any of those three releases. The band powers through 11 tracks and each one is classic. None may be as classic as "Be Sweet", whose opening stanzas perfectly distill Dulli's worldview:

"Ladies let me tell you about myself :
I got a dick for a brain and my brain is gonna sell my ass to you.
Now I'm OK but in time I find I'm stuck
'Cause she wants love, and I still wanna fuck"

Doesn't get much more beautifully lecherous than that. Here's my favorites (courtesy of Lala.com) :

"Be Sweet"
"Gentlemen"
"What Jail Is Like"
"Fountain and Fairfax"

It took the band 3 years to follow up that masterpiece, and did so in magnificent fashion. Black Love turned out to be a devastating song cycle that traces a crime gone bad paralleled with love gone sour. The tone is definitely film noir - dark, brooding, violent, mysterious. The tempos are quicker, the guitars hit harder, and Dulli shreds his voice throughout the course of the record. The menacing Roy Orbison growl that opens "Blame, Etc." introduces a strutting funk-soul guitar line that churns for the song's 4 minute duration. Redemption is still on the menu, though, as the album ends with "Faded", as sweeping an epic as Dulli has ever written.
Check out a couple of the songs in live versions from the Live at Howlin' Wolf EP (including their famous "Superstition" intro to "Going to Town") with the album version of "Faded", again, courtesy of Lala.com :

"Superstition/Going to Town" from Live at Howlin' Wolf
"Blame, Etc." from Live at Howlin' Wolf
"Faded" from Black Love

1998 would bring the Afghan Whig's swansong, 1965. Some find this record to be overreaching and a little too neo-soul for some tastes, but for me, it's a beautiful reminder of what the band was capable of. The title was carefully chosen, as each of the tracks seems to nod to that year's prevailing soul and R 'n B idioms. The album hits its stride immediately, with the classic "Somethin' Hot" (which opens with the striking of a match and lighting of a cigarette, along with some suggestive whispering from Dulli). Only Dulli could write these lines (and not make them sound the least bit sleazy):
"Cocktails for two down lover's lane
I want you so bad, after tonight, I'll never walk the same, and you're to blame"
and
"Baby you don't know, just how I lie awake
And dream a while about your smile and the way you make your ass shake"
we're not beating around the bush this time (so to speak).

"66" may have a bit too liberal use of drum machine for my taste, but once the real drums kick in along with a thumping baseline, it takes off into dance-pop homage from there. Today's hit makers couldn't fashion lines like these:
"So tell me baby, can you shake it
If I can move it with you will you let me take it?
I'll be down on my knees screamin', 'take me, take me, take me, I'm yours'"
and the refrain:
"Come on, come on, come on little rabbit,
Show me where you got it, 'cause you know I gotta have it"

No track showcases the pinnacle of latter-day funk that the Afghan Whigs aspired to more than "John the Baptist", where the band seemed to go back in time to borrow the Stax Horns to round out their sound. I just don't think that Stax Records ever used a dirty guitar line like the one in this song.
Check these out:

"Somethin' Hot" (courtesy of Lala.com)
"66" (courtesy of Lala.com)
"John the Baptist" (courtesy of my music collection)

Discussing the Afghan Whigs' full length LPs ignores the amazing work they did through the years on EPs. The Uptown Avondale EP, What Jail is Like EP, and promo-only Bonnie & Clyde EP are chock-full of gems - their covers of "My World Is Empty/I Hear a Symphony" from What Jail is Like, "Band of Gold" from Uptown Avondale, and "If I Only Had A Brain" from Bonnie & Clyde are all genius. Other EPs have covers of "Moon River", TLCs "Creep", and Hole's "Miss World".

"My World Is Empty/I Hear a Symphony" from What Jail is Like EP

The Afghan Whigs deserve your attention - whether you're in the mood for some hard-edged 90s rock, funk/soul revivalist gems, or sleazy, debaucherous, sex-filled vignettes, Greg Dulli's your man. Start with the above links, then search out all of their records.

Until next time, grab a glass of red wine, turn down the lights, find yourself a partner to make your own recording of "Sweet Son of a Bitch", and enjoy.