How I Like The Afghan Whigs: The Playlists
Writing up a record guide for a band just isn’t enough for me anymore. I also have to craft introductory playlists, one for Spotify (for as long as my soul and the artistic community can stand the site) and one for YouTube (a site I’m surprised the artistic community doesn’t have a bigger beef with). As always, the intent with the former is not to compile the very best songs by a band, but to give the curious a sense of what I’m getting off on. With the Afghan Whigs, I intentionally led with recent works, lest one get as cranky as I did about the absence of Rick McCollum's guitar in 2014. Better to welcome you to the modern world of Greg Dulli - the man who could have been Adam Levine if he didn’t enjoy self-producing more than sit-ups - and then reveal the raging Cincinnati racket he came from. Chronology is what How I Like The Afghan Whigs: The Albums was for.
As suggested by the difference in the two tracklists, there’s way more than a dozen Afghan Whigs songs worth hearing. But accepting my task is to evoke rather than encapsulate gives me the freedom to include a thesis statement like “Be Sweet” even if it wasn’t a concert staple. I can get across the grandeur of Black Love with a pair of great tracks from the back end, without sweating if there's better. I want to not just inspire, but reward, the curiosity to investigate further.
As such, the audio playlist was easy enough to make. The one with video was a little more complicated. Not only are you forced to accept what the band and big fans have decided is worth promoting and uploading (assuming you don't want viewers to stare at an album cover for 4 minutes), you can yourself at odds with the band’s preferred visual gestalt. One simply can't make an Afghan Whigs video playlist without acknowledging their penchant for sexual and racial provocation, but I did my best to avoid the moments that drive me to roll my eyes, if not shout “SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!” at the screen (the Black Love clips push it, I admit. But I love how Sam Bayer got Dulli to ham it up in "Honky's Ladder," an ironically obscure clip considering how common Bayer's tricks were on MTV).
The band is thankfully better at celebrating African-American beauty without fetishization in recent videos, with the subjects of “A Line Of Shots” and “Matamoros” allowed real moments of agency and grace. The latter’s tribute to subway dancers feels particularly affecting after the murder of Jordan Neely. Nonetheless, though I intentionally counterpoint the sapphic satanism of the “Oriole” video with the hilarious male mundanity of “The Lottery,” I wouldn’t consider the playlist safe for work. Not that Dulli would want it to be!
I also included a pair of concert performances and a pair of late night appearances. Though an appropriate climax, their run through "Gentlemen" for Leno ends the playlist due to the clip's inclusion of a stunning sofa sayonara with the other guests that night (no spoilers!). I’m truly glad that footage of Scrawl’s Marcy Mays crushing it at Reading exists, and there’s no better display of the band’s charisma at their prime than Greg and Rick smoking on a festival stage mid-Motown medley. And charisma, plus a chance for Spotify haters to join in the fun, is what the video playlist is meant to provide.
I regret I didn’t find a good way to include one of their many inspired covers on the Spotify playlist; in context, they always felt tangential. “Come See About Me,” “Mr. Superlove,” “Lovecrimes"...heck that piano version of New Order’s “Regret”! All worth your time, even if the band inspired my college record store guru to hiss “ugh…Vanilla Fudge.” But the example I’ve decided to include in this post might be their most audacious - a ‘99 take on “Lost In The Supermarket” for their then-label Columbia’s Burning London: The Clash Tribute. First you hear the drums from “Train In Vain” (already covered by Third Eye Blind earlier in the album) before a warm, layered fog rises above the loop and Dulli gently reveals the actual choice of cover, a soul sister cooing behind him throughout. Just when you accept the mix of reverence and irreverence, Dulli double-tracks himself interpolating Ben E King over the chorus. This is a guy who likes playing with fire. (The song appears on Burning London between 311’s “White Man In Hammersmith Palais” and Cracker’s “White Riot” if you dare investigate.)
I hope my sincere affection for the band shines through these posts despite my sardonic humor and critical distance (it would be ironic to hold them against me when discussing The Afghan Whigs - see the “Clash tribute” above). There’s truly nobody quite like them. Well…almost. (I kid! To paraphrase "Bulletproof," it's all looooooooooowoahwoahwooooooove.)
How I Like The Afghan Whigs: The Playlist
- “Birdland” (In Spades, 2017)
- “Matamoros” (Do To The Beast, 2014)
- “Be Sweet” (Gentlemen, 1993)
- “Conjure Me” (Congregation, 1992)
- “66” (1965, 1998)
- “A Line Of Shots” (How Do You Burn?, 2022)
- “The Spell” (In Spades, 2017)
- “My Curse” (Gentlemen, 1993)
- “Bulletproof” (Black Love, 1996)
- “Summer’s Kiss” (Black Love, 1996)
- “Lost In The Woods” (Do To The Beast, 2014)
- “Milez Is Ded” (Congregation, 1992)
How I Like The Afghan Whigs: The Videos
- “The Getaway” (How Do You Burn?, 2022)
- “Matamoros” (Do To The Beast, 2014)
- “Debonair” (Gentlemen, 1993)
- “Conjure Me” (Congregation, 1992)
- “66 [on Late Night]” (1965, 1998)
- “A Line Of Shots” (How Do You Burn?, 2022)
- “Going To Town” (Black Love, 1996)
- “My Curse [live]” (Gentlemen, 1993)
- “My World Is Empty Without You/ I Hear A Symphony [live]” (What Jail Is Like EP, 1994)
- “Honky’s Ladder” (Black Love, 1996)
- “Oriole” (In Spades, 2017)
- “The Lottery” (Do To The Beast, 2014)
- “Gentlemen [on The Tonight Show]” (Gentlemen, 1993)