I am very excited
about the upcoming performance by The
Gutter Twins at the
High Noon Saloon in Madison on
March 9th!
The Gutter Twins is the long awaited collaboration
between Mark Lanegan and Greg
Dulli. Pitchfork Media characterized
these guys as “two of the alt-rock era's greatest frontmen." Lanegan’s
career began in the mid-80’s with the Screaming
Trees out of Seattle. He later went on to release
a host of solo material – including Fields
Songs, one of my favorites – and to record and tour
with Queens
of the Stone Age. Dulli first gained attention
with the Afghan
Whigs, and is now the lead signer and songwriter
for The
Twilight Singers.
Lanegan and Dulli have been collaborators since 2000 and
an album from the pair has been rumored since 2003. In
September of 2005, Lanegan performed with Dulli in Italy
as the Gutter Twins for the first time.
Their first album, Saturnalia,will be released
this week (March 4, 2008) on Sub Pop, and their supporting
tour, which just started on February 14 in New York City,
will continue in March and April throughout Europe and
the United States.
'Saturnalia finds the axis Dulli nicknamed “the
Satanic Everly Brothers” going even deeper into the shadows
than ever before. Mystical, unpredictable, ultimately
masterful, the album both embodies and defies any expectations
suggested by the principals’ individual notoriety. Pointedly
not resting on the sonic laurels of their previous successes,
Saturnalia instead proves rootsy but baroque, handmade
yet modernist, teeming with siren melodies that don’t
resolve. Produced by Dulli and Lanegan along with the
band’s unofficial third member Mathias Schneeberger,
Saturnalia’s eerie modal swirls trap the listener in
each song’s
atmosphere; simultaneously evoking everything from
Indian sitars to Appalachian folk and Delta grit, the
drones inadvertently create narcotic hooks.
When Lanegan’s ghostly baritone fuses into Dulli’s
world-weary rasp, the spine-tingling fusion proves
unforgettably uncanny. “The album definitely has its
own universe,” Lanegan
says. “I don’t know what I would really compare it
to—it’s
totally different musically, but there’s always something
about it that reminds me of There’s a Riot Goin’ On.” “It’s
very intuitive and trancelike, changing when it wants
to,” Dulli adds. “I tried to shake off any kind of
Western song structure. We were comfortable riding
the groove and letting it take us where it needed
to go; sometimes just one single riff will crest
and fall, the only change occurring in the vocal
melody. More than ever, my impetus to write songs
was to satisfy my id’s need to hear something
we’d never heard before.” Largely
co-written, from its inception Saturnalia was jointly
intended as a leap into the unknown.' - Sub Pop
I’m very anxious
to hear the album and to see the performance, and just thrilled
to be able to see them at the High Noon Saloon.
Hope you
can make it, too! - Mister Bill
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