The Gutter Twins Coming to High Noon Saloon
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
8:00pm; $15/$17 DOS 18+
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
