Greg Dulli – TAW in Belgium, 2022 – Photo by Turn Up The Volume
2026 marks the 40th birthday of Cincinnati‘s avid rockers THE AFGHAN WHIGS fronted by songwriter and gutsy voice Greg Dulli. 40? Really? OMG.
Well, now and then they took a pause for solo projects. Anyway,
they released 9th albums so far with the superb How Do You Burn?
from 2022 as their most recent one. TUTV named it best album of
the year.
.
Dulli: “40 years later, I still get to do the thing I love the most. Writing songs
and performing them with my friends all over the world. I truly have to pinch
myself.” .
And, of course, the Whigs will celebrate on the road.
“Lee is a guy that we never want to become, let’s make that clear! This tune goes out to all the blokes who keep it blokey and delve too far into the cretin side of the internet, guys that believe every sub Reddit post they read, dudes that base their entire lives around some bonkers right wing conspiracy and live in fear of 5G. When it comes to Lee, what you see isn’t a what you get, and what you get is much darker than you’d expect.”
TUTV: Hit! Hit! Hit! Need an upbeat upper to get you trough the day? This Adult DV one, right here, will do the job, with striking Chemical Bros echoes and other electronic fireworks. Floor Lee! Lee! Lee.
Band:XIU XIU Who: Seasoned Californian
art noise duo based in Berlin.
They aren’t the lazy kind of artists. In their 22-year-old career, they have
canned/released 14 LPs, with last year’s oddly titled, but very compelling
album, 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips
as the most recent one.
1. “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads 2.“Warm Leatherette” – The Normal 3.“I Put a Spell on You” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins 4.“Hamburger Lady” – Throbbing Gristle 5.“In Dreams” – Roy Orbison 6.“Sex Dwarf” – Soft Cell 7.“Dancing on My Own” – Robyn 8. “SPQR” – This Heat 9.“Lick or Sum” – GloRilla 10.“Some Things Last a Long Time”– Daniel Johnston 11.“Triple Sun” – Coil 12. “Cherry Bomb”– The Runaways
Press info: For XX covers aren’t about improvement, but reverence, aiming with each
song to be a small honorific offering to artists that have inspired them. Covers come from a broad range of inspirational touchpoints for the band that while far reaching, each feel
a fit from a band with such a varied sound, from the likes of Throbbing Gristle to GlloRilla, Robyn, Talking Heads and even Roy Orbison among others.
TUTV: To be honest, I thought XX would butcher the songs that they picked to cover. Overall, the melodies of the originals are treated with respect, but they embed them in their own characteristic noise textures of reverberating distortion and industrial rumpus. From Roy Orbison to Talking Heads. Mutha fuckin’.
The late great soul giantMARVIN GAYE (1939-1984) released
his hit single WHAT’S GOING ON, the title track of his 11th LP,
on 21 Jan 1971, today 55 years ago.
It went to #2 in the US. It would sell over two million
copies. More than 353 million streams on Spotify.
The album tackles police brutality and violence, other
socially related injustices, war, and climatic conditions.
Highly relevant again today.
“Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today, yeah
“Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
Oh, what’s going on (What’s going on)
What’s going on (What’s going on)
Right on, baby
Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we’re wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply ’cause our hair is long
Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Come on talk to me
So you can see
What’s going on (What’s going on)
Yeah, what’s going on (What’s going on)
Tell me what’s going on (What’s going on)
I’ll tell you, what’s going on (What’s going on)
Right on, baby, right on”
Artist: BILL CALLAHAN Who: Prominent singer-songwriter from Maryland, US, who first made an
impact with his band Smog, who have released 11 full-lengths between
1990 and 2005. Callahan went solo afterward.
Press info: “The twelve tunes open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues
to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With
‘My Days of 58‘, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before.”
Callahan: “I usually just sing a melody to a horn player or let them try a few takes
and go from there. This time I thought, why not get some of the record charted out.
There’s always room for spontaneity on top of that. And we did indeed throw some off
the cuff stuff on top of the charted horns in a couple cases where they weren’t fully doing
what I wanted.
With this record I kept thinking of it as a ‘living room record.’ I’m not talking about fidelity
at all here. Living room attitude. Living room vibe. Not too loud, not otherworldly. I asked for the horns to be relaxed like someone on the couch playing, not a blast from heaven or hell.”
Press info on album: ‘Johnny’s Dreamworld’ represents the culmination of Modern Woman’s journey from Harris’s early, intimate songwriting project into a full-bodied
band capable of folding post-punk, avant-garde, and folk traditions into a live force
of dynamic originality.
At its heart, the record explores the strange poetry buried within the ordinary. Harris’s lyrics, steeped in literary detail and filmic atmosphere, draw from a fascination with the dark underbelly of the everyday and the contradictions of womanhood.”
, TUTV: Blimey! This slow-burning torch gets you in a firm grip before you even realize it.
Its ongoing immense intensity has a hypnotic impact on your psyche. Foreboding tension hangs in the air, augmented by Harris‘ bone-chilling vocality. Around the 3-minute mark, all pent-up emotions explode into a guitar-layered finale that blows your mind away.
