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Standard operation procedure

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Well, The Afhgan Whigs 2012 “End Times” tour is done, culminating in an extremely satisfying and emotional show on New Year’s Eve in Cincinnati, the city where the whole thing started. We came together last year, already an extended family of sorts, from different projects and different cities, a collection of intersecting Venn diagrams, all of us with a “Dulli number” of 1 (note to slef: investigate people’s Dulli Numbers. Must be relevant?), to really gel into more than just a band. ‘Twas somewhere between ensemble and pirate ship.
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The Afghan Whigs at Antone's in Austin

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I’ve since begun work on my record, started working on music with some other friends (some more familiar to you than others) and generally getting productive.

Every year I try to take stock, reflect and count my blessings. When I think of how frustrated and insecure I was as a kid, how low my self esteem was, how many dates I never had and how many hours I filled sitting in my lonely teen room playing guitar out of an intense need to fill the space in my heart, I have to say it was the best schooling I could have had, and my life is so full of color because of it.
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Backing Terry McDermott at the NFC playoffs in Houston

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My musical life is rich and diverse, and what started out as a career intent on being a “gun for hire guitarist” has turned into parterships and friendships in ART that transcend business or pleasure, the whole thing mixed together in a satisfying roux. In the last few months I’ve toured the world, done gigs as varied as matinees in tiny clubs in the French Quarter, studio guitar and engineering work for hire, played to 70,000 NFL fans at a halftime show, played in a live karaoke band, power trio gigs for fun with friends, and writing and arranging. Mostly withnFRIENDS… Schizoid, but satisfying. I can’t believe it actually worked out this way.
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NOLA's own Eric Bolivar smearing bacon grease on my songs at Rick Nelson's studio, 12/12

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So, I guess the moral is, make good friends with good people, and say ‘yes’ to good things and ‘no’ to bad things. For the most part it’ll all work out (knock on Mayan wood). And you can’t do it all yourself. People need people, and the friends you make in life are the ones that see you through the times when your Mom can’t be there. Which is most of the time.
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Thanks to everyone who came to see me, offered support, traveled with me and shared the stage last year  - it ain’t the parties in yer life, it’s the life in yer parties!

6 Comments | In: Afghan Whigs, Greg Dulli, Life, Terry McDermott | | #

We recorded the New York show at Webster Hall this year, and are releasing it for your pleasure.

Download on iTunes

Download from Amazon.com

ADDENDUM:

Pitchfork.com gives it an 8/10 review, which is comparable to an 11/10 review from Rolling Stone,  Spin et al – I feel like a Kennedy!

No Comments | In: Greg Dulli, twilight singers | | #

A fitting end to the Blackberry Belle set at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Petra Haden slays here.

3 Comments | In: Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan, music, twilight singers | | #

This show has since  SOLD OUT

Twilight Singers site

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Dynamite Steps available today – we are doing a set at Amoeba Records on Sunset in LA at 6pm, come early.

Also Thurs, Feb 17 we perform at Amoeba records San Francisco in Haight-Ashbury.

iTunes: Dynamite Steps Download

Amazon.com: Dynamite Steps CD

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Now in the SubPop website, with pre-order, you can stream the forthcoming Twilight Singers record in its entirety, click HERE.

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March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

7 Comments | In: Greg Dulli, music, musicians, travel, twilight singers | | #

A lot of people (ok, guitar nerds) ask me what I use for the acoustic shows I’ve been doing lately (The Gutter Twins ‘09, Mark Lanegan May-Aug ‘10, Greg Dulli Oct-Nov ‘10) – it looks reminiscent of a couple of more popular old guitars (like a cross between a Django-style, a straight acoustic & a cheap f-hole archtop) but you might be surpised at the make -

It’s an Alvarez AD65CE, made for only a coupla years in the early 2000’s. I never see them for sale but I don’t know what one would go for if you found it. Spruce top, laminated maple back/sides, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.

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I think it was intended for jazz players who use a thick plain or wound G string.  The P90-style magnetic pickup in the neck actually sounds pretty good with steel electric strings, but with the bronze acoustic strings I use,  it mainly adds some thick low-mid, a little bump around 200-300 Hz (i use a Radial 2-channel instrument preamp where I can blend the stereo output of the pickups, rather than use the volume pots on the guitar), without much detail – the bronze strings don’t have enough magnetic response to excite the pickup.  It does help on certain songs where I’m doing walking bass lines or with gain effects, it sounds nice & thick.

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The cool thing is the split output – I used to do instrumental loop-based ambient gigs at art galleries but only had a rudimentary looping setup, so I’d send the piezo pickup to the looper, since you can beat on a piezo & get reasonable drumlike sounds, then run the mag p/u through a bunch of other pedals.  Again, probably not what Alvarez had in mind.  On a jazz gig it would do alright i think, although it’s too much of an ugly duckling to be confused with a D’Angelico or Benedetto… Still, the neck is nice – not too thin but not too chunky.

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At some point I really need to spend the damn time trying out a lot of different acoustics & find the “right one” for my hands, but this thing does a good job in the meantime – I like to take tools on the road & leave instruments at home, y’knowwhatimean?  I’d hate to have this thing stolen but I’d rather see it destroyed than a $12,000 1964 Whatchamacallit.

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note: someone told me I looked like a “dirty cop” so I shaved the moustache a coupla days later.

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