Afghan Whigs

The Afghan Whigs were a soul-influenced alternative rock band which hailed from Cincinnati. While they achieved moderate success in the 1990’s -- Rolling Stone described the band as spending "the bulk of their career on the brink of stardom" --they "never quite broken beyond a substantial legion of devotees enamored of their thinly veiled sleaze."
Band history

Greg Dulli (vocals, rhythm guitar), Rick McCollum (lead guitar), John Curley (bass), and Steve Earle (drums -- not to be confused with country musician Steve Earle) formed the band in Cincinnati in 1986.

In 1988, they released their debut album Big Top Halloween on their own Ultrasuede label. The album caught the attention and imagination of the independent music community and the band soon signed to Sub Pop of Seattle in 1989. Sub Pop's signing of The Afghan Whigs created quite a stir at the time as they were the first non-Northwestern U.S. band to record for the label.

In 1990, their first Sub Pop release Up In It was released; the blistering pace and yowling, effects-heavy guitars on tracks like "White Trash Party" gave no hint of the stylistic about-face to come.

With the critically acclaimed 1992 album Congregation and a limited covers EP, Uptown Avondale, the band adopted what would become their signiture soul-influenced sound.

Soon The Afghan Whigs signed to a major label, Elektra Records, and in 1993 released another critically acclaimed album, Gentlemen. Although the singles “Debonair” and “Gentlemen” were fairly popular, the album failed to launch the band into the mainstream.

(As well as regular appearances on MTV's playlists, their track, "Fountain and Fairfax", also appeared on the television series My So-Called Life in 1994).

Despite personnel problems interfering with recording and touring, 1996 saw the band release the noir-influenced Black Love (the album featured Paul Buchignani on drums in place of Steve Earle). Although the main subject matter in previous releases were liquor drenched obsession, secrets and misery, Black Love was a step into a more dark, seedier and complex side of Dulli’s persona.

In 1996, Greg Dulli served as executive producer for the soundtrack for the Ted Demme film Beautiful Girls. The Afghan Whigs appeared in the film as a bar band and contributed two songs to the soundtrack (Frederick Knight’s "Be For Real" and Barry White's "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe").

In 1998, The Afghan Whigs released their 6th album, 1965, on Columbia Records (Michael Horrigan replaced Buchignani). The album saw the band on inspired form. Sadly, it was the bands' last full-length album of original material.

Despite reports that the band had started work on their 7th album, The Afghan Whigs announced their split in 2001, citing the strain of geographic distance between members.

In 2006, The Afghan Whigs temporarily reunited [[1]]. The ‘1965’ lineup recorded two new tracks ("I’m A Soldier" and "Magazine") to be featured on their retrospective titled Unbreakable -- due for release on May 1, 2007 through Rhino Records[[2]].