As The Afghan Whigs announce their first studio album in five years “How Do You Burn?” (out 9/9 and Named by their friend the late Mark Lanegan, who also appears on the album), they’ve not only embarked on an extensive tour, but have pulled from the upcoming album the powerful new single and video “The Getaway”!
“their most direct presentation of abstract passion ever” – Rolling Stone
“Dulli rides the band’s blend of R&B insinuation, hip-hop cool and hard rock invasiveness into corners of experience where few rockers of his generation have rested” – NPR
“Three decades after forming, the Afghan Whigs remain vital for its willingness to ignore boundaries” – New York Times
“How Do You Burn?” is The Afghan Whigs ninth album overall and following on from the brace of widely acclaimed records they’ve made previously since re-grouping in 2012, “Do to the Beast” (2014) and “In Spades” (2017). “How Do You Burn?” picks up the baton laid down by each of those records and runs it to the horizon.
Work on it was begun in September 2020 – the COVID pandemic having forced Whigs frontman/songwriter Greg Dulli to abandon plans to tour his highly praised solo album, ‘Random Desire’ – and continued over the next 14 months.
The global pandemic dictated also that the band record largely apart from, and in different locations to, each other: Dulli, his co-producer Christopher Thorn and drummer Patrick Keeler together in California; bassist John Curley, guitarist Jon Skibic and strings man Rick Nelson laying down and engineering their own parts in Cincinnati, New Jersey and New Orleans, respectively.
“Once we got the system down, we started flying,” says Dulli.
For his supporting cast, Dulli called upon several serial collaborators including the late Mark Lanegan, who was a regular in Dulli’s Twilight Singers, a partner in The Gutter Twins and a close friend. Lanegan makes his The Afghan Whigs debut singing backup vocals on two tracks. “It was Mark who named the album,” Dulli remarked.