Twilight Singers
Rock / Indie Rock
the twilight singers, led by Greg Dulli, just completed a U.S. club tour November 4 through December 1 following the release of blackberry belle, October 14 on One Little Indian/Birdman Records. Greg will be playing piano in Mark Lanegan's band for West Coast dates in December, then the two will record an album together under the name "The Gutter Twins." the twilight singers then undertake a European tour January - February and plan to do a second US tour in March.
the twilight singers are an ever changing collective, a chance for Dulli to be in whatever kind of band he needs to be in at any point in his career. Not a Greg Dulli solo project, but more a particular outfit assembled to record or a particular collection of musical moments/compositions or perform it live. For this tour the line-up comprised Greg Dulli – vocals/guitar/piano, Mathias Schneeberger- keyboards/guitar, Jon Skibic- guitar/vocals, Scott Ford- bass/vocals, and Bobby Bacintyre- drums/vocals. This will be Greg’s first tour since the dissolution of The Afghan Whigs.
Listening to blackberry belle, the second recording from the twilight singers, feels like falling without a catcher in the rye to protect you. Dulli's voice has never been more powerful or his songwriting stronger than on these songs. "Teenage Wristband" asks, "You wanna go for a ride?" Greg has inhaled his influences from Pink Floyd to Nina Simone to Big Star to the nastiest side of hip-hop. Greg Dulli has gathered up his twilight singers; crazy foreigners, dark lords of the French Quarter, guitar slingers from Hollywood's saloons.
Dulli came to the writing and recording of blackberry belle after devoting over a decade to The Afghan Whigs, one of the most original, expectation-defying and yet stylishly sophisticated outfits to emerge from the latterday American underground rock scene having left behind a recorded legacy that includes Gentlemen (regularly listed as one of the top rock albums of all time) and the dark masterpiece Black Love.
The first twilight singers album twilight as played by the twilight singers was begun in 1997, Dulli and his fellow Whigs having gone on hiatus, to cope with the degenerating relations with their label. The project was put on hold as The Afghan Whigs made what turned out to be their last album together, the highly regarded 1965. Thereafter, Dulli proceeded to strategically reinvent much of the twilight singers’s recordings in cahoots with dance-maestros, Fila Brazillia.
Moving to Los Angeles, Greg wrote almost 30 new songs in preparation for what would become blackberry belle. He decided to record the complete album before involving labels and have had recorded five great songs in a local studio when, a close friend died suddenly. Greg felt very differently about the record he wanted to make. The songs that he had done or had intended to record no longer fit with where his head was at.
Greg's journey from there took him back and forth between studios in Los Angeles and New Orleans. The new material and their treatments were darker now: more rich browns and reds, with Rembrandt-esque light showing just parts of the crime scene. blackberry belle is as sad as it is triumphant.
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