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June 8, 2009

Mark Lanegan Covers Afghan Whigs

thubmnail icon: Mark Lanegan Covers Afghan Whigs

Lanegan does a properly slow, soulful, kind of blue take of one of his Gutter Twin's classic Congregation songs "Tonight." His go at the 1992 come-on's from the forthcoming Summer's Kiss: A Tribute To The Afghan Whigs, which includes a baker's dozen of Whigs takes via Joseph Arthur, My Jerusalem, Zykos, etc. The idea for it started in the summer of 2006 when the Afghan Whigs fan site Summerkiss put out an open call for covers of Whigs songs and folks responded. You can hear snippets of the selected 13 (of nearly 100 submitted) at the Summerkiss label's website, but first you can hear Lanegan in his smokey entirety here. (By the by, does Sam Holden's photo for the tribute's cover look at all familiar, gentlemen?)

Scared ya, didn't I? Speaking of slow and smokey:

Summer's Kiss: A Tribute To The Afghan Whigs is out 6/23 via Summerkiss. Check out the aforementioned snippets of the other tracks at the above Summerkiss site.

Posted at 11:38 AM by brandon
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12 Comments

One of the greatest bands ever. But this version is weird. Have to listen to it more times.

Posted by: Salem at 06/08/09 1:02 PM  | Reply
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beautiful ... anyone who gets the afghan whigs gets what it means to be a lover ... hand in hand, at least in my experience :)

Posted by: Lucy at 06/08/09 1:11 PM  | Reply
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I agree with you 15000000%, Lucy!

Posted by: doomcookie  in reply to Lucy's comment at 06/08/09 2:04 PM  | Reply
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Gabe, as soon as I read "Scared ya, didn't I?" I knew what that link was going to be. I have that commercial on tape from when my mom taped me Muppet Family Christmas in 1988. Oh, and good cover of a good song by a great band. I miss the Afghans.

Posted by: Matt at 06/08/09 1:20 PM  | Reply
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Whoops. This isn't Videogum. I meant Brandon, not Gabe.

Posted by: Matt  in reply to Matt's comment at 06/08/09 2:16 PM  | Reply
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he does sound as tempting as jack the ripper...

Posted by: didier at 06/08/09 1:32 PM  | Reply
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It's a fantastic cover but it doesn't quite match the atmosphere of the original.

Posted by: Sal at 06/08/09 4:15 PM  | Reply
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I don't know how he did it, but Lanegan managed to blow more smoke into this track than there was before.

Posted by: Brad Nelson at 06/08/09 6:30 PM  | Reply
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I'm really digging this and I want more of it.

Posted by: SubSickAlien profile link at 06/08/09 9:45 PM  | Reply
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Lanegan fills the song with darkness and regret... he takes an aspect of it that sits in the background on the original and uses it brilliantly. I can't believe that some people are not getting that - it's not MEANT to have the atmosphere of the original. That's the point. He takes it somewhere else because he's a fantastic interpreter of songs and he unloads his own weary baggage on it.

Posted by: stephen at 06/09/09 4:13 AM  | Reply
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No need to be so patronising, I "get it", in fact I love Lanegan, he's one of my all-time favourite singers, but that doesn't mean I have to appreciate his cover more than the original, which I think was filled with something eerie and unique. I didn't say I thought Lanegan's take was meant to have the atmosphere of the original, all I meant is that I prefer the dark, smoky, Dulli-filled atmosphere of the original. The way Greg sings "Hey baby, it's a vampire moon" is one of my favourite moments of the Afghan Whigs back catalogue. For me, it would take a lot to surpass that.

Posted by: Sal  in reply to stephen's comment at 06/09/09 12:22 PM  | Reply
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i have to say i'm a bit disappointed by the line-up on this album. apart from Lanegan there's not really anyone i know or care about.

Posted by: Vincent Pollard at 06/09/09 3:08 PM  | Reply
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