The Afghan Whigs Share “The Getaway,” Announce First New Studio Album in 5 years

The Afghan Whigs announce their first studio album in five years How Do You Burn? (Royal Cream/BMG), which is set for release on September 9th via Royal Cream/BMG. Also out today is the second song taken from the new album titled “The Getaway.” A brand-new music video for “The Getaway” also makes its debut today. The band will embark on an extensive tour in support of How Do You Burn? this fall in the United States and Europe, kicking off in Minneapolis on September 9th at the Fine Line and ending at the newly reopened KOKO in London on November 6th.  Tickets go on sale this Friday May 6th for all fall shows.  The band’s previously announced spring tour begins next week in Florida.

How Do You Burn?, the band’s 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 Afghan Whigs debut singing backup vocals on two tracks.  “It was Mark who named the album,” Dulli remarked.

Susan Marshall, who sang on the Whigs album 1965, returns to the fray for “Catch A Colt,” one of the album’s standout tracks, loose-limbed like Some Girls-era Rolling Stones and with the liquid polyrhythms of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. The multi-talented Van Hunt, who toured with the Whigs in 2012 and guested on Do to the Beast, brings his stacked-up, wall-of-sound vocals to both the plunging, voodoo blues of “Jyja” and the audacious “Take Me There”, transforming the latter, says Dulli, “into this feral gospel song. We sing really well together, but what Van does production-wise… it’s unrelenting.” Then there’s Marcy Mays, lead vocalist on ‘My Curse’, the torch-song highlight of 1993’s seminal ‘Gentlemen’ album, reprising her role here on the celestial “Domino and Jimmy”, playing Stevie Nicks to Dulli’s Lindsey Buckingham. “I wrote that song with Marcy in mind,” says Dulli. “No one sounds like her; she’s got an incredibly unique, emotional and evocative voice.”

The Afghan Whigs – Dulli, Curley, Nelson, Keeler and Christopher Thorn now joining the band on guitar – will take How Do You Burn? out on the road beginning this spring.  Beyond that, says Dulli, their future is gloriously wide open.

U.S. MAY 2022 TOUR DATES

05/11                Fort Lauderdale, FL  –  Culture Room

05/12                Tampa, FL –  The Orpheum

05/13                Orlando, FL  – The Social

05/14                Atlanta, GA  – Terminal West

05/15                Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle

05/17                Nashville, TN  –  The Basement East

05/18                Louisville, KY  –  Headliners Music Hall

05/20                St. Louis, MO  –  Delmar Hall

05/21                Milwaukee, WI  –  Turner Hall Ballroom

05/22                Indianapolis, IN –  The Vogue

05/24                Pittsburgh, PA –  Mr. Smalls Theatre

05/25                Brooklyn, NY –  Music Hall of Williamsburg

06/01                Los Angeles, CA  –  YouTube Theater

EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR DATES

06/17                Vitoria, ES  –  Azkena Rock Festival

07/23                Brighton, UK  –  Concorde 2

07/24                Suffolk, UK  –  Latitude Festival

07/26                Frankfurt, Germany  –  Batschkapp

07/28                Vienna, Austria  –  Flex

07/29                Prague, Czech Republic  –  Lucerna Music Bar

Metropol

07/30                 Berlin, Germany  –  Metropol

08/01                Oslo, Norway  –  Parkteatret Scene

08/02                Stockholm, Sweden  –  Debaser

08/03                Copenhagen, Denmark  –  Amager Bio

08/05                Hamburg, Germany   –  Uebel & Gefährlich (Half House)

08/06                Nijmegen, Netherlands    –  Roosje Live In Park @ Openluchttheater Goffert

08/08                Stuttgart, Germany  –  Im Wizemann

08/09                Cologne, Germany  –  Luxor

08/10                Lokeren, Belgium  –  Lokersee Feesten

U.S. FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES

09/09                Minneapolis, MN  –  Fine Line Music Café

09/10                Chicago, IL  –  Metro

09/11                Cincinnati, OH  –  Bogarts

09/12                Detroit, MI    –  St. Andrews Hall

09/14                Washington, D.C.  –  9:30 Club

09/15                Brooklyn, NY  –  Brooklyn Steel

09/16                Philadelphia, PA  –  Underground Arts

09/17                Boston, MA  –  Paradise

09/20                Charlottesville, VA  –  Jefferson Theatre

09/21                Asheville, NC  –  The Grey Eagle

09/22                Birmingham, AL  –  Saturn

09/24                New Orleans, LA  –  One Eyed Jacks

09/28                Austin, TX   –   Mohawk

09/29                Dallas, TX  –  The Echo Lounge & Music Hall

10/01                Denver, CO  –  Gothic Theatre

10/02                Salt Lake City, UT  –  The Commonwealth Room

10/05                Portland, OR   –  Wonder Ballroom

10/06                Seattle, WA  –  The Showbox

10/08             San Francisco, CA  –  The Regency Ballroom

10/11                Tucson, AZ  –  191 Toole

10/12                Los Angeles, CA  –  Belasco Theatre

EUROPEAN FALL HEADLINE TOUR DATES

10/22                Madrid, Spain  –  Teatro Barceló

10/23                Barcelona, Spain  –  Apolo 2

10/25                Milan, Italy   –  Santeria

10/26                Rome, Italy  –  Largo

10/28                Munich, Germany   –  Freiheitshalle

10/29                Zurich, Switzerland  –  Bogen F

10/30                Luxembourg  –  Den Atelier

11/01                Amsterdam, Netherlands  –  Paradiso

11/02                Antwerp, Belgium  –  De Roma

11/04                Manchester, UK  –  Cathedral

11/05                Glasgow, UK   –  St. Lukes

11/06                London, UK   –   KOKO