Winter is a good time for feeling glum. The sun goes down at five, everybody holes up in their homes, and drinking starts earlier than ever. Winter is also the most fitting time for a release from The Twilight Singers, and for the first time in five years, Greg Dulli can deliver on that. On February 15, the ex-Afghan Whigs lead will release his fifth album as The Twilight Singers, Dynamite Steps, on Sub Pop.
Of course, Dulli hasn’t exactly been inactive since 2006’s Powder Burns. There was his second side-project, The Gutter Twins, with Mark Lanegan; the self-declared “Satanic Everly Brothers” released a debut LP in 2008, gloomily titled Saturnalia. More recently, Dulli has been traveling alone on his “An Evening with Greg Dulli” tour since the beginning of October.
According to The Twilight Singers’ very florid write-up of the album, Dynamite Steps treads “the thin line between life and death, mortality and immortality, resignation and celebration” — a big surprise, given Dulli’s catalog and the name of the band. Guest contributors on the album include Mark Lanegan, Ani DiFranco (so that’s what she’s doing these days!), The Verve’s Nick McCabe, Joseph Arthur, and Petra Haden. We can already anticipate the extreme “adult alternative” listing on Allmusic.com.
Naturally, The Twilight Singers will be touring this coming year for Dynamite Steps, and Dulli has promised tourdates soon. As proof of the reality of this fifth sullen, life vs. death album, The Twilight Singers have kindly made the tracklist public.
01. Last Night in Town
02. Be Invited
03. Waves
04. Get Lucky
05. On the Corner
06. Gunshots
07. She Was Stolen
08. Blackbird and the Fox
09. Never Seen No Devil
10. The Beginning of the End
11. Dynamite Steps
• Greg Dulli/The Twilight Singers: http://www.thetwilightsingers.com
• Sub Pop: http://www.subpop.com