The Afghan Whigs’ on again, off again career started in 1986 when the quartet fronted by Greg Dulli rose from the Cincinnati, Ohio grunge scene to form a rock band. A love of Motown and R&B drew the four together and influenced the sound of the new group. Their self released first record came in 1988 and one of the thousand copies pressed found its way to Sub Pop Records, which originally planned to release only a single from the group.
Sub Pop embraced the group – only their second band from outside the Pacific Northwest released two albums which saw significant airplay on MTV. It was not until 1993 that the R&B and soul influences began to emerge, giving the Afghan Whigs their own distinctive sound. Their Gentlemen release that year was the groups biggest seller and received widespread praise.
Despite the success of 1993’s Gentlemen, the Afghan Whigs were never able to grow from their cult following. In fact, the critical and commercial success had its backlash, including an anti Afghan Whigs fanzine called Fat Greg Dulli.
By 2001 the group had broken up after its members moved to different parts of the country. A brief reunion came in 2006 with a pair of new songs and a best of album and then a longer lived reunion started in 2011.
The reformed group minus original drummer Steve Earle went on tour, then recorded their first new record in 16 years. Despite health problems, the group has remained together with new material released this year.
