Afghan Whigs closer than ever

Reuniting a rock ‘n’ roll band is not unlike patching things up with family or an ex-partner. The older you get, the more you appreciate your shared history, but it also becomes harder to compromise.

In leading the Afghan Whigs to their first album of new songs in nearly 16 years, Greg Dulli has used the motivation of history to overcome the obstacles of compromise.

“I don’t have a lot of experience with getting back together with ex-girlfriends, but I do with estranged family members, and there are parallels,” Dulli says by phone from his Los Angeles home. “People get set in their ways, so changing your way of doing things for the greater good can be a greater challenge. On the other hand, there’s no substitute for a long-term friendship with all that shared experience.”

Only two of the four Afghan Whigs who played on the group’s 1988 debut album, “Big Top Halloween,” are still on hand for this year’s “Do to the Beast”: singer-songwriter-guitarist Dulli and bassist John Curley. Original drummer Steve Earle (no, not the country singer) was gone by 1995, and lead guitarist Rick McCollum left in 2012 to deal with “personal issues.” The current lineup includes drummer Patrick Keeler, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic. But the bond between Dulli and Curley identifies this band as the Afghan Whigs.

“John played in one of my first bands, the Black Republicans, when we were 19, even before we became the Afghan Whigs,” Dulli says. “I’ve played several thousand gigs with that dude. I went around the world and saw things for the first time with him. In a lot of ways, he’s the brother I never had.

“Yes, we’d stop the van in the middle of Montana and punch each other in the face. Fortunately, we don’t do that anymore, but when you’ve punched each other in the face and you’re still friends, there’s a lot of trust there.”

After a successful 2012 reunion tour, the Afghan Whigs went on hiatus with no further plans, but they were brought back together by the most unlikely of matchmakers: Usher. The R&B star wanted to perform with a rock band at last year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, and after hearing the Whigs’ remake of Frank Ocean’s “Lovecrimes,” he got Dulli on the phone. That soon led to a well-received performance at the Fader Fort stage.

“There’s something very Michael Jackson about Usher,” Dulli says. “He’s got some catchy songs, and he’s a great singer and dancer. I like showmanship, and when he came out with us, he owned the stage. I also liked putting a show together in two days. … That experience reminded me of being a young man, when things happened very fast.”

Playing with Usher wasn’t much of a stretch for Dulli and Curley, who had grown up in Hamilton, Ohio, where funk, punk and hard rock were all equal ingredients in the stew. As a teenager, Dulli had an Earth, Wind & Fire poster in his bedroom, and the Afghan Whigs included their cover of the Supremes’ “Come See About Me” on their anthology album, “Unbreakable (A Retrospective 1990-2006).” Dulli, who also has a home in New Orleans, hired members of that city’s Rebirth Brass Band for songs such as “John the Baptist,” also on “Unbreakable.”

“John and I were so excited by the South by Southwest show,” Dulli says, “that we booked some studio time just to see what might happen. We went into the studio a month later and came out with three bangers. It became a mission, and when you’re on a mission, you’re all in, and being all in is exciting. This record was written, recorded and mixed in seven months, which is the fastest I’ve done a record since 1993.”

‘My duality’

The first song they finished was “Parked Outside,” which kicks off the new album with a stomping, serrated guitar riff and Dulli’s half-strangled scream: “If time can incinerate what I was to you, allow me to illustrate how the hand becomes the fuse.” That pugnacious music and threat, however, soon gives way to a surprising vulnerability: “You’re gonna make me break down and cry.”

At the beginning of “Lost in the Woods,” described by Dulli as the album’s pivotal song, he sneers like a Marvel Comics villain over gothic piano chords: “I’ll have you know I’ve come to see you die.” Before long, though, he sees his ex-girlfriend in a car with someone else, and brings on the strings to underline a tender melody of loss and regret. All of the album’s songs swing between angry and sad, threatening and sympathetic, distorted and melodic, loud and quiet.

“That’s my duality,” Dulli explains. “These songs are filled with the ghosts of former lovers, former friends from my life — from anyone’s life, for that matter. I just happen to be a reflector of experiences and imagination. With these songs, I’m a little bit further down the line than I was when I wrote my first songs. I was operating at the peak of my powers on this project. I felt very confident, liberated from expectations, from anything but the freedom to do what I wanted to do.”

Now that car is the Afghan Whigs, and with Curley in the shotgun seat, Dulli is ready to ride.

“John’s the even-handed, philosophical person in the band. He’s Spock and I’m Kirk,” Dulli says. “We’re yin and yang. He’s always been a great balancer for me, and I’ve probably shown him some wilder ways of living. So there’s an ESP that goes on. I can just look at the guy and he looks at me, and neither of us has to say anything.”