Afghan Whigs Plan 21st Birthday Reissue for Breakthrough Album ‘Gentlemen’
The Afghan Whigs are commemorating a unique anniversary for the album that proved to be their commercial breakthrough more than two decades ago, by re-releasing it as an extras-packed two-disc set titled Gentlemen at 21.
The group has remastered its 1993 major-label debut, Gentlemen – which included the singles “Gentlemen,” “Debonair” and “What Jail Is Like” – and added 17 bonus tracks, comprising demos, B sides and live performances, most of which has never before been released. The deluxe edition will be available 21 years to the month of its original release on CD, vinyl and digital on October 28th. A triple-LP deluxe edition will be available on Record Store Day, November 28th.
Most interesting to fans who already know frontman Greg Dulli‘s every whining yelp on the record will be Gentlemen at 21‘s second disc. It contains all eight of the original demos the group made at bassist and engineer John Curley’s Ultrasuede studio space in Cincinnati, including rough versions of the record’s three singles, as well as instrumental mixes of “Now You Know” and “Brother Woodrow” that the band cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis.
It also contains the B sides to the “Debonair” single, which consist of “Mr. Superlove” and a cover of the Sixties soul tune “The Dark End of the Street,” among others. Finally, three live recordings, which were originally broadcast on the radio and later appeared on the group’s What Jail Is Like EP, that the group captured at Denver’s Mercury Café in May 1994 round out the disc.
“It was a bad year for me and some of my friends, in terms of relationships and dealing with some of my own little ghosts,” Dulli wrote in the promotional materials for the original 1993 release of the album. “A year of just some kinds of remembrances and stuff that I guess I will never be able to forget, especially since I wrote it all down and made a record out of it.”
The band – which put out Do to the Beast, its first album in 16 years this past April – is currently on tour. It recently added a gig in Brooklyn on October 5th that will occur on the 21st anniversary of Gentlemen. Accordingly, tickets cost $21.
Gentlemen at 21 Bonus Disc Track List:
1. “If I Were Going” (Demo)
2. “Gentlemen” (Demo)
3. “Be Sweet” (Demo)
4. “Debonair” (Demo)
5. “When We Two Parted” (Demo)
6. “Fountain And Fairfax” (Demo)
7. “What Jail Is Like” (Demo)
8. “My Curse” (Demo)
9. “Now You Know” (Demo)
10. “Brother Woodrow” (Demo)
11. “Little Girl Blue”
12. “Ready”
13. “Mr. Superlove”
14. “Dark End of the Street”
15. “What Jail Is Like” (Live)
16. “Now You Know” (Live)
17. “My World Is Empty Without You/I Hear a Symphony” (Live)
The Afghan Whigs Tour Dates:
September 9 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
September 10 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
September 12 – St. Louis MO @ Ready Room
September 13 – Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
September 16 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom
September 18 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
September 19 – Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage
September 20 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre
September 26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Mid Point Music Festival
September 27 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre
September 30 – Boston, MA @ Boston Royale
October 1 – Washington, DC @ 9.30 Club
October 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
October 4 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater
October 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of WIlliamsburg
October 7 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cats Cradle
October 8 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
October 10 – Chicago, IL @ The Metro
October 11 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
October 23 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
October 24 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
October 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
October 28 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
October 29 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
October 31 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk