Two for Tuesday

I'm a bit behind with these, but that's how it goes sometimes.

At any rate, today's 24T comes from Ohio's Afghan Whigs, whose brand of Motown punk made albums like Congregation and 1965 critical high points of 90s alt-rock, even though they were scandalously overlooked by the public in favor of more watered down flavors associated with the "grunge" movement. Greg Dulli, if half of what he sings about is true, is a bad dude, but not so much in a sinister way than a realist one. He got to the dirt of the matter with relationships, wailing his smoky lungs out while the band chugged and slashed furiously behind him. Even in their more subdued moods the danger was always present, an unsettling reminder that the quietest moments can be wrecked by a human presence.

Today's offerings come from their early and mid career - Retarded from 1990's Up In It, which was the first indication of the fury to come (Dulli's yelling on this song gives Black Francis a run for his money), and the title track from 1994's Gentlemen - quite possibly the meanest, nastiest album ever written (if you're a girl).