Only grunge band worth a shit outside the lens of nostalgia.

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Not sure I'd agree with that, but I fucking love them too.
I skipped my senior HS prom to see them open for Teenage Fanclub @ the Vic in 92...

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Gentlemen and Black Love have been inching their way up my list. Maybe top 15.

Are you into the Twilight Singers at all? The first album is solid, kind of a neat trip-hop feel, then the other two albums are just spotty Whigs albums, basically.

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I agree. That first record is pretty great, but Dulli is/was so prolific that I probably haven't heard half of what he's done since 1965.
Number Nine off Blackberry Belle is quite a stunner, though.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

I met Greg Dulli on Friday night of Lolla 08 (after Radiohead) at Reggies.
Twilight Singers played a set that night prior to their Saturday set at Lolla.
B48

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@audioidkid

I like them a lot, but some of the albums are hit or miss. I really dig Dulli in Gutter Twins as well.

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The only Gutter Twins I have is Saturnalia and it hasn't clicked for me yet, though Lanegan's voice is awesome. The only hit-or-miss Whigs albums are Big Top Halloween, which hardly even counts, and Up In It, which similarly is the work of a band that hadn't found its milieu. Nothing between Congregation through 1965 is hit-or-miss.

One of my favorite things about this band are their covers. Here are my favorites:
1) Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe (Barry White)
2) Come See About Me (Supremes)
3) Mr. Superlove (Ass Ponys)
4) Miss World (Hole) [This has almost sort of a New Orleans funeral sound and is vastly superior to the original.]
5) Be For Real (Leonard Cohen)
6) Creep (TLC)
7) Nightime (Big Star)
You've Changed (Billie Holiday)
9) The Dark End of the Street (Percy Sledge)
10) Moon River

I can make these (and more) available upon request.

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Band Of Gold.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Pretty good too. The Uptown Avondale and Bonnie & Clyde EPs are both so good. The dissonance they add to "Come See About Me" is what makes it so magical, I think.

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I never really considered them grunge

Congregation is great, so is Gentleman...kind of lost me after that

I have two Twilight Singers albums though, I dig that too

i have the first twilight singers album; it's groovy.

Congregation and Gentleman, after that its downhill.

Gentleman is one of the best college rock albums of all time. Grunge? No.

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If you can call it "college rock", then CH can call it "grunge".
I just call it good.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

If Black Love is downhill, it's the good kind of downhill, like with skiing.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Re: Up In It - You My Flower is about as quintessential as Afghan Whigs get.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Boy, I was happy to see this bumped!

Yeah, "You My Flower" is one of the few Up In It tracks I like, but I'm not sure how quintessential anything from such an early album can be. Even "My Curse," which first came out in '89, wasn't perfect till they slowed it down and handed off the lead vocals to Marcy Mays on Gentlemen. This isn't to say the uptempo Dulli version is bad by any means, because it's not, but it's missing something. I think it moves too quickly to appreciate it. On Gentlemen, it moves deliberately, gives you enough time to take all the lyrics and vocal turns in, and it just plain hurts. The only thing I like better from the first take is the little guitar solo after the first chorus, which lends itself better to a brisk tempo.

The earliest I'd go for Nailing It would probably be "Tonight." I think I have at least three versions of that song: Ornament, Congregation, "Debonair" single, and maybe a fourth one? I'll also nominate "Turn On the Water."

EDIT: another thought here. How in the world did it take me almost a year to fully appreciate "Honky's Ladder"? It's not that I ever disliked it, I just viewed it as a bridge from "Going to Town" to "Bulletproof." Maybe I found the "got you where I want you, motherfucker" line cheesy? I don't know, but it kicks ass in its own right for sure.

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I love ya CH - I loved your Kenny Loggins Yacht Rock avatar of yore, and I like reading your opinions...
but sometimes I wonder if you just like to play devil's advocate or be contrarian just because you enjoy it.

"Yeah, "You My Flower" is one of the few Up In It tracks I like, but I'm not sure how quintessential anything from such an early album can be."

"You My Flower" perfectly demonstrates the band's strengths at an early stage, and I believe it belongs in at least the top 15 AW songs. If not top 10.

And I don't want to read too much into the "not sure how quintessential anything from such an early album can be" part, but

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

I just don't think it's representative of them, that's all. It shows some of their strengths early on, I guess, but there's such a leap from that album to Congregation, in my opinion. A lot of the problem is that it's not produced very well. Thin sound, less than ideal mixing, auditory concerns like that, but I don't think Dulli had really found his voice yet either, and the band hadn't started to heavily mine the Memphis/Motown influences that come to mind when one says "quintessential Afghan Whigs." All that happens by the next album: they get into rhythms better, they start to get the swagger, the sound quality improves exponentially. So as much as I may like "You My Flower" and "Retarded," I can't get behind them as being in any way "representative." Sort of like how if you watch the zeroth/first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with Tom Servo's weird voice and the more ad-libbed feel, you can enjoy it for what it is without putting it on a pedestal and saying "now this is why."

Were I pressed to give someone the fifteen Afghan Whigs songs that best explain what this band is and why I love them for it, I'd probably lay it out like so:
Debonair
My Curse
66
Crazy
Faded
What Jail Is Like
Omerta
Bulletproof
Crime Scene, Part One
Congregation
Come See About Me
Turn On the Water
Miles Iz Ded
Mr. Superlove
Honky's Ladder

I leaned heavily on the last three albums, yeah, but that's where the magic is.

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1. I still completely disagree with you about "you My Flower". I guess you have to have perspective - I saw them 18 years ago at the Vic and they played that song along with most of Congregation and the drummer got naked and the drummer from Teenage Fanclub joined them and blah blah blah - it will always be Afghan Whigs-y enough for me.

2. I love your list of 15 but Superlove and Come see are covers so I'll offer - Let me lie to you (quintessential enough for ya?) and I'm her slave.

3. I think "Crazy" is an absolute studio masterpiece. There is nothing wrong with that song. Who's hot, who's not?

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

They are covers, and with the wealth of amazing covers in their catalogue, I think it's important to include the way they take others' songs and make them their own. Their "Come See About Me" might as well be a whole new song, the way the mood changes. Both of your alternates are good ideas, though. I might find a place for the B-side mix of "Tonight" too.

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you didn't include 'conjure me'

I didn't include "My Enemy" either and I wanted to fit in both, but 15 was the number.

Too bad a list of essential Twilight Singers isn't much to speak of:
The Twilite Kid
Love
Railroad Lullaby
Esta Noche
Teenage Wristband
Bonnie Brae

(shrug)

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Bagels is right about Conjure me - and since when is Blackberry Belle no longer on itunes?
number nine off that album is an all-timer.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.