Greg Dulli
Fresh off the back of last week's triumphant Afghan Whigs gig, I have chosen lead man Greg Dulli as the starting point for this occasional ramble into Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields.
As ever, we will take a meander around some weird musical bends, picking up some interesting (and random) facts along the way, as we head from Dulli to the King of Shoegaze, Kevin Shields.
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Greg Dulli had managed a year and a half at the University of Cincinnati, before randomly ending up working at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles). After that, in 1986, he would be back in his native Ohio forming the Afghan Whigs. While they are still going today, they did have a rather large hiatus from 2000 to 2011. He didn't sit around during that time; he formed the Twilight Singers with an array of New Orleans musicians, who put out five records (plus one of covers). Then there was the Gutter Twins with Mark Lanegan, who signed to Sub Pop in 2008. The band, which also included his former Whig bandmate Dave Rosser, released the album Saturnalia and the Actorea EP.
The Gutter Twins: Idle Hands (live on Letterman, 2008)
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Mark Lanegan started out life in the backwater of Ellensburg, Washington, in 1964. He made his name with alt-rockers Screaming Trees, but also had stints in Queens of the Stone Age, the aforementioned Gutter Twins, plenty of solo records, and some collaborations with Isobel Campbell. There was Mad Season, his cross-grunge partnership with Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) and Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), as well as working on an album of covers by blues legend Lead Belly, with a certain Kurt Cobain, but it was never released.
Mark Lanegan: One Hundred Days (live at Werchter Festival, 2017 - any excuse to play Mark)
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The work with cellist and songwriter Isobel Campbell, once of Scottish indie band Belle & Sebastian, resulted in a number of records; Time Is Just The Same EP, Ballad Of The Broken Seas, Sunday At Devil Dirt and Hawk. Broken Seas earned them a nomination for the prestigious 2006 Mercury Music Prize, which caused some controversy. That was because it is supposed to only be for British and Irish musicians, with Lanegan being American - but it was given a pass because the majority of the songwriting had been done by Campbell.
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: (Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me? (live on Sound Opinions, 200 - 3 in a row with Mark - it wasn't my intention, but that's just how things go...)
That 2006 prize was ultimately won by the Arctic Monkeys for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. But there were also nominations that year for Editors (The Back Room), Hot Chip (The Warning), Scritti Politti (White Bread Black Beer) and Muse (Black Holes & Revelations).
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Black Holes and Revelations was another typical Muse dystopian megalith of a record, touching on politics, corruption, revolution and of course, alien invasion. It spawned two UK Top 10 singles in Supermassive Black Hole and Knights of Cyclonia and racked up the best part of 5 million sales worldwide. As Will Hermes wisely stated in Entertainment Weekly, "If prog is indeed the new punk, these guys are its Green Day."
Muse: Supermassive Black Hole (official music video)
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Black Holes was produced by Rich Costey, a Californian producer and mixer, who has worked across many genres, and been a part of many Grammy winning teams, during his career. As a mixer he has worked with the likes of Linkin Park, Deftones, Foo Fighters and Fiona Apple; while in the production chair, as well as Muse, he has twiddled knobs for Mew, Interpol, Snow Patrol and Franz Ferdinand.
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Another record that Rich Costey was involved with, was The Bones Of What You Believe, by Scottish (Glasgow) synth-pop outfit Chvrches, for which he did the majority of the mixing. This well received record, was the band's 2013 debut and spawned a creditable seven singles. The band had begun life with the intention of just getting some songs posted onto the internet and seeing how it went, with no initial plans to be a live band. However, a good reaction from their initial online content meant they would have to do some gigging.
Chvrches: The Mother We Share (live at Glastonbury, 2023)
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On 27 March this year (2026), Chvrches played as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust concert series at the Royal Albert Hall, curated by Robert Smith. They opened up for that evening's show, with a stripped back set, including the song How Not To Drown, which they had collaborated with Smith on. However, Music News noted that when the headline act appeared, they delivered a set that "enveloped the audience in a physical embrace of volume and melody" and yet retained a degree of intimacy despite its intensity. That band was, of course, My Bloody Valentine, featuring KEVIN SHIELDS.
My Bloody Valentine: You Made Me Realise (fan video from the Teenage Cancer Trust show - not the greatest, but gives you a good idea of the description above)
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