The Gutter Twins

Although <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Mark Lanegan</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2dxi3wnJ9h9kNioaWyIpYd">Greg Dulli</a> first met at a party in 1989, the two didn't start making music together -- and become friends, for that matter -- until the following decade, after both had experienced successful careers as members of the cult grunge bands <a href="spotify:artist:3Ukr3Ufjg8ygRJv7Ww887f">the Screaming Trees</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7IDrRpDz0cOuUVC32c8PKD">the Afghan Whigs</a>, respectively. Their similarly troubled pasts (and presents) forged a strong bond between them, helped only by their similar musical tastes and expressions. <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Lanegan</a> showed up on the 2003 album Blackberry Belle by <a href="spotify:artist:2dxi3wnJ9h9kNioaWyIpYd">Dulli</a>'s new group, <a href="spotify:artist:0lmPazVDvsQ8FXDcBfKc6r">the Twilight Singers</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2dxi3wnJ9h9kNioaWyIpYd">Dulli</a> appeared on <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Lanegan</a>'s 2004 solo full-length, Bubblegum, and toured with his band as a piano player. It was in fact around this time, too, that the idea for the Gutter Twins began to take shape, first with <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Lanegan</a> telling a journalist, unbeknownst to <a href="spotify:artist:2dxi3wnJ9h9kNioaWyIpYd">Dulli</a>, that the two were collaborating. The first recording happened at the end of 2003, but as both were heavily involved in other projects -- <a href="spotify:artist:2dxi3wnJ9h9kNioaWyIpYd">Dulli</a> with <a href="spotify:artist:0lmPazVDvsQ8FXDcBfKc6r">the Twilight Singers</a> and the Italian band <a href="spotify:artist:4LAGemASxODFta2tWSAucy">Afterhours</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Lanegan</a> not only with his solo work, but as a singer for <a href="spotify:artist:4pejUc4iciQfgdX6OKulQn">Queens of the Stone Age</a> and on collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:762Lq0yk2VhjIfkTVDzlhv">Soulsavers</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4I2BJf80C0skQpp1sQmA0h">Belle & Sebastian</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:55dlp5I9jyc4UjzlrcKMnq">Isobel Campbell</a> -- the first actual live Gutter Twins appearance didn't take place until September 2005, in Rome. In 2006 <a href="spotify:artist:0lmPazVDvsQ8FXDcBfKc6r">the Twilight Singers</a> released A Stitch in Time, an EP that featured two collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:1fpXM23IoNckJ7NDAm8YJQ">Lanegan</a>, who was practically a member of the touring band at that point, anyway. Finally, signed to Sub Pop, the Gutter Twins released their debut full-length, Saturnalia, in March of 2008. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi