Send "The Whigs " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Referring to any band as a "great college rock band" might strike some as a backhanded compliment, as it often implies more enthusiasm than technical accomplishment. In 2004, the Whigs weren't short of either. At the time, Parker Gispert, Hank Sullivant, and Julian Dorio were enrolled at University of Georgia in Athens, the same town that spawned the quintessential college rock band, R.E.M. Like Athens' most famous sons, the unsigned Whigs separated themselves from their peers early on, courting an audience well beyond the campus gates. Their headlining shows in Atlanta were almost always packed-- and not just with weekenders from fraternity row. Watching the Whigs in those early days, it was easy to understand the appeal. The band's jangly, Southern brand of indie rock was never especially novel, but their rare combination of power and raw, naïve energy ensured that their sets were always pushed to the brink without ever spilling over.In the Dark, the band's third full-length album, arrives in record store six years after those electrifying local shows, though it sounds several lifetimes removed. There is good reason for the difference as the Whigs are, in fact, no longer the same band. Founding member and co-songwriter Hank Sullivant parted ways with the Whigs following their first ATO effort, Mission Control. (He joined MGMT and was subsequently replaced with Tim Deaux.) It's hard to say for sure how much his loss influenced the direction of Dark or whether this album was always part of their plan. Either way, it's a dreary, dispiriting development. Dark is technically flawless but wholly sterile, like a Whigs album as conceived and executed by Hollywood session musicians on an especially short leash....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| 008’s Mission Control took the Whigs to a much grittier and faster-paced world of rock than their 2005 debut, Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip, and In the Dark is the same sort of creature. Featuring tighter production and harder drumming, yet still grungy and distorted, In the Dark strives to capture more of the Whigs’ onstage fervor while still maintaining pieces of the band’s original sound. ...full text |
| Mxdwn |
| If you aspire to critique music, here’s a piece of advice: Never let your first listens to an album be on shuffle. Doing so threatens to undercut artists’ vision or story to be told, and misdirects both writer and reader. Without catching this particular faux pas early in the editorial process, the review you’re reading now of The Whigs’ new album In the Dark might have been vastly different. The garage-rock power trio from Athens, Georgia earned significant goodwill throughout 2008 on the strength of their second album Mission Control, particularly its lead single “Right Hand on My Heart.” The Whigs start out full of promise here, electing “Hundred/Million” to travel the same dirty, echo-filled path taken by goth revival rockers like A Place to Bury Strangers. On first listen, In the Dark then seemed to grind to an embarrassing halt over the next 38 minutes, with Parker Gispert’s directionless moan and guitar on “Dying” wrapping a thorough bleed-out of album energy....full text |
The Whigs lyrics
|
| |||||||
