Sub Pop Records

BIO

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
—Oscar Wilde

“Heaven, it’s quite a climb….”
—The Gutter Twins, “Seven Stories Underground”

“It started pretty innocently,” Mark Lanegan claims of the genesis behind Saturnalia, the much-anticipated first album from The Gutter Twins, the collaboration forged by him and fellow maverick singer-songwriter Greg Dulli. Innocent, however, seems an odd word to lash to anything involving this near-mythic duo, comprised of what Pitchforkmedia.com proclaims are “two of alt-rock’s greatest front-men.” And its darkest. Saturnalia, however, finds the axis Dulli nicknamed “the Satanic Everly Brothers” going even deeper into the shadows than ever before. Mystical, unpredictable, ultimately masterful, Saturnalia both embodies and defies any expectations suggested by the principals’ individual notoriety. Featuring a caravan of all-star guests giving dimension to its rawly confessional, ambitious themes, The Gutter Twins’ debut ascends to a new, surprising place in both artists’ canon. “As much as I find it spiritual, it’s very much of the flesh,” Dulli says of Saturnalia. “The flesh suffers and exults, and it transgresses and transcends.”

Transgression, transcendence, sin (in original form and otherwise): Saturnalia personifies all that, and more. The clue to The Gutter Twins’ distinctively ominous, searching mood lies in the band’s visceral moniker. “It seemed appropriate, especially considering the shape we were in when we started,” Lanegan recalls of the confrontational name. “The early songs reflected the place we were at the beginning, but the vibe ended up at a very different place.” The pull towards the darkness isn’t surprising considering the duo’s individual personas. Lanegan rose to fame as singer for the Screaming Trees, one of the most beloved outfits to come out of the…