The Whigs turn to “Miss Control”

By Nancy Dunham
Examiner Correspondent 9/5/08

The Whigs play the Ottobar. BALTIMORE – Julian Dorio, co-founder of The Whigs, is more than happy to keep his band under the radar.

Not that Dorio, who is the band’s drummer, isn’t still jazzed about playing the Warped Tour this year and then supporting Tokyo Police Club right afterward. But building slowly and methodically to A-List band buzz means Dorio and the Whigs can concentrate on refining their songwriting as they grow their fan base.

“I don’t worry about it really,” said Dorio of the chart positions of the band’s albums. “I think it’s going kind of great.”

Music watchers would be hard-pressed to argue with that assessment. After the band formed in 2002 it was almost immediately plucked to share the stage with high-power bands including Drive By Truckers.

Recording their first album “Give ’em All A Big Fat Lip” in an empty frat house with used equipment purchased on EBay paid off in a big way. The sound caught the ear of Dave Matthews’ record label execs that signed the band to his ATO Label in 2006. It wasn’t long before Rolling Stone called the group “the best unsigned band in America.” Spin, Alternative Press, and other high-powered music magazines were soon metaphorically singing The Whigs’ praises.

Perhaps The Whigs’ secret is that the members always concentrated on refining the band’s sound rather than falling back on tried and true covers to fill in the gaps.

“That really wasn’t part of a big decision making process,” said Dorio of the decision to concentrate on original songwriting. “It just never made sense to us; it never occurred to us. “

It might now, though, as the band has matured and settled into its own signature sound. In fact, the members are so comfortable that they routinely change the set of their shows or improvise on stage. Make no mistake, this is no jam band; it’s just a band who has members comfortable in their own sound whichever way it develops as evidenced by its latest CD “Mission Control.”

“We’re still under the radar. People know the band but it hasn’t gotten so crazy that [a shift in sound] could backfire,” he said. “It is still natural and a gradual progression. Hopefully we can still feel comfortable.”

If you go
The Whigs, Tokyo Police Club and The Coast