by Marisa BrownAlthough Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli 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 the Screaming Trees and the Afghan Whigs, respectively. Their similarly troubled pasts (and presents) forged a strong bond between them, helped only by their similar musical tastes and expressions. Lanegan showed up on the 2003 album Blackberry Belle by Dulli's new group, the Twilight Singers, and Dulli appeared on Lanegan'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 Lanegan telling a journalist, unbeknownst to Dulli, that the two were collaborating. The first recording happened at the end of 2003, but as both were heavily involved in other projects -- Dulli with the Twilight Singers and the Italian band Afterhours and Lanegan not only with his solo work, but as a singer for Queens of the Stone Age and on collaborations with Soulsavers and Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell -- the first actual live Gutter Twins appearance didn't take place until September 2005, in Rome. In 2006 the Twilight Singers released A Stitch in Time, an EP that featured two collaborations with Lanegan, 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.