Breeders, The

THE BREEDERS

Formed: 1990, Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Kim Deal, guitar, vocals (born Dayton, Ohio, 10 June 1961); Kelley Deal, guitar, vocals (born Dayton, Ohio, 10 June 1961); Mando Lopez, bass; Jose Medeles, drums; Richard Presley, guitar. Former members: Tanya Donelly (born Newport, Rhode Island, 14 July 1966); Shannon Doughton, drums (born Britt Walford, Louisville, Kentucky); Nate Farley, guitar (born Dayton, Ohio, 13 May 1971); James Macpherson, drums (born Dayton, Ohio, 23 June 1966); Josephine Wiggs, bass (born Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England, 26 February 1965).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Last Splash (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "Cannonball," "Divine Hammer"

Formed out of mutual frustration by two members of leading alternative rock bands of the late 1980s, the Breeders were an erratic, but popular band that never quite lived up to the initial promise of its 1993 hit, "Cannonball." Led by the ex-Pixies bassist Kim Deal, the band crafted a distinctive combination of dissonance and finely honed rock songs, but personal problems and a severe case of writer's block crippled the group for nearly a decade following their most popular release.

Identical twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal grew up in Dayton, Ohio, near Wright Patterson Air Force base, where their father worked as a physicist. In addition to their love for classic rock groups such as Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, the twins were popular athletes at their high school. Kim attended seven different colleges before dropping out to join the Boston alternative music stars the Pixies in the late 1980s.

Feeling underappreciated in their respective bands, Deal and Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly joined forces in 1990 to form the Breeders. Taking their name—a slang term used by homosexuals to describe heterosexual parents—from a group formed by the Deal sisters in their youth, the two recruited bass player Josephine Wiggs of England's Perfect Disaster to record their debut album, Pod (1990), during a Pixies tour of England.

See-sawing between the ponderously slow, thick sound of songs such as "Glorious" and the frantic, throbbing punk rock of "Doe," the album is a showcase both for Deal's wounded, angelic vocals and Wiggs's prominent, thrumming bass lines. Slint drummer Britt Walford played drums under the pseudonym Shannon Doughton on the album, which was recorded by the renowned alternative rock producer Steve Albini. Bringing with her the patented Pixies's sound—a chaotic swirl of noise that often gelled into curiously off-kilter, catchy pop rock songs—Deal was clearly the creative force of the group. Deal was fired from the Pixies in 1992, allowing her to focus all her energies on the Breeders.

Pod earned the Breeders a loyal group of fans. To satisfy them and tide them over until the Breeders's next full-length album, 4AD/Elektra released a four-song mini-album, Safari, in 1992. It features a more melodic but still bottom-end-heavy sound, especially on a cover of the Who's "So Sad About Us." The untrained musician Kelley Deal joined the group for the recording of Safari, playing guitar and doubling the vocals of sister Kim; she replaced Donelly, who quit the group to form her more pop-oriented group, Belly. Jim Macpherson was added as the band's drummer.

The Breeders played their first major concerts in 1992, opening for Nirvana on a European tour, which was followed by the sessions for their second album, Last Splash. Released in the summer of 1993, the album thrust the group into a surprisingly bright mainstream spotlight courtesy of the breezy pop hit "Cannonball," for which a whimsical video was created by Spike Jonze, then on the brink of renown as a video and film director.

A perfectly crafted blend of funk-inspired bass, jazzy drumming, and repetitive, distorted guitar lines, "Cannonball" layered the noisy rock sound of the Pixies with a relentless pop sensibility and Kim Deal's compelling vocals. An amalgamation of nonsense syllables and oblique lyrics ("Spitting in a wishing well / Blown to hell / Crash, I'm the last splash / I know you, little libertine"), the song secured sales of 1 million for the album and a slot on the 1994 alternative rock festival, Lollapalooza. Alternating between feedback-drench surf-inspired rock ("No Aloha," "Invisible Man"), abstract, noisy punk songs ("Roi," "S.O.S.") and plodding, dark ballads ("Do You Love Me Now?"), Last Splash signaled the rise of a new, powerful female voice in rock.

Unfortunately, the sudden success and nonstop touring and promotion took its toll on the group. The Breeders went on hiatus in late 1994, and Kelley Deal was arrested for drug possession in early 1995; she was sent to court-mandated drug rehabilitation. Kim Deal began work on a solo album, but eventually recruited Macpherson, guitarist Nathan Farley, and bassist Luis Lerma for her short-lived side project, the Amps. The group's only album, Pacer (1995), is a more aggressive, distorted take on the Breeders's sound, though with traces of the surf and punk music that inspired the latter.

A Failed Attempt to Regain the Spotlight

Following rehab, Kelley Deal self-released an album from her new band, the Kelley Deal 6000, Go to the Sugar Altar (1996), a wide-ranging collection of shambling punk songs in a Breeders vein, with several addressing the horrors of addiction. Wiggs departed from the dormant group in 1996 to form her own band, the Josephine Wiggs Experience, followed by Macpherson.

Afflicted with writer's block and stymied in an abortive attempt to record a new Breeders's album in the late 1990s, Kim Deal retreated from the spotlight to concentrate on learning how to play drums. In 1998, rejoined by Kelley, the group recorded a cover of the 3 Degrees's "Collage" for The Mod Squad soundtrack, signaling the rebirth of the band. The entire lineup changed once again before a third album was finally delivered in 2002. Bassist Mando Lopez, guitarist Richard Presley, and drummer Jose Medeles joined the Deals on Title TK.

Though eagerly anticipated, the album failed to live up to fans' expectations. Downbeat and mostly mid-tempo, Title TK goes for low-key introspection ("London Song," "Off You"), adding touches of droning farfisa organ and off-kilter drumming on tracks such as "The She." The shambling "Too Alive" and "Put on a Side" feel like unfinished, impromptu garage recordings, whereas the sprightly "Son of Three," with its grinding guitars, insistent beat, and the Deals' intertwined vocals, is one of the few tracks to recapture the band's former glory.

The Breeders's initial success and promise fell victim to personal problems and creative indolence, transforming the uniquely talented Deal sisters into one of the strangest punk one-hit wonders in rock history.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Pod (4AD/Rough Trade, 1990); Safari (4AD/Elektra, 1992); Last Splash (4AD/Elektra, 1993); Live in Stockholm (Breeders Digest, 1994); Title TK (Elektra, 2002).

WEBSITES:

www.4ad.com/artists/breeders.

gil kaufman