The Fat Angel Sings

The Breeders are an alternative rock band based in Dayton, Ohio, consisting of members Kim Deal (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), her twin sister Kelley Deal (lead guitar, vocals), Josephine Wiggs (bass guitar, vocals) and Jim Macpherson (drums). The Breeders’ history began when Kim Deal, not fulfilled in her subordinate role as bassist of the Pixies, began writing new material while the Pixies were touring “Surfer Rosa” in Europe with Throwing Muses. As neither band had plans in the immediate future, Deal discussed possible side projects with Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly. They recruited Carrie Bradley, violinist and vocalist in Boston band Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, and recorded a short demo tape. Tracks on the demo tape included early versions of “Lime House”, “Doe”, and “Only in 3’s”.

To record their debut album, 1990’s “Pod”, Deal and Donelly recruited bassist Josephine Wiggs of The Perfect Disaster and drummer Britt Walford of Slint. Kim’s sister Kelley was brought into the band as a third guitarist (though at the time, Kelley famously had never played guitar before joining the band) in 1992 to record the “Safari” EP, and shortly thereafter Tanya Donelly left to concentrate full-time on her own new band, Belly, leaving Kelley Deal as the sole lead guitarist, while Britt Walford left as well around the same time. While the band’s first record wasn’t initially a commercial success, the band had developed a following among indie rock fans and praises from people such as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who cited Pod as one of his all-time favourite albums, the band prepared to record their next album.

In 1993, the Pixies broke up, leaving Deal to concentrate on her band The Breeders as her full-time band. Kim recruited local Dayton, Ohio musician Jim Macpherson (previously a member of Dayton indie rock band The Raging Mantras) to replace the recently departed Walford on drums, cementing the Breeders‘ best-known line-up. Deal originally described the band as “the Bangles from Hell”

All of The Breeders’ previous albums –”Pod”, “Last Splash”, “Title TK”, and “Mountain Battles” were all re-issued on vinyl on this last summer.  This is the first time “Pod” and “Last Splash” on vinyl will be released by 4AD Records in North America.

The Breeders toured their latest album “All Nerve” 

Pod

“Pod” the 1990 debut featuring the line-up of Pixie’s Kim Deal, Throwing Muses’ Tanya Donelly, the Perfect Disaster’s Josephine Wiggs and Slint’s Britt Walford, was recorded with Steve Albini. A week of rehearsal took place at Wiggs’s house in Bedfordshire, and “Pod” was recorded in just ten days.  They used the remaining time to record a Peel Session and a video for “Hellbound”. Returning to London, they played two shows, the only time that this line-up ever appeared onstage together.

“Pod” although not commercially successful, received positive reviews from alternative and mainstream critics alike; The New York Times’ wrote: “The angular melodies, shattered tempos, and screeching dynamics recall elements of each of the women’s full-time bands, but “Pod” has a smart, innovative edge all its own, clever arrangements, “Pod” is a fresher and more successful work than the Pixies’ “Bossanova” and the Throwing Muses’ “Hunkpapa“, their main projects’ releases from around that time. The song “Doe” which according to Deal, is about a young couple making out and then wanting to burn down their town after taking the drug Thorazine.

Though the album doesn’t feature as many of Donelly’s contributions as was originally planned which was part of the reason she formed Belly a few years later — songs like “Iris” and “Lime House” blend the best of the Pixies’ elliptical punk and the Muses‘ more angular pop.

A bizarre entry in the band’s catalogue that shows the mark that Donnelly made on the band during her shorty tenure with them, as it was written by her and Kim originally for the group’s first demo. The track is a slow, dirgy and sad sounding number featuring a violin performance by Carrie Bradley.

“Pod” reaffirms what a distinctive songwriter Deal is, and how much the Pixies missed out on by not including more of her material on their albums. With their unusual subjects — “Hellbound” is about a living abortion and quirky-but-direct sound, songs like “Opened” and “When I Was a Painter” could have easily fit on Doolittle or Bossanova. But the spare, sensual “Doe,” “Fortunately Gone,” and “Only in Threes” are more ligh thearted and good-natured than the work of Deal’s other band, pointing the way to the sexy, clever alternative pop she’d craft on “Last Splash”. A vibrantly creative debut, “Pod” remains the Breeders‘ most genuine moment.

Kurt Cobain listed the record as one of his top three favourite albums saying, “the way they structure [the songs] is totally unique.”  Critically acclaimed when it came out, “Pod’s” legacy lives on – Pitchfork called it a “blissful mindfuck of a record,” and ranked among their Best Albums of the 90s.

Safari EP

The members of The Breeders had returned to their original bands. The Pixies released “Bossanova” in 1990 and “Trompe le Monde” in 1991, but by the end of 1991 were becoming less active. Deal, again with time off from the Pixies, visited Wiggs in Brighton, and they went into a London studio with Spacemen 3/Spiritualized drummer Jon Mattock to record a new song called “Safari.”

Here the title track from the band’s debut EP released in 1992. Kelly was now established as a guitarist by this point and this is the only release to feature both her and Tanya Donnelly. It is another of the band’s more trippy tracks, with the latter half of it being largely instrumental and ideal for listening to on a safari trip! (In a weird kind of way.)

The other three tracks on what became the “Safari” EP were recorded in New York with Walford and Donelly, who was by then planning to form her own band Belly. Deal then asked her sister Kelley to take over on guitar, even though apparently, Kelley did not know how to play guitar. The Pixies had became inactive in mid-1992, at which time drummer Jim Macpherson was recruited and The Breeders became a full-time band

Last Splash

The band’s most commercially successful album, “Last Splash“, was released in 1993 in the midst of the early 1990s alternative rock boom. The album went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA, and is best known for its hit single “Cannonball”.

“Last Splash” was recorded in 1993 by what is now regarded as the ‘classic’ Breeders line-up of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson.  Including the twisted pop singles ‘Cannonball’ and ‘Divine Hammer’,

The Breeders’ second album, “Last Splash”, turned them into the alternative rock stars joined by Deal’s twin sister Kelley the group expanded on the driving, polished sound of the “Safari” EP, surrounding its (plentiful) moments of brilliance with nearly as many unfinished ideas. When Last Splash is good, it’s great: “Cannonball’s” instantly catchy collage of bouncy bass, rhythmic stops and starts, and singsong vocals became one of the definitive alt-pop singles of the ’90s. Likewise, the sweetly sexy “Divine Hammer” that was released as a single. Like much of the album’s lyrical content, the lyrics are sexual in nature with the title reportedly referring to a certain male sexual organ. Musically, it is one of their more melodic and accessible, giving of a dreamy pop vibe, which makes the adult nature of the lyrics even more hard to understand at face value.

The swaggering “Saints” are among the Breeders’ finest moments.

“I Just Wanna Get Along” is a very short minute-and-a-half cut from “Last Splash” is reportedly about Kim and her bitterness towards Pixies front man Frank Black after the band’s breakup. In what is perhaps a clever attempt to disguise this fact, it is actually Kelly who performs the vocals on it. Whatever the case, it is a great track and Kim was certainly moving on from her previous band, even if the Pixies are still the band she is most associated with.

Similarly, the charming twang of “Drivin’ on 9,” The spiky punk-pop, and the bittersweet “Invisible Man” added depth that recalled the eclectic turns the band took on “Pod” while maintaining the slick allure of “Last Splash’s” hits. However, underdeveloped snippets such as “Roi” and “No Aloha” drag the album’s momentum, and when the band tries to stretch its range on the rambling, cryptic “Mad Lucas” and “Hag,” it tends to fall flat. The addition of playful but slight instrumentals such as “S.O.S” and “Flipside” and a version of “Do You Love Me Now?” as the title would suggest is a loved-themed song, but definitely not a schmaltzy one! Co-written by both of the Deal sisters, this song has a beautiful southern rock-tinged guitar sound which makes it a very relaxing track to listen to. Also, rather than being about madly in love, it is about a previous involvement with a man that Deal feels she can resume, although it would seem that that is probably not really the case. Still, its best moments and the Deal sisters’ megawatt charm make it one of the alternative rock era’s defining albums of the 90s.  

In 1993, they toured supporting Nirvana on their “In Utero” tour, In 1996, Kim reclaimed The Breeders moniker, but with essentially The Amps’ line-up plus violinist Carrie Bradley, and played a few California dates. They made an unsuccessful attempt at recording a third studio album in 1997. Kelley Deal re-joined the band the following year and wrote and recorded songs with her sister, although the only material released during this period was a cover of The Three Degrees‘ take on James Gang’s “Collage”, recorded for The Mod Squad soundtrack in 1999.

Head To Toe EP

“Head to Toe” is an extended play by the alternative rock band the Breeders. It was released in July 1994 on 4AD and Elektra Records. The EP contains a cover of Guided by Voices’ “Shocker in Gloomtown” which helped ignite interest in the band.  “Title TK” wouldn’t appear until 2002 but the three-song “Head to Toe” 7″ was produced by Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis,

The set’s Sebadoh cover, “The Freed Pig.” According to legend, when the Breeders began playing Lou Barlow’s poison-pen classic in the studio, J Mascis didn’t even recognize the song and insisted the band record it; Kim Deal’s vocals lack the vitriol and pity of Barlow’s original, but the Breeders‘ version is compact and explosive, This track was later re-released along with the rest of its tracks as part of the bonus material on the album’s twentieth anniversary reissue.

It is a very good version of the song that the band have put their own spin on and made it sound like their own.

Indeed all three songs here capture a punk-inspired aggression further explored on Deal’s Amps project. “Head to Toe” is the sole original track, a wonderfully primitive sonic whiplash.

Title TK

2002’s “Title TK” saw the band work with Steve Albini once more, with the Guardian saying it was “a welcome return to punky pop that knows how to flex some melodic muscle.”  The album has been out of print on vinyl since its release. By the end of the decade, hearing new material from Kim Deal and company seemed about as likely as a new My Bloody Valentine album, so the fact that “Title TK”, their long-awaited return, exists at all seems more than a little miraculous. In a weird way, the long, long wait for them to resurface works in their favour at this point, it was a welcome to hear anything from them. After a nine-year (!) wait, a new Breeders album is just a nice addition to what’s going on in indie rock instead of its salvation. From its very name, “Title TK” (journalistic shorthand for “title to come”) reflects this: it’s a surprisingly low-key, self-effacing return that doesn’t feel like an attempt at reclaiming “Last Splash’s” glory. Instead, it blends the stripped-down sounds of Pod and the Amps’ “Pacer” into a collection of strangely intimate, feminine garage rock.

Revved-up guitar rushes like “Little Fury” and “Huffer” have a little vulnerability lurking around the edges, and on the sweet “Too Alive,” it sounds like you’re in the garage with the band. There’s a fascinating duality to “Title TK”, from the way that nearly every song mixes and blends Kim’s and Kelley’s not-quite-identical vocals to the way it switches between sweet, playfully spiky songs like “Son of Three” This track has two versions- the original which was composed and sung by Kim was recorded in Hollywood, and then the re-recording of it which was done for it to be released as the album’s third European single. The re-recording, which is better because it is shorter, faster and has more of a live feel. When it was released it reached number seventy-two on the UK Singles chart.

“Forced to Drive” and dark, mysterious tracks. With its brooding, druggy allure, “The She” recalls Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” and “Put On a Side” and the aptly named “Sinister Foxx” have a sexy menace that the Breeders haven’t explored since, “Off You,” Title TK’s first single, is about as far from “Cannonball” as the band can get, a dreamy, breathy ballad that sounds intimate but masks its feelings in beautifully cryptic imagery.

Mountain Battles

“Mountain Battles” was released in April 2008 again on 4AD records. It features Kim and Kelley, Jose Medeles, and Mando Lopez. They went to Refraze Recording Studio in Dayton, Ohio to record and mix the majority of the tracks , Their fourth album release “Mountain Battles”, a perfectly formed album of 13 miniatures in 36 minutes engineered by Steve Albini, was originally released in 2008.  Like “Title TK” before it, “Mountain Battles” has been out of print since its release.

It only took the Breeders a little under six years to deliver the follow-up to “Title TK”, which is progress, considering that it was nearly a decade between that album and “Last Splash”, and especially since Kim Deal was occupied with the Pixies reunion for a couple of those years. “Mountain Battles” sounds like progress, too: while all Breeders albums have, in varying proportions, a mix of whip-smart pop songs, droning rockers, and experimental tangents, the blend of these sounds hasn’t sounded this satisfying since the “Pod” days. Deal and her crew aren’t making a big pop push à la “Last Splash”, and they don’t sound as defiant as they did on “Title TK” — but, as on that album, “Mountain Battles” feels like the band are doing exactly what they want and not worrying too much about what anyone else thinks about it. “It’s the Love,” the song most like the Breeders‘ quintessential sweet-but-tart punk-pop, is actually a cover of fellow Dayton band the Tasties, and Kim’s delivery is so cheeky that it almost feels like she’s affectionately sending up that sound. “It’s the Love” is placed next to the album’s oddest song, which happens to be the title track and finale: full of murky keyboards and a melody that plays hide-and-seek, “Mountain Battles” sounds unfinished and unsettling.

Yet there are a lot of other sounds between those extremes, including “Bang On’s” distorted drums and witty guitars, which prove that Deal is still as skilled at pop collages as she was during “Cannonball’s” heyday; “German Studies” and “Walk it Off” should also please “Last Splash” fans craving more of Deal’s sassy pop.

However, the flirty, slow-dance cover of “Regalame Esta Noche,” which shows off the pure beauty of her voice; the percussive, call-and-response jam “Istanbul,” and “Here No More,” a country number so simple and effortless it feels like it could be a cover, make “Mountain Battles” eclectic and even a bit daring. Deal’s willingness to let the album’s songs take their own paths is even more daring; from “Overglazed” impressionistic rock, which opens “Mountain Battles” with stampeding drums and cascading vocals, to the wandering, surf-tinged ballad “Night of Joy,” many tracks feel open-ended and sometimes downright elusive. But, even if “Spark” remains little more than a moody sketch and “We’re Gonna Rise” moves as slowly as dust turning in a sunbeam, they add to “Mountain Battles” ebb and flow, with each song playing off the other naturally. And, though the album covers a lot of territory — 13 songs in 36 minutes! — it doesn’t feel scattered; scattered implies no purpose, but “Mountain Battles‘ songs land, eventually, exactly where they need to.

Fate to Fatal EP

Like every other Breeders record before it, “Fate to Fatal” opener kills all brute force and giddy charm, the eponymous leadoff track is the Breeders at their most jarring and most exuberant, with churning power-chords beating out a kinda rhythm for the Deal gals to holler and shout over. But, oh, when they move from a scream to a whisper and back again, does it ever sound good. The Deals singing in tandem make one of the great noises in rock, and when you throw ’em all over a tune this kinetic, this heady, this pleasure, it just couldn’t feel more right.

The Breeders’ third EP, “Fate to Fatal” was released on April 2009. It contains a Bob Marley cover (“Chances Are”) and a song with vocals by Screaming Tree’s Mark Lanegan. The title track was recorded at The Fortress Studios, London, by The Go! Team producer Gareth Parton. The music video featured the Arch Rival Roller Girls, a St. Louis roller derby league

All Nerve

“All Nerve”, the Breeders’ fifth studio album, saw the iconic line-up of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson reunite for the first time since the release of the platinum-selling album “Last Splash”. Released in 2018, critics and fans welcomed them back with open arms and they scored their highest chart positions – including top 10 in the UK – in 25 years.

The Breeders have always moved to their own rhythms, starting, stopping, and surprising listeners along the way. New music from them only arrives when the time is right, and in “All Nerve’s” case, it was especially right: in 2013, Kim and Kelley Deal reunited with drummer Jim McPherson and bassist Josephine Wiggs to tour as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of their breakthrough album, “Last Splash”, and the dates went so well that the band went into the studio.

At times, “All Nerve” does hark back to 1993. The way “Nervous Mary” slowly draws listeners into the album before kicking into high gear is a classic Breeders move. “Spacewoman,” with its sun-soaked imagery and loud-quiet-loud dynamic shifts, is a power ballad made for the mosh pit, while the tender to roaring “All Nerve” is the kind of plainspoken song about a big, big love that has always been one of Kim Deal’s specialties. Then there’s “Wait in the Car,” one of the band’s most irresistible singles. As Deal fails to find the right words and meows while the guitars strut and tumble, it’s brashly charming and proves the Breeders haven’t lost the ability to make their audience wish they could be best friends with them.

However, “All Nerve” isn’t so much a conscious attempt to re-create the past as it is the rekindling of a special chemistry. That chemistry is especially strong when the Breeders try new things. Wiggs gets her first lead vocal on an album track with “MetaGoth,” and her unflappable cool gives it a dark, restless post-punk beauty that isn’t like anything else in the Breeders’ songbook. Meanwhile, “Dawn: Making an Effort” is as vast and hopeful as a sunrise, with an openness. The band even finds creative ways of dealing with the feelings of mortality and history that accompany this kind of reunion on “Walking with a Killer,” a deceptively pretty tale of murder in the cornfields, and “Blues at the Acropolis,” which superimposes modern junkies and drunks with dead heroes of the past.

The decade-long gap between “All Nerve” and “Mountain Battles” was the Breeders‘ longest hiatus yet, but it was time well spent — this is one of the band’s finest blends of sugar and swagger, space and noise. “All Nerve” lives up to its name: the Breeders’ one-of-a-kind toughness and vulnerability are the heart of their music, and that it’s still beating strong is cause for celebration.

All Nerve reunites the band the line-up behind the iconic and platinum-selling record, “Last Splash”.  Recording took place at Candyland in Dayton, Kentucky, with Mike Montgomery; Electrical Audio, Chicago, with Steve Albini and Greg Norman. Artwork was conceived by Chris Bigg, who has worked with The Breeders since their first album, “Pod”.

The single, “Wait in the Car”, was released on October 2017, and is part of an upcoming seven-inch series to be issued by 4AD. The song will be available on three different seven-inch records, limited to only 1,500 copies. Rolling Stone described the song as “a classic Breeders bruiser, clocking it at two minutes, and packed with punchy drums, sugar-rush power chords, and lead riffs”. ‘Wait in the Car’ marks the welcome reunion the quartet returned to the stage in 2013 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their platinum-selling record “Last Splash” and have since been spending time together in the studio working on new material.  The two-minute ‘Wait In The Car’ offers an enticing preview to a band who are still as vital and relevant as ever.

Richard Ayoade, the BAFTA-nominated film director (Submarine, The Double), actor (IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace), TV presenter (Travel Man, The Crystal Maze) and comedian, has been a long-time fan of The Breeders. As a young teen in 1990, Ayoade recalls travelling from his Ipswich home to London to buy the band’s first album Pod.  Nearly 30 years after making that journey, he has teamed up with his favourite band to create an eerie short story for their latest single, ‘Space Woman’.

Described by The Breeders’ Kim Deal as “a sci-fi thriller with the soul of [deceased fiction writer] Harlan Ellison,” Ayoade’s visual treatment depicts Deal in a spacesuit navigating a woodland landscape.  Shot on 35mm film and in one seamless take, she encounters fellow Breeders members Jim Macpherson, Josephine Wiggs and Kelley Deal in various states of trauma.

“As vital as any of their previous four LPs…The Breeders have proved themselves more consistently thrilling than almost any other band in indie-rock.”  – Uncut 9/10
“From the off, “All Nerve” is both a joyous, unhinged blast from the past and a reminder of how fun and free rock can be.” – The Sunday Times – Album of the Week
“Music that is rich and deep and repays repeated listening.” – The Guardian – Album of the Week ****
“It’s an enormously pleasant surprise to have the band back.”  – NPR
“A twisted, swirling record of gorgeous harmony set against catapulting rhythms and just the right balance of body-horror lyricism that stands firmly on its own..”  – Under The Radar
“Heroic”  – MOJO **** 
“Startlingly fresh.” – Q **** 

The Breeders “All Nerve”, was the group’s first record in a decade. In March 2021, the band released their first new recording in over three years: A cover of His Name is Alive’s “The Dirt Eaters.” The cover was part of a 4AD Records covers compilation, entitled “Bills and Aches and Blues“.