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The Breeders started as a way for
Pixies bassist
Kim Deal and
Throwing Muses guitarist
Tanya Donelly to let out some suppressed creative energy, but thanks to the success of their second album
Last Splash and its smash hit single "Cannonball," the band became one of the biggest -- and quirkiest -- acts of the early-'90s alternative rock revolution. Though the large gaps of time between their later albums made their career trajectory less than predictable,
the Breeders' appeal, not to mention influence on later bands, lasted for decades.
Taking their name from the group
Deal led with her twin sister,
Kelley, in their teens,
the Breeders combined the spareness of
Throwing Muses with the shifting dynamics and warped pop sensibilities of
the Pixies.
Deal and
Donelly both played guitar, leaving bass to
Josephine Wiggs of
Perfect Disaster and drums to
Slint's Britt Walford.
Pod, their critically acclaimed debut album, was released in 1990. Two years later, the group delivered the muscular, melodic EP
Safari. Soon after its recording,
Donelly left
the Breeders to form her own group,
Belly.
Kim Deal brought in her sister
Kelley as her replacement.
Safari was also the last release to feature Walford, who was billed as "Shannon Doughton" and "Mike Hunt" on the respective recordings. He was later replaced by Dayton drummer
Jim MacPherson. The group also played its first high-profile gigs in 1992, opening for
Nirvana on their European tour.
As the band worked on its second album in the beginning of 1993,
the Pixies split, leaving
Kim Deal able to pursue
the Breeders full-time. Released in August 1993,
Last Splash was a hazier, more disjointed continuation of the hard pop of
Safari. With the sonic collage of "Cannonball,"
the Breeders had a crossover hit that catapulted the group into stardom: within a year, the album went platinum and the band had a prime spot on 1994's Lollapalooza tour. That year, the group also released the limited-edition 7" Head to Toe and
Divine Hammer singles, both of which confirmed
the Breeders as an artistically willful group that was nevertheless in tune with the commercial pop tastes of the early '90s.
Just as quickly as success hit the band,
the Breeders went on a sudden hiatus, partly due to exhaustion from the rapid nature of their fame and from their extensive touring. Late in 1994,
Kelley was arrested for drug possession and was sent to a rehab clinic in Minnesota; the rest of the bandmembers went their separate ways while she recuperated.
Wiggs played with musicians around New York, ultimately forming
the Josephine Wiggs Experience with them; Kim returned to Dayton with
MacPherson, learned how to play the drums, and continued writing songs. By early 1995, Kim had an album's worth of new material ready to record. Though she considered recording them on her own,
Deal decided to assemble a backing band of
MacPherson and other Dayton-area musicians, including
Nathan Farley and Luis Lerma of the Tasties. Not surprisingly,
the Amps -- originally called Tammy & the Amps -- sounded like a rougher, lo-fi version of
the Breeders; their gigs and their 1995 album
Pacer emphasized the loose, charming spontaneity of
Deal's style.
Though
the Breeders' break was supposed to be temporary, it lasted several years. Along with her time in
the Josephine Wiggs Experience,
Wiggs later formed
Dusty Trails with
Luscious Jackson's
Vivian Trimble. After
Kelley completed her rehab, she formed her own solo project, the Kelley Deal 6000. She toured and released an album with this group, 1996's Go to the Sugar Altar.
That year, Kim reclaimed the
Breeders name and played some California dates with the band, which featured members of
the Amps and
Pod violinist
Carrie Bradley. In 1997,
the Breeders played the Tim Taylor Memorial Benefit Concert -- in honor of
Brainiac's singer/keyboardist, who was killed in a car accident earlier that year -- with that group's drummer Tyler Trent replacing
MacPherson, who later joined
Guided by Voices. Later that year, Kim went into the studio in one of many frustrated attempts to make the third
Breeders album. However, the group's low profile didn't mean that it didn't have any hits; a sample from "Cannonball" used in
the Prodigy's worldwide smash "Firestarter" earned Kim songwriting credits and royalties. By early 1998,
Kelley had rejoined the band and the duo continued to write and record songs, though the only song to surface from their sessions was a cover of
the Three Degrees' "Collage," which appeared on the soundtrack to 1999's big-screen adaptation of The Mod Squad.
In 2000, Kim and
Kelley spent time in the studio with
Steve Albini; late that year,
the Breeders played their first gig in over three years (and Kim's first show with
Kelley in over six) at a free, secret show in Los Angeles. Once again,
the Breeders' lineup had changed, with bassist
Mando Lopez, guitarist
Richard Presley (both formerly of
Fear), and drummer
Jose Medeles backing the
Deal sisters. The group reconvened in the studio with
Albini in 2001, completing an album's worth of songs.
The Breeders began a flurry of activity in 2002, including the release of the
Off You and Huffer singles and their long-awaited third album,
Title TK, that May. After a quiet 2003,
Deal was once again in the news in 2004 when
the Pixies reunited for tours of North America and Europe.
In late 2007, rumors that another
Breeders album was on the way were confirmed, and
Mountain Battles arrived in April 2008. The Fate to Fatal EP, which featured a cover of
Bob Marley's "Chances Are" and guest vocals from
Mark Lanegan, appeared in 2009, the same year
the Breeders curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England. The following September, they played the ATP festival in Monticello, New York. In 2013, the band celebrated the 20th anniversary of
Last Splash with a deluxe reissue of the album and a tour that reunited Kim and
Kelley Deal with
Wiggs and
MacPherson.
Following the tour's success, the band began work on its fifth album.
The Breeders recorded with longtime producer
Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, as well as with
Mike Montgomery at Kentucky's Candyland Recording Studio and with Tom Rastikis at Ohio's Fernwood Studios. In October 2017, the band delivered its first new music in eight years with "Wait in the Car," the lead single from
All Nerve. Featuring backing vocals by
Courtney Barnett, the album was released in March 2018, nearly 25 years after
Last Splash. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Heather Phares