The Breeders

The Breeders are an American 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 earliest incarnation of the band was formed by Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly in 1989 as a side-project alongside their full-time bands Pixies and Throwing Muses respectively. 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 had never played guitar before) 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; Britt Walford left as well around the same time. While the band's first record was not initially a commercial success, the band had developed a following among indie rock fans and praise from people such as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who cited Pod as one of his all-time favorite albums. Meanwhile, the band prepared to record their next album.

In 1993, the Pixies broke up, leaving Deal to concentrate on The Breeders as her full-time band. Kim recruited local Dayton musician Jim Macpherson (previously a member of indie rock band the Raging Mantras) to replace the recently departed Walford on drums, cementing the Breeders' best-known line-up. The band's most commercially successful album, Last Splash, was released in 1993 during 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".

A year after the success of Last Splash, drug and alcohol issues forced the band into hiatus in 1994, while both the Deal sisters did separate stints in rehab in the following years. During the band's hiatus, Kim Deal formed the short-lived alternative rock band The Amps, recording a single album, Pacer, in 1995. In the late 1990s, Kim and Kelley reformed The Breeders with a new line-up (including members of the band Fear) and released two more albums, Title TK in 2002 and Mountain Battles in 2008. In 2013, Kim and Kelley had announced that the "classic" line-up (including Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson) had reunited for the first time since the 1990s for a new series of tours celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band's hit album Last Splash. They released their fifth album All Nerve in 2018, the first "classic" Breeders line-up's full-length album together since 1993's Last Splash.

History

Formation

Kim Deal, not fulfilled in her 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".

With the help of three different drummers—David Narcizo, Mickey Bones, and Carl Haarer—and bassist Ray Halliday, Deal and Donelly completed their demo tape and subsequently played one show at The Rathskeller in Boston. They were not called The Breeders at this point, but were billed as "Boston Girl Super-Group". The band sent the tape to the English independent record label 4AD because both the Pixies and the Throwing Muses were signed to the label. Upon hearing the tape, 4AD head Ivo Watts-Russell remarked, "This is absolutely magical, beautiful stuff." Deal originally described the band as "the Bangles from Hell".

The name Breeders had previously been used for a band Deal led with her twin sister Kelley. "Breeders", a gay derogatory slang term for heterosexuals, was chosen because Kim Deal found it humorous and also reflected her love of horror films, specifically referencing David Cronenberg's 1979 film The Brood.

Pod (1990–1991)

4AD gave Deal and Donelly a budget of $11,000 to make an album. Deal asked the Perfect Disaster's Josephine Wiggs to play bass. The two had first met when Perfect Disaster supported the Pixies in London in 1988. Deal asked Steve Albini, who had worked on the Pixies' 1988 album Surfer Rosa, to record the album. The Breeders did not have a drummer, so Albini suggested Britt Walford of Slint. Walford agreed to play on the album under the pseudonym "Shannon Doughton".