Artist bio

See also: Pixies, The Amps

The Breeders began life as the high-school band of twin Ohio sisters Kim and Kelley Deal. By the late '80s, Kim was playing bass in underground icons Pixies, but her songwriting was increasingly being pushed aside by frontman Black Francis. Kim decided to use some of the songs she had been writing to fuel a side project, and enlisted Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donnelly, Slint drummer Britt Walford and Perfect Disaster bassist Josephine Wiggs to flesh out the Breeders' first record, Pod, without her twin sister.

Three years later, the Pixies were no more, disbanded officially when Francis sent a release to the press. When Kim heard the official word, she was on her way to California to record the Breeders' second album, Last Splash, which would ironically go on to outsell each of the Pixies albums in good time. The band now reintroduced Kelley, as Donnelly moved on to start Belly. Walford was replaced by sticks stalwart Jim MacPherson.

The group found big success and toured Lollapallooza with George Clinton and the Smashing Pumpkins that summer, but had trouble keeping the ball rolling, disintegrating into the Amps, the Kelley Deal 6000, and other groups over the next few years. Kelley had bouts with heroin addiction, MacPherson bolted for Guided By Voices and then family life, and Kim struggled to write and record a new Breeders album many times. But in 2002, the sisters finally got it back together, and with the help of three friends from their new home of East Los Angeles, Breeders MK 3 released Title TK and wrote another chapter in their musical careers and lives.

Albums by this artist

Title TK (2002)

Last Splash (Recommended) (1993)

Safari (1992)

The Breeders

Title TK

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

The Breeders Title TK Elektra, 2002 RiYL: The Amps, Robyn Hitchcock, Liz Phair

Straight outta East L.A., it's the new-form Breeders. A few years older, a tad greasier, but the core grubby, rockin' melodicism of Kim Deal and company is still available in healthy measure. Much has been made of the nine-year lapse since the last Breeders record (although we really should count The Amps' Pacer into the equation, which would make it more like seven), but the niche Deal's post-Pixies group carved out for itself in pop culture hasn't gone anywhere, and the cheekily titled Title TK is here to roost, just like we've been hearing it would for years full of aborted attempts.

There's nothing on this album quite as eminently catchy as "Cannonball," oreven "Safari," for that matter. But after repeated listens, Title TK congeals into a beautiful little slice of fuzz-rock-pop, or whatever you want to call it. Fun music. Simple yet evocative melodies and moods abound, whether on the uptempo title track, the ethereal, minor-key dirge "Put On A Side," or thegently rolling ballad "Off You."

Deal reportedly learned how to play the drums during the years since the Amps fell apart, and though only part of the skins work on Title TKis actually hers, the album's rhythm definitely has a deliciously amateurish feel to it. Songs like "The She" and "Too Alive" ride charmingly off-kilter beats with bits of guitar splashed in like fingerpaint. The former maintains an eerie mood throughout its four minutes, with its buzzing background, stop-start tempo, hollow plinking piano, and singsongy lyrics ("Dear traveler," Kim seems to be calling repeatedly).

Deal sounds especially vulnerable on the beautiful first single "Off You," on which her lyrics are delivered tenderly through the pot-hazy sonics. "I've never seen a starlet, or a riot, or the violence of you," she plaintively murmurs. "I am the autumn in the scarlet / I am the makeup on your eyes." As minimal a song as the group has ever released, it steps out front as one of the most engaging tracks on the album.

"Put On A Side" is similarly dirgey, Kim's airy vocals intoning "Better I...Better I Stayed Up" over a murmuring bassline until a chunky guitar upstroke and a single sharp drum roll briefly break the mood. Lightening things a bit is a rerecording of the Amps' "Full On Idle," which doesn't differ much from the original but has a shot at reaching a larger audience.

Penultimate track "T And T" is a happy, two-minute instrumental that basically serves as an intro to rave-up closer "Huffer." The call-and-response vocals between Kim and her twin sister/guitarist Kelley on "Huffer" and opener "Little Fury" bookend the album, lending a playful mood to the proceedings that echoes the group's rejuvenated live show.

Best title kudos must go to "Sinister Foxx," which strangely enough doesn't make much mention of foxes, preferring an ominous chorus of "Has anyone seen the iguana?" (In interviews, Kim and "producer" Steve Albini have explained the humor behind this; the "iguana" is a reference to pot dealers' houses often featuring empty terrariums, suggesting their onetime reptilian inhabitants have escaped).

OK, it's all sounding a bit bizarre, innit? Rest assured the Breeders make it all seem second nature. The album sustains its laid-back, organic vibe throughout, and never sounds pretentious or distant. Yes, this is one ofthe longest-awaited albums in modern rock history, but the Breeders have crafted a record that doesn't sound like it cares. Title TK doesn't feel like a follow-up to anything, it's a pearl of an album in its own right, and a welcome return to the spotlight for the talented songwriter and her cronies.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.