Line #48 Music/TheBreeders


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tb.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Breeders in 1994. Left to right: Kelley Deal, Jim [=MacPherson=], Josephine Wiggs, Kim Deal]]
3	->''I know you, little libertine,\
4	I know you're a cannonball.\
5	I'll be your whatever you want,\
6	The bong in this reggae song.''
7	-->"Cannonball"
8
9	So, what would you do if you're in a band and fans like you, but your frontman gets jealous and starts doing the IAmTheBand thing and pisses you off?
10
11	Kim Deal's answer: "StartMyOwn band! And become just as popular!".
12
13	The Breeders was started by Kim Deal, the girlish-voiced bassist of Music/ThePixies, as a result of frontman Black Francis' aforementioned jealousy at her EnsembleDarkhorse status and IAmTheBand tendencies. She has since remained one of the two constant members of the band.
14
15	At first, The Breeders were a collaboration between Deal (who switched to guitar) and Music/ThrowingMuses guitarist/vocalist Tanya Donelly, augmented by The Perfect Disaster bassist Josephine Wiggs and Music/{{Slint}} drummer [[GenderBlenderName Britt "Oh wait, that's a guy?" Walford]]. In this incarnation, the band got signed to Creator/FourADRecords (also home of The Pixies) and recorded an album with Music/SteveAlbini, who had worked on The Pixies' ''Music/SurferRosa''. The album, ''Pod'', represented a variation on The Pixies' catchy AlternativeRock but with rawer production values, and was well-received upon its release.
16
17	After a break to record with their full-time bands, Deal and Donelly returned to the Breeders, this time permanently - Donelly resigned from Throwing Muses shortly thereafter, while the Pixies went on a two-year hiatus and disintegrated. A short Breeders EP followed, ''Safari''. This marked the debut of Kim's twin sister Kelley, who has remained the other constant member of the band since, despite never having played guitar in her life before being hired as The Breeders' lead guitarist. By the end of the year, Donelly and Walford had left the band, the former starting her own band Music/{{Belly\|Band}}, the latter replaced by [=Jim MacPherson=] behind the drumset. With the new Kim-Kelley-Josephine-Jim lineup, The Breeders became a full-time band, supporting Music/{{Nirvana}} on their 1992 European tour.
18
19	After Music/ThePixies broke up for good in 1993, The Breeders went into the studio to record ''Last Splash''. Produced by Kim and Mark Freegard, ''Splash'' has slightly better production values (but not by much) and way catchier melodies. It quickly became the band's biggest success, spawning a hit single with "Cannonball" and selling well in excess of a million copies.
20
21	However, this success proved too good to last. The band wound down after Kelley ran into legal trouble for drug use, going into a long hiatus. Both sisters started up side projects, namely The Amps (Kim), the Kelley Deal 6000 and The Last Hard Men ([[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Kelley]]). [=MacPherson=] and Wiggs themselves left at some point during this hiatus. Music/TheProdigy also SampledUp their song "S.O.S." for the massive hit "Firestarter" while they were inactive.
22
23	The Breeders came out of their TenMinuteRetirement around 1998, initially just with the Deal sisters. They returned to the studio with a new rhythm section (bassist Mando Lopez and drummer Jose Medeles) and guitarist to record ''Title TK'', released in 2002. ''TK'' shied away from the catchy accessibility of ''Splash'' and instead returned to the raw garage rock of ''Pod''. The band released another album and an EP with that lineup, before reuniting the 1993 lineup in 2018.
24
25	Members:
26	* Kim Deal - vocals, guitar (1990-present)
27	* Kelley Deal - vocals, guitar (1992-present)
28	* Tanya Donelly - vocals, guitar (1990-1992)
29	* Josephine Wiggs - bass, cello (1990-1996, 2018)
30	* Mando Lopez - bass (2002-2009)
31	* Britt Walford - drums (1990-1992)
32	* Jim [=MacPherson=] - drums (1992-1996, 2018)
33	* Jose Medeles - drums (2002-2009)
34
35	Discography:
36	* ''Pod'' (1990)
37	* ''Safari'' EP (1992)
38	* ''Last Splash'' (1993)
39	* ''Head to Toe'' EP (1994)
40	* ''Title TK'' (2002)
41	* ''Mountain Battles'' (2008)
42	* ''Fate to Fatal'' EP (2009)
43	* ''All Nerve'' (2018)
44	----
45	!Tropes
46
47	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Last Splash'''s title comes from a line in "Cannonball".
48	** ''Title TK'' gets its title drop less than 30 seconds into the opening track "Little Fury".
49	* BreakupSong: "Do You Love Me Now?", with a chorus that goes ''Come on, come on, come back to me right now'' no less.
50	* TheCoverChangesTheGender: Notably averted with "Lord of the Thighs".
51	* CoverVersion: "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" by Music/TheBeatles on ''Pod'', "So Sad About Us" by Music/TheWho on ''Safari'', "Drivin' on 9" by Ed's Redeeming Qualities on ''Last Splash'', "Shocker in Gloomtown" by Music/GuidedByVoices and "The Freed Pig" by [=Sebadoh=] on ''Head to Toe'' and "Archangel's Thunderbird" by Amon Düül II on ''All Nerve''.
52	** And a non-GenderFlip cover of Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s "Lord Of The Thighs" on the "Cannonball" B-side.
53	** They would also frequently cover the theme from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' live, and a studio version would appear on ''Radio Sunnydale'', the second official ''Buffy'' soundtrack album .
54	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: "S.O.S." features Kelley playing an amplified sewing machine. The sewing machine was originally being used by Kelley to work on a quilt during studio downtime - Kim decided it'd be interesting to mic it up and incorporate it into a song. The ''Last Splash'' liner notes credit Kelley as playing a "Kenmore 12-stitch" among other instruments.
55	* InTheStyleOf: The "Drivin' on 9" cover is performed as a folk-country sort of thing.
56	* GenderBlenderName: Britt Walford.
57	* GratuitousGerman: "German Studies".
58	* GratuitousSpanish: Probably inherited from Music/ThePixies. See: "Regalame Esta Noche".
59	* InstantExpert: Kim initially asked Kelley to play drums, which she did know how to do. Kelley insisted on being the lead guitarist instead, despite having never played the guitar, and learned it in a matter of weeks. DownplayedExample in that her lead guitar lines aren't exactly Music/SteveVai material, but it fits The Breeders.
60	* LetsDuet: "Do You Love Me Now Jr." is a duet between Kim and [[Music/DinosaurJr J Mascis]]. Kim also duetted with Kim Gordon on Music/SonicYouth's "Little Trouble Girl".
61	* LoopedLyrics: "Bang On".
62	* TheOneGuy: During TheNineties, Walford and [=MacPherson=].
63	* PerformanceVideo: "Cannonball".
64	* RiverOfInsanity: "900" was inspired by Franklin's lost Arctic expedition in 1845.
65	* SingingSimlish: "Huffer"
66	* SingleStanzaSong: "Roi"
67	* SoloSideProject: During the Breeders' hiatus in the mid-90s, Kim and Kelley started bands of their own - The Amps and The Kelley Deal 6000, respectively. The Breeders would record their own version of The Amps' "Full On Idle" for ''Title TK'', and a few other Amps songs occasionally make their way into Breeders live performances.
68	* StartMyOwn: How the band began. Also, Donelly went on to form Music/{{Belly\|Band}} and left The Breeders to focus on her own group.
69	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Josephine Wiggs sings two {{BSide}}s from the ''Cannonball'' single/EP: "900" (which she also wrote) and the already mentioned "Lord Of The Thighs" cover, as well as "Metagoth" on ''All Nerve''. Meanwhile, Kelley Deal sings lead on "I Just Want To Get Along".
70	* StudioChatter: Appears a bit on ''Pod'', such as on "Metal Man" and the end of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" (where Walford asks "Josephine, do you think you're going bald?" to the rather exasperated reply, "No, you've asked me that before, and the answer was 'no' then.").
71	* TakeThat: Downplayed - Kelley sang "I Just Want To Get Along" so it wouldn't be seen as a TakeThat at [[Music/ThePixies Black Francis]].
72	-->''If you're so special, [[DeadArtistsAreBetter why aren't you dead]]?!?''
73	* UntitledTitle: ''Title TK'', sort of - "TK" is a journalism abbreviation for "to come", meaning content that will be added to an article later, so the album name effectively means "we haven't come up with a title yet".
74	* WordSaladLyrics

Context Music / TheBreeders