It’s a double cause for celebration as The Breeders return, not only with new music – but with the line-up that recorded 1993’s seminal Last Splash. Twin front-women Kim and Kelley Deal (vocals, guitar) are joined by Josephine Wiggs (bass) and Jim MacPherson (drums).

The first track to be released is ‘Wait In The Car’ which from the very first listen is prime Breeders. It’s available to download now (yup, I already have) and stream, and it’s part of three singles due to be released on 7″ vinyl: Single One will be available at the band’s upcoming tour dates, starting October 15 (pressed on orange vinyl, featuring a cover of Amon Düül II’s 1970 track ‘Archangel’s Thunderbird’, recorded with Steve Albini in Chicago).  Single Two will be available exclusively at select independent record stores from October 27 (pressed on red vinyl, featuring Kim’s dreamy reimagining of Mike Nesmith’s ‘Joanne’).  Details of Single Three (featuring a cover of Devo’s ‘Gates of Steel’ and pressed on yellow vinyl) are to announced later in the year.  Each version is limited to 1,500 copies worldwide.

The video for ‘Wait In The Car’ can be seen below. ‘Wait in the Car’ was directed by Chris Bigg (formerly of the v23 team who worked on the band’s previous 4AD releases) and Martin Andersen, with the video piecing together 800 still images.

“It all started with a brick,” the pair say.  “We both liked the idea of using something iconic yet quite banal. An old brick has a story and it’s a beautiful raw object.  We started collecting more and more (some intact, some broken) and realised how different they all appear, each one having its own identity.”

The band are on tour this month and next:

OCTOBER
10 – NEWPORT, KY, The Southgate House Revival
15 – GLASGOW, ABC
16 – DUBLIN, Vicar Street
17 – MANCHESTER, Academy 2 **SOLD OUT**
18 – LONDON, Electric Ballroom **SOLD OUT**
22 – AMSTERDAM, Melkweg Max
23 – ANTWERP, Trix
24 – BERLIN, Heimathafen
25 – COPENHAGEN, Vega
27 – PARIS, Le Gaite Lyrique **SOLD OUT**
29 – ST. PAUL, MN, XCEL Energy Centre (w/ Arcade Fire)
30 – CHICAGO, IL, United Center (w/ Arcade Fire)

NOVEMBER
1 – DETROIT, MI, Magic Stick
3 – BOSTON, MA, The Sinclair **SOLD OUT**
4 – WASHINGTON, DC, Lincoln Theatre
5 – NEW YORK, NY, Bowery Ballroom **SOLD OUT**
6 – PHILADELPHIA, PA, Union Transfer
8 – PORTLAND, OR, Wonder Ballroom **SOLD OUT**
9 – SEATTLE, WA, Showbox at Market **SOLD OUT**
11 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, The Rickshaw Stop **SOLD OUT**
12 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, The Rickshaw Stop **SOLD OUT**
13 – LOS ANGELES, CA, El Rey Theatre **SOLD OUT**

I get numerous requests to run news stories, and I rarely do.

However, the news that The Breeders are to re-issue Last Splash on vinyl and CD with numerous goodies, like the Safari and Head To Toe EPs is worth celebrating and making a fuss about.

So here’s what you need to know:

LSXX, the 20th anniversary reissue of the Breeders’ Platinum album, Last Splash, will be released on April 22nd on 4AD.

LSXX will be available as a limited-edition, seven-disc vinyl box set, and a three-CD package. Many of the recordings included in the set have never been released before, and for other tracks, it will be the first time they receive a worldwide release. Cover and individual sleeve artwork has been created by renowned British graphic designer Vaughan Oliver, who described it as “an irreverent conceptual and visual re-imagining,” of his original Last Splash artwork.

The vinyl box set includes:

a 12-inch vinyl pressing of Last Splash
four 10-inch EPs – ‘Safari’, ‘Cannonball’, ‘Divine Hammer’ and ‘Head To Toe’
a 12-inch vinyl live concert album, Stockholm Syndrome, recorded in Sweden in 1994, during the band’s last European tour. Seven tracks from this recording originally appeared on a fan-club-only CD; nine additional unreleased tracks from the concert are included here.
a 12-inch vinyl record comprised of a BBC radio session recorded July 24, 1993 and available here for the first time, and the original Last Splash demo recordings, made in November 1992.
a 24-page booklet featuring previously unpublished photographs taken during the recording of Last Splash, personal photos taken during two years of touring, and reminiscences written by band members and others, including Kim Gordon and J Mascis.

The CD release is comprised of the same material in a three-disc set.

LSXX will be available at retail stores as well as online. The release coincides with the Breeders’ “LSXX World Tour,” which marks the first time Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson have performed together since 1994. With more dates to be announced, the confirmed European itinerary is as follows:

May
24 – BARCELONA, Primavera
27 – TOULOUSE, Le Bikini
28 – BORDEAUX, Le Rocher De Palmer
30 – PORTO, Primavera

June
01 – PARIS, Trianon
02 – BRUSSELS, Ancienne Belgique
03 – AMSTERDAM, Paradiso
14 – DUBLIN, Vicar Street [TICKETS]
17 – GLASGOW, ABC [TICKETS]
18 – MANCHESTER, Ritz [TICKETS]
19 – LONDON, Forum [TICKETS]
21 – CAMBER SANDS, All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Deerhunter

** LSXX full tracklisting:
Disc 1 – Last Splash – 12-inch vinyl
New Year
Cannonball
Invisible Man
No Aloha
Roi
Do You Love Me Now?
Flipside
I Just Wanna Get Along
Mad Lucas
Divine Hammer
S.O.S.
Hag
Saints
Drivin’ On 9
Roi (Reprise)

Disc 2 – The Stockholm Syndrome (Live In Stockholm) – 12-inch vinyl
Shocker In Gloomtown
New Year
Hellbound
Saints
Hag
I Just Wanna Get Along
S.O.S.
Roi
Head To Toe
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Cannonball
Invisible Man
Doe
Drivin’ On 9
Don’t Call Home
Limehouse
(seven of these tracks were previously released as a limited-edition, fan club only release via the Breeders’ Digest; the other nine are previously unreleased)

Disc 3 – Demos, rare tracks and session versions – 12-inch vinyl
No Aloha (BBC Session, previously unreleased)
Flipside (BBC Session, previously unreleased)
Divine Hammer (BBC Session, previously unreleased)
Hag (BBC Session, previously unreleased)
New Year (November 1992 demo, previously released as a bonus 7-inch with original vinyl pressing of Last Splash)
Grunggae (November 1992 demo, previously released as a bonus 7-inch with original vinyl pressing of Last Splash)
Invisible Man (previously released on 4AD label compilation, 13 Year Itch)
No Aloha (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
I Just Wanna Get Along (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
Mad Lucas (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
S.O.S. (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
Saints (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
900 (November 1992 demo, previously unreleased)
Iris (previously released on the No Alternative compilation album)

‘Safari’ EP – 10-inch vinyl
Do You Love Me Now?
Don’t Call Home
Safari
So Sad About Us

‘Cannonball’ EP – 10-inch vinyl
Cannonball
Cro-Aloha
Lord Of The Thighs
900

‘Divine Hammer’ EP – 10-inch vinyl
Divine Hammer (single version)
Hoverin’
I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)
Do You Love Me Now?

‘Head To Toe’ EP – 10-inch vinyl
Head To Toe
Shocker In Gloomtown
Freed Pig
Saints

Which gives me the perfect reason to post the following!

…Kim Deal.

And, like Susan Boyle, she sticks to her guns. This is the woman who credited herself as Mrs. John Murphy on the sleeve of Surfer Rosa, who used to dress as a secretary in sensible shoes at early Pixies gigs because it annoyed the punks, and who every so often gets The Breeders out for us.

Thier New EP, ‘Fate To Fatal’ is a four track release. there are limited versions around on vinyl to tie in with record Store day, but even my local indie store in Edinburgh couldn’t track it down. Whilst most of their stuff has come out on 4AD, this appears to be self-released, and they even appear to have changed their logo.

The Breeders -‘Fate To Fatal.’ mp3

and here’s the video…

The breeders -‘fate to fatal’

The Breeders website/The Breeders Myspace

This is actually my 600th post, and I thought I would post this, the one and only Peel session by The Breeders.

The Breeders have been described as one of the most promising and frustrating bands to emerge in the last twenty years. They have prodcued some excellent stuff, but for what started as a ‘Supergroup’ (in the seventies sense of the word, where a band was formed out of a lot of people who were already in bands as a side project, see Crosby Stiils Nash & Young etc..) they soon started to become the main concern. However, in the time they have been around, they have produced four LPs.

When Kim Deal, then the bassist in the Pixies, got together with Tanya Donnelly, then in Throwing Muses, both must have been feeling that they were playing second fiddle in their own bands and that they also had a lot to offer the world.They did. The first album, Pod, was made in Edinburgh at Palladium Studios, and engineered by Steve Albini. This may be heresy in the blogger world (but I’ve already faced excommunication by some for not putting the Arcade Fire as my favourite band of all time, so what the hell), but Pod is actually my favourite of the four albums. This is the time that produced the only session they would record for John Peel, though the only song that made the Festive fifty, perhaps predictably, was ‘Cannonball.’

They recorded one Peel session for John Peel, in January 1990, which was broadcast the following month. All four tracks were written by Kim Deal

Breeders -‘Fortunately Gone (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘Hellbound (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘Iris (Peel session).’ mp3

Breeders -‘When I Was A Painter (Peel session).’ mp3

This lineup would change over time, Tanya Donnelly would leave both Throwing Muses and The Breeders, first two produce two albums as frontwoman of Belly, and then go solo; Kim Deal was joined by her sister Kelley later on, though they had other projects as well, including The Amps, The Kelley Deal 6000…a whole heap of other stories.

Maybe you should try here…
The Breeders’ website/The Breeders’ MySpace/An unofficial but utterly brilliant Breeders’ page