“I’ve Scientifically Determined That The Breeders Are My Favorite Band and I Wish They’d Put out More Albums”

We are all one “ human race, ” something of which some people nowadays need to be reminded more than ever. There have been theories, though, as well, that humanity was conceived as a “ slave race, ” per se, toward the end of satisfying the objectives of the prevailing corporate tycoons, or whatever. Sometimes I feel like there is some validity to this, like when I ’ m too bogged down by work, and right now I ’ m finally on a set of two day s off after having put in three straight six – day, 45 – hour weeks in the kitchen. When I ’ m overworked like this, some music still hits the spot like mainly He** Hath No Fury by Clipse and Eminem ’ s Slim Shady LP, but in general I ’ m not in my usual mindset of like constantly toggling 20 different vital rock acts in my mind as weighing the significance and honing the meaning of each of them, as a constantly morphing canopy to my reality.

But at one point, recently, when I was sort of scrapping up whatever moribund amounts of “ spirit ” about me that I could, and making a sort of haphazard attempt at rediscovering who I was in the midst of all this obligation, I got this sense of traveling back in time and listening to Last Splash, near the end of the school year my senior year in high school, 2002. What ’ s funny, and that I just realized, is that this would have been at like the exact time Title TK, their third album and I ’ d say their worst one, was released, and honest to God I don ’ t think I even HEARD about it. Weezer ’ s Maladroit, yeah, I was all over that one, and that ’ s an album I still listen to and took pains to champion upon its release within much umbrage from the proverbial peanut gallery, in general [1]].

I was really too young, though, at the time of the release of Last Splash, to quite get into it (truth be told there is some pretty abrasive rocking on the sucker, a paradigm in which “ Cannonball ” is probably ahead of the median but definitely not on the level of “ Roi ” ). But for some reason for that phenomenon of getting out of high school and subsuming myself in a summer of smoking weed and paying aural homage to “ Mother Nature ’ s Son ” by the Beatles and “ Mellow My Man ” by The Roots, et. al., Last Splash just seemed like the perfect portal into a mind state of the utmost enlightenment and preparedness.

Lately, The Breeders seem to only put out an album every 10 years, which is kind of a drag, since their last two LP ’ s, Mountain Battles from 2008, and All Nerve, from 2018, have been excellent. What ’ s more, they ’ re both,, along with their entire catalogue as well, for that matter, very distinct, with Mountain Battles offering snippets of bouncy rock but almost compulsively giving way to pastoral ballad (the beautiful “ We ’ re Gonna Rise ” and “ Here No More ” [2]) , All Nerve on the other hand wielding a more complex, nuanced energy but charmingly never able to settle down or relinquish its crushing, brooding tension. On All Nerve, they seemed to have a predilection for playing “ Wait in the Car ” on talk shows and radio sessions, but I don ’ t know how you overlook “ MetaGoth, ” the collaborative work of the usual songwriter, Kim Deal, and band instrumentalist Josephine Wiggs, and what must be the latter on those ephemeral, eerie vocals.

And some musical endeavors really have the capability of amounting to religious experiences,, by and large, like putting in The Best of The Who on a sunny day and just sitting back. Seeing The Breeders live was like that. They ran through a bunch of great tunes from Mountain Battles like “ German Studies ” and “ Walk it off ” (with the latter of course spawning an obnoxious cheering session from the crowd for the “ The singer gets laid ” line) , which are really the only ones I remember,, though,, and sadly setlist.fm doesn ’ t have this show uploaded. They seem, what ’ s more, like a band that precociously toggles the realms of mainstream and indie, with the penchant for big, memorable statements like “ Cannonball ” and also the from – the – hip freedom of writing a song about giving head ( “ Doe ” ), so that they ’ re essentially able to galvanize and potentiate each cultural realm, without necessarily be TIED to either one, at that. Kurt Cobain was an ardent fan of them right from their genesis, having of course erstwhile paid attention to Kim Deal ’ s former band, the Pixies. After their foray into the world of mainstream success and MTV with “ Cannonball ” and “ Divine Hammer, ” then, they seemed to pretty much fall off the face of the earth, taking nine years to finish their next album and only doing a total of three since then. Of course, this doesn ’ t count Kelley Deal ’ s side project Kelley Deal 6000 and Kim Deal ’ s brief expedition touring with the Pi xies in 2004.. All in all, though, amidst all this esoteric reticence and polymorphous cultural disposition, I think we ’ re in a sense still fishing for a consolidation of this band ’ s true identity, which bespeaks mountains of potential for future releases being rewarding, probably in ways we haven ’ t even imagined yet.

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[1]] Gee,, if you fu**ers are complaining about Weezer ’ s Green Album and Maladroit you ’ ll love Jet and Okkervil River .

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[2]] I was lucky enough to see them on this tour and they explained that one of the lyrics from this tune was a line directly lifted from a candid statement from their Alzheimer ’ s – plagued mom, though they didn ’ t say which one. Maybe “ Not lost / But gone before ” ?