The Breeders

The Breeders started as a Boston supergroup, featuring the Pixies' bassist Kim Deal (writing most of the songs and playing guitar) along with guitarist Tanya Donelly from Throwing Muses, violinist Carrie Bradley of local heroes Ed's Redeeming Qualities, and a couple of out-of-towners: Slint's drummer Britt Walford (who called himself "Shannon Doughton" and later, ahem, "Mike Hunt") and British bassist Josephine Wiggs (from the Perfect Disaster). Originally planned as a one-off project, Pod was striking enough to spawn a career. It's hazy and creepily erotic, showcasing Deal's thin purr and bizarre, skeletal songs -- you're never sure if they're going to make it to the next phrase -- as well as a sinuous cover of the Beatles'"Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Aside from the racing "Hellbound," it's as elliptical as rock gets, and it was just what college radio had been waiting for.

With Safari, Kim Deal added her identical twin sister Kelley on lead guitar (never mind that Kelley, legendarily, could barely play) and vocals. More or less a concept EP about Kim's breakup with her husband, it featured more-fleshed-out original songs and a spunky take on the Who's "So Sad About Us."

Donelly and Walford left, and new drummer Jim MacPherson arrived, before the Breeders hit it out of the park with the summery alternative-rock landmark Last Splash. With its scraping, rhythmic hooks and headlong three-chord chorus, "Cannonball" was an MTV hit, and the rest of the album developed Kim's loopy melodies and oblique words into an unpredictable guitar-rock tornado. "Divine Hammer" is a chiming tribute to her favorite part of men's bodies; "Drivin' on 9" resurrects an old Ed's Redeeming Qualities favorite as tender country. Kelley even sings lead on a spiteful little rocker, "I Just Wanna Get Along." The band had never sounded more assured or more ebullient.

And then there was silence. The Breeders of Last Splash toured the world, but only managed to eke out one more single; Kelley was busted for heroin; Kim and some Ohio pals, as the Amps, made a ramshackle album, Pacer (forgettable aside from its title track, another of Deal's perfect garage-rock readymades). Finally, after nine years, the Deals and new hired hands delivered the mostly dreadful Title TK -- journalistic slang for "we'll fill it in later." It's an attempt to return to the protean, stripped-down aesthetic of Pod, but the songs (one recycled from Pacer) just seem unfinished and aimless, and the stark arrangements and recording do them no favors. (DOUGLAS WOLK)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide