Breeders' Bassist Josephine Wiggs Rejoins Band for Handful of Gigs

The Breeders are only a few dates away from the end of a summer tour supporting their Fate to Fatal EP, and the last few gigs are promising to be epic: the band's bassist, Mando Lopez, was forced to jet home to be with his pregnant wife, so the band's former bassist Josephine Wiggs is stepping in to lend a hand.

The band's publicist confirms that when Lopez's wife went into labor Wednesday — when the Breeders were in New York playing their second of a pair of Bowery Ballroom gigs — Kim Deal reached out to Wiggs, who agreed to rejoin the band for their final three shows of the trek. The only problem: Wiggs has to relearn all the old song and a few albums' worth of new ones (she last played with the Breeders at a special reunion gig in 2005 for 4AD's anniversary, but hasn't been a touring member of the group since 1994).

With no rehearsal time, Wiggs grabbed her laptop and figured out the new tracks. And the crew is bringing acoustic guitars in the van and practicing on the road, too.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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