The Breeders

The Breeders were the indie band that was going to save music after the implosion of
grunge, but they couldn't even keep themselves minimally healthy. In the mid-Nineties, Kim
Deal's post-Pixies group collapsed under the combined stress of her purported studio
obsessiveness and her twin sister Kelley's dependencies. The Deal sisters -- aided by
members of the venerable Los Angeles punk band Fear -- had to fight their way... More >

Skeletal, fragmented, stumblebum, Kim and Kelley retain their knack for righting themselves with a tuneburst just when you thought they'd never do the limbo again, and they've been away so long they still think alt is a sloppy lifestyle rather than an embattled ethos. Through the imagistic baffle of their lyrics, they leave the impression that they subsist off their modest royalties, scattered gig fees, and compromised advances--mostly on beer. (Grade: A-)