The Breeders

“All Nerve”

Scum stats: probably some totally attainable number of copies pressed on orange vinyl billed as “exclusive”, infinite reserves on black

One of the cooler moments in my life was off-handedly mentioning in a White Stripes email blast in early 2002 that I was DYING to hear the new Breeders record.

Without fanfare, a promotional CD copy of the album “Title TK" arrived at my doorstep. 19-year-old me was befuddled. Where in the hell did this come from?

Turns out the White Stripes and the Breeders had the same European publicist back then. She saw my email and probably thought it was “cute” to share with my childish self.

Back then, promos started going out almost four months before the release of the album. To spend that amount of time with the record before it was even released was mind-blowing.

And I absolutely loved the album. Met the band backstage at the Stripes/Dirtbombs show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London and even got a kiss from Kim.

I only received THIS Breeders album 11 days before release, but the affect is no less dulled. I’d be hard-pressed to name a band I still love as much as I did back in 1993. The Breeders have never let me down.

So this new album, the first with the classic “Last Splash”-era line-up since “Last Splash” does not hit as hard and bombastic as that album, one that still resonates with me on a regular basis.

But 25 years is a long-ass time! Nothing can stay the same and fresh that long.

But lyrics like “You don’t know how much I miss you” from the album’s title track and “Consider I, always struggle with the right word…meow meow meow meow” from “Wait in the Car” I’ll be damned if Kim Deal isn’t still important in my world view.

While noticeably more subdued or dare I say timid, the affect is no less moving or important. Everything you want and need from a Breeders record is here in spades.

And now I’ve gone down a Youtube rabbit hole to a clip of the Breeders covering the Pixies “Gigantic” and just hearing Kim’s voice brings me to tears. So good, so evocative, so unique.

And kudos to the kind folks at XL, still working with Jack 16 years later, for sending me all three versions of the “Wait in the Car” 7-inch. Makes the fact that there are forty-plus copies of the “limited” orange vinyl version of the LP currently available to purchase on Discogs that much easier to stomach.

Get on board.