90S ALT-ROCK PIONEERS THE BREEDERS BRING 2018 TOUR TO THE ORPHEUM
Influential 90s alt-rockers The Breeders returned with a new album, All Nerve, which was released in March 2018. The band extended their 2018 tour into the fall, including a stop at Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 11.
The Breeders started life as a side project for Kim Deal of the Pixies, Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, Josephine Wiggs of the British band The Perfect Disaster, and Britt Walford of Slint. They recorded the album Pod with Steve Albini in a mere ten days, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The album was released on 4AD in 1990 to critical acclaim. The press dubbed the Breeders an Indie Supergroup, but the band were able to play only two London shows before returning to their day jobs.
During another hiatus in 1992, Josephine flew to Dayton, Ohio, where Kim had recruited her sister Kelley to learn lead guitar, and stolen powerhouse drummer Jim Macpherson after seeing him play in a local band. They broke an exhaustive rehearsal schedule only to watch nightly re-runs of Star Trek The Next Generation.
The Breeders first tour launched in the UK in June 1992 and went on to support Nirvana. After 27 sold-out US shows that fall, the band drove cross-country to San Francisco to record Last Splash. The video for the single Cannonball—directed by Kim Gordon and Spike Jonze—was in heavy rotation on MTV’s 120 minutes. The band provided support for Nirvana’s In Utero tour, then in January 1994 they traveled to Australia, Japan, and Hawaii, where they were shot for the cover of Rolling Stone—only to be supplanted by the “Ladies of Melrose Place.” That summer they embarked upon the epic Lollapalooza ‘94; the Melody Maker opined, “Kim’s nicotine-stained vocals [are] the very spit of wasted elegance…” the Breeders are “probably the most casually brilliant band around” and Last Splash went platinum. Whatever that means.
In 2013, Kim, Kelley, Josephine and Jim reunited for the 20th anniversary of Last Splash. 4AD reissued the album as a deluxe box set, and the “classic” lineup of the Breeders (augmented by violinist Carrie Bradley) toured the US, Europe, Australia and South America, performing the album at festivals, and playing eight months of sold-out shows. As the end of the reunion tour approached—Kim, or was it Kelley?—broached the idea of carrying on—and the Breeders started working on material for a new album.
Tickets to see The Breeders at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11 go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 10 through Select-A-Seat. Reserved tickets are priced at $25.50 Orchestra Rows P-W and Balcony, and $35 Orchestra Rows A-O, and can be purchased online at selectaseat.com, 855.755.SEAT, Select-A-Seat Box Office at INTRUST Bank Arena.