Death to the Pixies
Bassist and Breeders founder Kim Deal brings her solo show to London's music mecca, Camden, proving the Pixies severed parts have only bred more brilliant ones
I’m not sad the Pixies broke up in the early ‘90s. There, I’ve said it. Because if the Surfer Rosa-rockers hadn’t hung up their Fender Teles after releasing final studio album, Trompe Le Monde, then we might never have had the, frankly, seminal sounds of The Breeders’ Last Splash which means that you might never have had that sweaty, hair flinging moment on the indie dancefloor to that dirty siren sound of ‘Cannonball’.
Deal joined Black Francis and co at the beginning of 1986, as Mama Carol was navigating all soon-to-be-9lbs of me in her womb. There was a brief band hiatus after Doolittle, which the bassist took as her opportunity to take the lead of a more melodic, pop outfit building the Breeders’ alongside friend of the time and Throwing Muses’ frontwoman, Tanya Donelly, Josephine Wiggs of alt-rockers (and UK-based) Perfect Disaster1, and Britt Walford of Kentucky clan Slint. After the band’s debut, POD, in 1990, Deal’s twin sister Kelley replaced Donelly.
A few years on, and the Pixies announced their split, leaving Deal to focus on her other output. That singular vision paid off with 1993’s Last Splash going platinum, in no short part thanks to stone-cold single ‘Cannonball’. But the commerical success took its toll on the two sisters, who both spent stints of the late ‘90s holed up in drug rehabilitation. Thankfully, a new millennium ushered in new music. Title TK landed in 2002 and could honestly be the soundtrack to my first serious relationship, sat on a single bed together listening to a weirdly intense song about iguanas. But despite playing musically professionally for nearly 40 years, the Breeders only boast five full-length records.
2018’s All Nerve landed after the original lineup regrouped in 2013 for a series of shows celebrating Last Splash’s 20th anniversary2. In those interim years, Deal had been teasing us with a string of single releases, including a few3 that went on to become 2024’s solo debut, Nobody Loves You More Than Me. The songwriter assembled the bulk of the record in her Dayton, Ohio, basement, producing with Pro Tools and an Electrodyne microphone preamp, but she wasn’t alone. While she took on a lot of the instrumental duties (drums, bass, and guitar), other contributors appear, including Savages’ Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan, and the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence.
Before I tell you how Deal’s long-awaited debut comes to life on stage, though, there’s another artist to talk about. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t the only one picking up the guitar in my teens, emulating my 90s alt-rock heroes. TTSSFU — aka Manchester's Tasmin Nicole Stephens — is also inspired by the grunge era and, similarly to Deal, crafts atmospheric worlds in their bedroom on GarageBand.
But it’s not Stephens’ cherry red, Daisy Rock guitar that has drawn my eye tonight4. Instead, the bare bones of a bass her bandmate is cradling with no headstock and a distinct lack of body. The rest of the roster also faces a few hurdles. The drummer grapples with a broken kick drum, desperately searching for a sound man to support. He powers on alone, eventually holding the metal beater aloft to a cheer from the crowd. For ‘Studio 54’, Stephens is out in the crowd with a trailing mic lead, summoning the shoegaze sheen of emotionally charged, cheerleader Soccer Mommy or fellow one-woman force Blondshell. before bowing out with the purposefully confronting ‘I Hope You Die.’
I’ll admit that I’ve already heard great things about Kim Deal’s live setup after her sold-out Barbican show earlier this year (thanks, Alex!). While she might be listed as a solo performer, Deal is definitely not alone. She and her Fender Strat are flanked by dual guitars, a (appropriately proportioned) bass, multiple brass instruments, a violin, and a cello. As the band eases into album namesake, ‘Nobody Loves You More,’ it quickly becomes apparent that this will be a full rendition of the record. After the intimacy of ‘Are You Mine?’, the guitar levels are charged for the bright, reverb-soaked sounds of ‘Disobedience’ as Deal sings stubbornly, “I go where I want while I’m still on the planet.” I’m equally enamoured by the enormous guitar lines of ‘Big Ben Beat’, a serious slathering of distortion flies through the rafters of the Roundhouse.
“It’s that time in the record and we’re not going to skip it,” says Deal, wryly. We breeze into a back-to-back of ‘Bats In The Afternoon Sky’ (blissful with those fuzzy organs) and guitarist Rob switches out his six-string for a tropical ukulele in ‘Summerland’, which tickles at ‘Driving On Nine5’ territory with added Disney strings. “We’re blowing through this record,” Deal pauses to reflect. “We’re not going to have anything else to play!” This seems highly unlikely for a musician with such a decade-spanning legacy, and I ponder how Pixies fans feel her solo stuff compares to that of fellow frontperson Black Francis. As the applause rings out, I’d say pretty well indeed.
‘Beautiful Moon’ finds Deal alone in the auditorium for the first time as the band steps away for her to dish out a few more of those ‘45s, with Alison on tender cello. And then the band is back, and we’re into the Breeders portion of the set, which I had hoped would come, but it’s a slew of standouts. The dual guitars kick in for ‘Invisible Man’ and, while Rob does a solid Kelley, I do miss her, I’ll be honest. ‘POD’ favourite, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ is the clattering beast we’d expect with rugged lead lines and that ferocious chorus build up which sidles up nicely to 2014’s ‘Biker Gone’ (another ‘45”) delivered on a tasty tomato-coloured Strat. Title TK’s ‘Off You’ makes for a tidy clash as Deal soothes “I am the make up on your eye” and I am back in that teenage bedroom with the door closed and curtains drawn. The intimacy is palpable.
‘No Bye No Aloha’ signals the first use of that signature ‘Cannonball’ microphone (a “Green Bullet" harmonica, in case you were wondering) and I think I know what’s coming. But what I didn’t expect comes next. Throughout the show, Deal hasn’t gone near the bass (despite my wishing it from the stalls) until now. As she leads into a song that “for three decades has deserved awards,” she quips, “It also needed Dave Grohl6 to sing it”, only for the Foo Fighters frontman to appear meters away from us at the mic stand, gold Les Paul glistening and raring to go. We’re thrust into timeless singalong ‘Gigantic’ and it feels momentous to be surrounded by four of my favourite women feeling this big, big love. Because while the Pixies wrote some magnificent music, with Deal at the heart, its severed parts only went on to breed more.
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On tap: There’s a strong on-tap selection for the 6Music Dads here with Shipyard Pale Ale and Shindigger Session IPA, but we opt for four pints of the London-in-the-sunshine standard, Estrella.
Set highlight: Well, special guests aside, it’s got to be that ‘Cannonball’ closer, hasn’t it? I feel spoiled that I’ve now seen that twice in all its indie-dancefloor-filling glory.
Pre-gig destination: Tucked away on the same street as indie institution The Good Mixer, El Cenote boasts a solid Happy Hour, or as they like to call it “MARGARITA MADNESS” from 4-7pm, so pull up a pew early for a tequila-fuelled, two-for-one alongside a moreish mushroom quesadilla and freshly battered Baja fish tacos.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the OG Pixies bassist and Breeders bastion, Kim Deal, has graced the virtual pages of Babe, Gig In The City? Author and fellow 90s grunge fan girl, Lucy Nichol, waxed lyrical about her experience of the latter (and utterly on her tod!) as part of last year’s Fan Fare series.
Equally, I conjured up both Kim and Kelley after catching Aussie slacker Courtney Barnett opening for the Foo Fighters last summer, whose performance of ‘Nameless Faceless’ only had me hankering for the Deal sisters' involvement again.
Wondering how a bassist from Bedford made it into the ‘90s elite team of The Breeders? Me too. The story goes that Wiggs met Deal when The Perfect Disaster opened for the Pixies at a London show in 1988. Wiggs now lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend.
This moment perfectly aligned with my moving to London, so I was lucky enough to see the album in full at Kentish Town Forum. Only to witness the band leave the stage and return to play out their encore — the entirety of POD. It’s still probably one of my most treasured live shows, to date.
The back-to-back brilliance of 2013’s ‘Are You Mine?’, written about Deal losing her mother to Alzheimer’s, and ‘Wish I Was’.
This Roundhouse show also marks Babe, Gig In The City’s second big celeb spot after that Rich from 5ive revelation last summer, catching Curve/Echobelly guitarist Debbie Smith sidling past us during TTSSFU’s set. I interviewed the seasoned session musician for a dreamy guitar feature years ago, if you fancy a read.
…which will appear later in the Breeders’ portion of the set 🎻
And yes, let’s be frank. This appearance is both divisive and delightful; a band that we’ve followed devoutly for decades, until last year’s news that the nicest guy in rock had fathered a love child outside of his marriage. This Grazia piece sums up the conflict, ahem, nicely.