The Breeders Last Splash Comes to Rio

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Reunited and touring in support of the 20th anniversary and re-issue of their iconic breakthrough album, Last Splash, the 1990s American alternative band, the Breeders, will play for the first time ever in Rio de Janeiro at Lapa’s Circo Voador on Thursday July 25th.

Having played previously in Brazil at 2009’s Planeta Terra festival in São Paulo, the Breeders will finally arrive in Rio thanks to the help of Queremos, a Rio crowdfunded kickstarter, that connects musicians, agents, fans and venues.

During their Circo Voador show, the Breeders will play their Last Splash album in its entirety with additional B-Sides and EP tracks that were produced around the same time as the album. Released in 1993, Last Splash was the band’s critically acclaimed sophomore album which followed their 1990 debut, Pod.

The Breeders originated when Pixies bassist, Kim Deal created a musical side-project with then Throwing Muses’ guitarist Tanya Donelly. Violinist Carrie Bradley and bassist Josephine Wiggs eventually joined the two along with drummer Britt Walford.

In 1991 Kim invited her twin sister Kelley Deal to take the place of Donnelly, who had become more involved in other projects. Drummer Jim Macpherson replaced Walford and together the four became the opening band for famous Grunge rockers, Nirvana during their 1992 European tour.

During the following year the Breeders would record and release Last Splash. Critically acclaimed, its success was fueled by the release of the single “Cannonball” and its accompanying video, co-directed by Spike Jonze and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.

The video received heavy airplay on MTV and the song would become a trademark for the band, eventually making its way to the number two position on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

“Even in a high point year for alternative rock, The Breeders second album was a stand out and ‘Cannonball’, led by Kim Deal’s driving bass line, provided a big part of the soundtrack to that year for me,” Rio and San Fransisco-based DJ Tee Cardaci told The Rio Times.

Success, however, was short-lived as the Breeders with the lineup of the Deal sisters, Wiggs and Macpherson played their last show together on September 5th, 1994, at the Lollapalooza festival in Los Angeles. In the years that followed the band suffered numerous lineup changes and Kim Deal remained with the Pixies until June 2013.

Earlier in May 2013, the Breeders released the deluxe 20th anniversary edition of Last Splash. The three CD box set entitled, LSXX, includes multiple B-sides, demos and previously unreleased tracks and live recordings. Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson reunited and began an international tour with Pod violinist Carrie Bradley in support of it.

“I’m super Breeders fan and even more so after having attended their Last Splash show during a festival in Barcelona this year,” Melvin Ribeiro, the DJ who will play before and after the Breeders show this Thursday (July 25th), told The Rio Times.

Ribeiro says he plans to play Teenage Fanclub, Guided By Voices, Lemonheads, Nirvana and other “artists that we listened along with the Breeders.” Ribeiro who is also as bassist and guitarist for multiple Rio bands including the punk rock band, Carbona, said that from what he saw in Barcelona, the reunited bandmates during the ongoing tour “seem like they’re having the time of their lives.”

Who: The Breeders
with DJ Melvin Ribeiro before and after the show.
Where: Circo Voador – Rua dos Arcos, S/N, Lapa
When: Thursday, July 25th. Doors open at 9PM
Tickets: R$80 – R$160, available here and at the Circo Voador box office.

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