Even though we only released Indie of the 21st Century two months ago, AIRHeads have been hard at work on a ton of new packs, and jphn and Yaniv are excited to release one of the first ones we’ve had planned – the first double Album Series, covering the first two full-length releases by the Breeders! For those who don’t know, the Breeders began as a side project for then-Pixies bassist/vocalist Kim Deal and guitarist/vocalist Tanya Donelly (of Belly and Throwing Muses fame) and eventually became Kim’s main gig following the Pixies’ initial dissolution. Well-known for “Cannonball,” the lead hit single from Last Splash, their albums are imbued with so much playfulness and eccentricity, whilst still maintaining the initial edge of college/art rock, that they’re a perfect fit for Rock Band! So starting chronologically, let’s go to jphn to talk about Pod:

Initially, when I was informed of a Last Splash project happening, I only intended to include two bonus songs from Pod, the Breeders’ highly influential debut album that laid an incredible blueprint for what was to come (AKA, what you’ll see further down on this page…) As tends to happen with collabs in this group, this managed to evolve into adding six more on top of those, matching the Last Splash contributions with eight songs from each! If you’re a fan of Surfer Rosa especially, you’ll notice some similarities in Pod, even beyond the obvious connection – both were produced by Steve Albini, so both feature a very raw and roomy sound, and a lot of the lyrics have somewhat darker and sexually-charged undertones, but not in a manner that’s extremely overt. The Breeders, however, still stand strongly when compared to the Pixies thanks to Deal’s catchy and creative songwriting, along with the band’s general willingness to play with dynamics – if “Gigantic” is your favorite Pixies song, you’ll love this whole album. Every song here is an absolute blast, and I really invite you to play both of these albums as setlists in-game, but I’d like to highlight “When I Was A Painter” and “Hellbound” for having really fun parts all-around, especially on drums, and “Doe” and “Fortunately Gone” for being complete earworms that haven’t left my head since authoring them. Without further ado, the first eight tracks of Pod:

Hey, Yaniv here! While of course I was aware of the Breeders before, I only got fully into them recently. I attended the last Riot Fest in Chicago, which triggered a deep dive into the performing artists of the festival (a dive that has created – and will continue creating – many more customs for you). Riot Fest specifically has a tradition of artists playing full albums front to back, and Last Splash by the Breeders was on top of that bill. So I dove head-first into this album, and I absolutely fell for it. Bottom line, it’s just such a cool record! The Breeders offer this brand of quirky, often short, always unusual yet catchy and super fun tunes, Kim Deal is just awesome, and props to her sister Kelley for her ultra cool lead guitar work through this record. The guitar riffs and vocal hooks are just off the charts, and with a super steady rhythm section to back them up. The Pixies comparison is of course inevitable – their styles are undeniably similar. So Last Splash to Pod is akin to Doolittle to Surfer Rosa – a more polished and perfected version of the visionary previous album. And most importantly, those are some seriously addicting tunes – from the weird ones (like “Roi”), to the surf instrumentals (“Flipside”), the ballads (“Do You Love Me Now”) to the straight-up bangers (“Divine Hammer”, “I Just Wanna Get Along”) – those songs are just pure fire. It’s rightfully considered one of the best alternative rock albums of the 90’s! For a more complete picture, make sure you don’t miss the previously available songs – our previous collab on the beautiful closer “Drivin’ on 9”, the rocking “Saints” by Mr. Prez, and the big hit “Cannonball” by Nyxyxylyth!

As is tradition, here’s a Spotify playlist containing all the Breeders songs currently playable in Rock Band, counting previous releases and this one:

This release is part of the Album Series. Previous entries include:

1. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
2. Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers
3. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
4. Summer Salt – Happy Camper
5. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
6. Beach Bunny – Honeymoon & Blame Game
7. Jimi Hendrix – Band Of Gypsys
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
9. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
10. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Infest the Rats’ Nest
11. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
12. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
13. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
14. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Barafundle
15. Suede – Autofiction
16. Silver Jews – American Water
17. Blur – Modern Life is Rubbish
18. R.E.M. – Murmur
19. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
20. Cream – Disraeli Gears
21. Tanya Donelly – Love Songs for Underdogs
22. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

The Album Series is an ongoing collaborative project. If you would like to get involved, be sure to reach out to Yaniv297 for more information on how to participate.

Not to completely spoil future projects…but this won’t be the last you hear from Kim Deal, either. Stay tuned, and have fun with these!