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:: The Breeders - Shocker In Gloomtown ::

This one's short and sweet, kids. The final gasp from The Breeders in the 90's was a 10" EP that featured a Josephine Wiggs song arranged and reconstituted by Luscious Jackson drummer Kate Schellenbach, a Sebadoh cover (Freed Pig), and a cover of Shocker In Gloomtown by fellow Daytonites Guided By Voices. The lineup was the same as on their mega-smash, purchased-by-everyone-who-was-in-the-BMG-Music-Club album, Last Splash: the Sisters Deal, Jo Wiggs, and Jim MacPherson, who later ended up bludgeoning the drums for GBV. Kim Deal also has various ties to GBV -- recording them, appearing with GBV mastermind Bob Pollard on the song Sensational Gravity Boy (on the Red, Hot & Bothered comp, credited as Freedom Cruise), dating their one-time bassist, journalist/author Jim Greer, and many times mistakenly being called Bob's wife, probably because Bob's actual wife at the time was also named Kim.

The original version of this song is a messy sprint of hammering glory, and sounds like nothing else in GBV's considerable canon. The Breeders version maintains the feel, and most of the recorded-at-band-practice sound of the original, but with the sultry nicotine-coated-candy voice of Kim Deal, it becomes something totally different. Something, um...sexy.


Tony

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 at 6:00 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.