2sb meets the Breeders

I alluded to this a few times in the past, but I can finally share it:

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been completely infatuated with the Pixies since “Gigantic” came out and I bought “Pod” by the Breeders the morning it was released. Many of you remember my dear departed evil cat Cannonball. Many of you have seen the Vaughan Oliver posters around my various dorm rooms, apartments, and now my house. A few years ago, my company was asked to record, design, and sell the Pixies’ reunion concert CDs, and I even got to design an official t-shirt for the tour and work with Vaughan Oliver a bit on some Dead Can Dance CD packaging. Even better, I got to stand onstage at Lollapalooza to watch the Pixies’ set. I thought it’d never get any sweeter than that.

Well, last year, I met a great designer from Dayton named Chris Glass. We hung out at the ludicrous Creation Museum in Kentucky when I was home for Christmas, and he took his leave saying he had to go meet with “the girls about their website” and said something about “you know how rock stars are.” I didn’t know what he was talking about at the time, but later on, I figured out that he was talking about Kim and Kelley Deal.

Well, to make an already long story a little shorter, Chris finished Breeders Digest and my friend and co-worker Steve Delahoyde, also a big Breeders fan, asked me to ask Chris if the band needed any videos for their new album. Chris talked to them and they said “Sure, as long as we don’t have to be in it.” Chris leaked us a few songs, we picked one, agonized over some ideas, scheduled a shoot, then delayed it so long that we got to shoot some footage when they played here in May. We met Kim, Kelley, Mando, and José, and they were fantastic people who did their cameo perfectly in one (long) take, even though they weren’t actually aware we were rolling (it was a four-minute-long cameo). Steve edited the four separate videos, then we messed with the flash interface for months, then waited a couple more months, and at last, I’m ecstatic to share it with you. I hope the video does justice to the song, and I hope you’ll check out their incredibly great not-so-new-anymore album Mountain Battles (get it on LP, it sounds great and is packaged as beautifully as usual by Vaughan Oliver).

Thanks to the band, Chris, Richard, 4AD, the actors and crew, and especially Steve, who put WAY more work into this than I did. Embed this sucker everywhere you can (a link to the “embed” code is next to the Breeders’ logo), I’d love to see Steve’s phone ringing with more video work.

Oh, to keep it scooter-related, all the “running” scenes were shot by Ryan Taylor from my Genuine Blur 150, he was strapped to me with a tie-down, facing backwards. Luckily no one got hurt. The scooter was parked in the background in one scene that got cut, maybe we can get that up on YouTube sooner or later.

7 thoughts on “2sb meets the Breeders”

  1. Cool video(s)! I like how it’s 4 things, different perspectives, same song. :)

    And I’ve never heard of this band before, so now I have to go check their music out.

    Is this your 15 minutes of fame? I had mine in the movie UHF. Well, had, then lost. But that’s life. :D

  3. That’s fantastic. Love the concept. I’m glad to see they’re still playing. I lost track a few years ago.

    However, I was all over the Breeders when they first came out (92-ish?). My first dorm room was decorated with the Breeders, Belly, Throwing Muses and Pixies.

  4. Color me completely jealous! I’m a huge fan of the Pixies, Breeders, and most of the 4AD bands from that era and of course Vaughn Oliver and all the 23 Envelope/V23 design stuff. Now that you’re “in,” maybe they’ll use you again for that new Pixies record they’ve been working on for about 8 years while Frank has released at least 4 records and we’ve had the first Breeders record in 15 years.

    Anyway, great work—brilliant concept with the perspectives, great interface. Did you guys also do a broadcast edit?

    This could be the first video with a Blur in the credits.

  5. UHF was shot here in Tulsa. And I happened to be at a QuikTrip and some lady came up to me, asked me about my jeep and the lights on top, then told me they needed people for a movie.

    So I showed up, was assigned a “place”, told to do this and that, etc. And then spent a week sitting on my ass watching them film the telethon scene outside the tv station from my jeep. All night long, half awake, talking to people, stars, etc.

    After filming, they cut me out because my shirt (which I wore every night since we were told to wear the same clothes) was supposedly offensive. Yet noone said anything before then. I still got paid, and was technically in the movie.

    When all the vehicles all pull up to the station, there is a HUGE maroon pickup, that was my boss and I was next after him, but you don’t see me.

    That’s my 15 minutes of fame.

  6. Eric, there’s a broadcast version, it actually debuted on MySpacemusic a couple weeks ago, but we’d rather people saw this one.

    It’s amazing how many people I meet who love the Breeders and have no idea that they put out TitleTK in 2002, and even fewer know about “Pacer” by the Amps, the album Kim did in 1995, which is essentially a Breeders album (they played several songs from that at the show in May). 4AD barely promoted either record, and they’re both great.

    The Breeders definitely aren’t prolific, but it bums me out when every review of Mountain Battles started out “Remember the Breeders?” They’ve been touring and recording fairly regularly, and I think they’re as relevant as ever, if not moreso, which is why working with them was actually more exciting than working with the Pixies. The Pixies reunion was great, but everyone knew it wasn’t the same, the recent Breeders shows were as fresh, intimate, and fun as “Safari”-era shows, without a hint of nostalgia.

    Sure, all their albums contain a couple half-finished songs, but they’re all recorded amazingly (usually by Steve Albini) and any one of them is as good as Last Splash, in fact, Last Splash might be my least favorite.

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