The Breeders

LSXX (4AD)

If you’re looking for a crisp, sparkling remaster of the Breeders’ 1993 garage-rock jewel Last Splash, you could skip LSXX and head to any record store bargain bin. The 20th anniversary centerpiece of this three-disc (or seven vinyl LP) set appears exactly as Pixies bassist Kim Deal intended it two decades ago: a little muddy and very loud. The frills of this reissue are strewn over two bonus CDs that serve as an aural road map to the quartet’s career before and after the release of its breakthrough, preserving the disc’s personnel of Deal, twin sister Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs, and Jim MacPherson. There’s four EPs released between 1992 and 1994, including the incredible, J Mascis-produced Head to Toe, which gives cover nods to contemporaries Sebadoh (“Freed Pig”) and fellow Dayton, Ohio, noisemakers Guided by Voices (“Shocker in Gloomtown”). The third installment, live in Stockholm and BBC Sessions, unleashes the Splash-era oeuvre in its rawest form, save for an upcoming fall tour. Even then, it’s the album itself that remains the “Cannonball” in the pool here. Last Splash didn’t need a revamp, so the Breeders didn’t give you one.

This article appears in August 16 • 2013.

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