The Breeders -- Pod

and, newly emboldened by this power, i would like to say wtf at no votes for 'lime house'

TAR BABY

"Opened" and "Metal Man" are the only songs on this that I cannot see myself voting for on any given day.

lime house is a banger

I'm moving house and all my "current" LPs are safely stored in boxes, I pulled Pod with a few others out of a less sellotaped box for some nostalgic entertainment tonight and this is a fucking great record. Not heard it for a long, long time. It's interesting how like Slint some of the guitar playing is.

Kim's voice is.. tasty

No votes for Limehouse - wtf - that was always my favourite tune!

lol I've been listening to the Pod Demos lately, and "Limehouse" feels like one of the standout tracks on there

30 years old today!

Relisten party?

Okay wow, since this got such an absurdly popular response, I'm gonna go cue up the record and blast it loudly.

"Glorious". co-written by bassist Jim Halliday, who *googles* was in The Low Rollers (?) and may have been romantically involved with Breeders member Carrie Bradley. Jim was replaced by Jo Wiggs prior to this album's recording. Not a lot of people know this but Joey Santiago's goldtop Les Paul was a loaner from Kim Deal, who I believe plays the lead on this song as the tone (not to mention the solo-ing) sounds just like those early Pixies songs.

"Doe". Also co-written by Halliday. Britt & Tanya are so good on this. I mentioned on another thread that there's zero distortion (or reverb) on this track and it's so much more powerful for it, a real testament to Albini's production. A lot of anachronism has obscured the fact that Pod was recorded 7 months prior to Spiderland and I wonder if this song had any sort of influence (it seems to be in E harmonic/melodic minor, which reminds me of something like "Don, Aman").

"Happiness Is A Warm Gun" which is a cover or so I'm told. Albini does some weird processing on the vox on this song. Kim's are doubled but there's some weird stuff that comes in and out (like a weird bleed-in for a second around 1m38s). Not much to say about this track, it's probably the best known song on here.

"Oh!" a 'duet' with labelmate Michael Allen. Carrie really uh, carries this track,, esp into the part where Kim's voice cracks. Britt plays a quarter (+?) beat behind which makes the song feel like it's crawling. Kim also plays some really nice acoustic arpeggios in the verses that you can pick up when the volume is cranked.

"Hellbound". Not my favorite track, seems like a song that was never really fleshed out.

"When I Was A Painter". There's footage of this lineup (I think the only footage that exists) from the studio recording in Edinburgh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf56RgivRLM

which is facinating because Kim is playing like Frank Black (acoustic through overdrive pedal) & Tanya does all her leads in full barre position. Britt is barely visible in the other room.

I'm loving this, Al, keep it going!

okay, only had time for side A. I'm sure you're all riveted for my insight about side B which will have to wait until next time!!!11

For sure. Cool to see the acoustic-through-cranked-Marshall was the Breeders m.o. from day one, too.

well, studio day one, sorry Kelley

Britt Daniel of Spoon also played an acoustic in that style of BF/FB

Great revive!

prompted by the other Breeders thread I did actually listen to this whole album a few hours ago. think it's still my favourite

> A lot of anachronism has obscured the fact that Pod was recorded 7 months prior to Spiderland and I wonder if this song had any sort of influence

Didn't realize this, which makes this all the weirder to me -- I watched the Slint doc (thanks to the thread revive) and Albini said something like (totally paraphrasing) "it's testament to Britt's range that he could go from (Slint) to basically playing three minute pop songs." But it's not like Pod is some huge leap away from what Slint was doing. Pod's got a ton of space in it and the drumming on, say, "Iris" or "Oh!" or "Only in 3s" could be on Spiderland.

god i love "Only In 3s" and "Lime House"

I should give this a listen after the Slint doc.

One vote for Fortunately Gone is crazy. I love the second voice on the "Sweetly as it drops upon your head.." parts.

“Lime House” is still perhaps the best song that Deal has ever written.

I think the Spin Alternative Record Guide states that “Hellbound” is about abortion, but I don’t totally buy it. I don’t really know what Deal’s political/religious beliefs are

cherished very few car driving memories as much as the time i was driving in the middle of nowhere late at night listening to some random radio station and "Oh!" came on.

xp I’d offer “London Song” as her best, it’s the most Kim of Kim songs for me

Pod was recorded after Slint recorded “Glenn” but before Spiderland. Maybe it’s Waldord’s style or maybe it’s that Albini recorded both, but I think the connection between Glenn and Pod is really strong, as far as the drumming goes. Stronger than Spiderland.

xxxp Kim’s always said it was about abortion.
From https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/breeders-summerfest-2022

“This next song is an old, old song. It’s about an abortion,” she said, before launching into “Hellbound.”

“On my own on saturdays”