This is not Liz related, but I know there are plenty of Breeder’s fans on this list...

Last night, I went to Lounge Ax in Chicago to see what was being billed as a solo acoustic show by Kim Deal. They just announced the show on Friday, so it was kind of a last minute thing. Lounge Ax was packed to the sweaty gills as I made my way up to the front... Two bands opened, but no one cared and no one was paying attention.. there was a really intense feeling in the room about the night’s special guest. Kim finally walked in the back door, just before her set was supposed to begin, but was carrying a Fender electric, not an acoustic.... much to the crowd’s pleasure.!!.. Also walking in with her was her sister Kelley, also with an electric guitar. What followed was a completely rocking 50 minute set sprinkled with the following (incomplete and not in order) set list of Breeder’s/Amps songs as well as a couple of new songs that I did not catch names for...

No Aloha
Drivin’ on 9
Pacer
I am decided
Cannonball
Mom’s Drunk
IRIS

When they started to play IRIS, there was a roar like I’ve never heard in a small club like this. The crowd was completely fawning and adoring, shouting out requests as well as technical help for the engineer to boost the level of Kim’s guitar and voice, which were overpowered by Kelley’s on the first song.... Kim & Kelley were very cool about fielding all of the requests and bizzare exclamations that were being shouted out (including a bunch of Pixies/ gigantic) requests. At the end, they came out to try an encore of some Hank Williams song, but seemed not to remember the chords or the words, and were not able to get through the song.... The crowd stomped and begged for another proper encore for about 10 minutes but the house lights finally came on and the crowd slowly dissipated... a few hard core devotees hung out by the stage to wait for them to come back and pick up their gear, but even that didn’t happen for about 20 minutes, so we left. On the way to our car, we were walking through the Alley behind Lounge Ax and actually ran into the Deal sisters who were hanging out with a handful of people (including a jet-blonde Nina Gordon from Veruca Salt, who I almost didn’t recognize!) by the dumpsters waiting for the crowd to disappear before they went back in. We snagged a quick interview with them (though I’m not sure where it will appear) and I got the following scoop...

They’d been in Chicago for three weeks to do a record with Steve Albini at his studio

They have three songs totally finished and will be coming back in the Fall to get some more songs done...

Jim McPherson will not be drumming with this new Breeder’s line up, he’s officially playing with Guided By Voices now

Josephine Wiiggs is also out of the picture (they also told us that Josephine broke up with the girl in Luscious Jackson...)

The drums on the new record are being played by ... Kim Deal (?!) who says that that’s one of the reasons it’s taking so long to finish the songs, because they have to learn the parts on each song for multiple instruments!!

Kim is no longer going out with the dude from Spin magazine (Jim Greer) and has no comment about her current love life

They have no idea who the touring line-up will be...

Kim also went on a rant explaining why she prefered being recorded analog as opposed to digital... she swears that none of her songs will ever be done on Pro-Tools, which is why she works with Albini so often...

The Kelly Deal 6000 (if anyone cares...) will remain on hiatus while Kelley plays in the Breeders...

Kelley says that she has been drug and alchohol free for 4 years now and has put the heroin arrest and publicity behind her...

They Deals spent a long time out in the alley with a bunch of underage fans who’d come from St. Lous & Boston only to be rejected at the door of the 21+ club...

Apparently, they did the show at Lounge Ax as a favor to a woman named Heather (whom they refer to as Albini’s bitch), and were leaving Chicago in the morning with Kelley flying home to Minneapolis and Kim being picked up by her Dad and driving back to Dayton, Ohio

All in all, a very rewarding night.... I’m sorry this is so long, but I know there are a bunch of Breeder worshippers on this list who might want to hear some of this info.... Thanks!