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In 1993, Radiohead and The Cranberries released their debut albums. Liz Phair dropped Exile in Guyville, but what is left to be said about that album, and does it make sense for me to be the one to try and say anything? There is another seminal ‘90s indie rock album that also sticks out to me, though, and that’s Last Splash from The Breeders.
Several months ago, I started hosting bar trivia. Part of the gig is putting together playlists so than I am spinning music throughout the evening. This is something I very much enjoy doing. While I throw some modern indie rock and indie pop on there, I also try and play to the audience a bit by dropping some better-known, old school alt rock. Which is to say, The Breeders are frequently in the mix, and when I say that, invariably I am saying songs from Last Splash are in the mix. With all due respect to The Breeders, their legacy lives and dies with Last Splash. Of course, it’s considered one of the best albums of the ‘90s, and to some of all time, so that’s not a bad legacy by any means.
Kim Deal had already become akin to alt-rock royalty thanks to her time with the Pixies, but then she started up her own project with her sister Kelley and some other musicians, and thus The Breeders were born. Last Splash is not their first album. That is 1990’s Pod, which a lot of people haven’t even heard of. People know Last Splash, and that’s because it has several killer songs.
It all starts with “Cannonball,” of course, a seminal song of ‘90s indie rock. I don’t remember for sure, but it may have been the first song I played at my first trivia night. However, I’ve also got engagement from audience members and bartenders with “No Aloha,” “Divine Hammer” and the cover song “Drivin’ on 9.” There are more songs, of course. Last Splash is actually 15 songs and almost 40 minutes, so perhaps a bit overstuffed. If you can give four or five killer tracks on an album, though, you are onto something.
The Breeders would not release another album until 2002, by which point they were effectively a legacy act. That legacy, again, is Last Splash. Which is, again, an all-time classic of an album. When I think ‘90s music, I think of a song like “Cannonball,” and if you’ve done that, you’ve left an impact.
