“Here No More,” a gentle, acoustic folk number on the Breeders’ new album, “Mountain Battles,” contains an instructive line about the beloved alt-rock band.
Lead singer Kim Deal and twin sister Kelley harmonize their sand- papery voices to tell us they are “Not lost but gone before, here no more, here no more. Each day the long light dims and fades, not lost but gone before.”
Kim Deal has never been one to mince words, so despite all her available artistic licenses, it’s probably safe to assume she’s referencing her band’s stop-start history, its unwillingness to repeat itself or play into expectations.
Of course, the Breeders have always excelled at that. The band, which started as a side project to Deal’s main gig as bass player for the Pixies, has only released four proper albums since 1990 at an average interval of six years.
The band has weathered lineup changes, drug problems and the dissolution of every other group to come out of southern Ohio’s early- ’90s music scene (Guided by Voices, Brainiac, the Afghan Whigs) to find a comfortable, unhurried spot among alt-rock’s elder council.
But Deal, a famously prickly personality, bristles when critics suggest she frustrated fans with a lengthy pause between discs, or that “Mountain Battles” was made without regard to cohesion.
“Saying it’s piecemeal makes it sound like there was some stitching done on the left pant leg in one place, and the right leg stitching was done in another — like there’s no fluidity at all,” she said over the phone from her home in Dayton, Ohio.
“We did some songs in some places and some in other places, but it’s not like we did half a guitar track in Dayton and we finished up the rest in Chicago.”
The Breeders, who will play the Ogden Theatre on Wednesday, actually did record “Mountain Battles” over the years in a variety of places, starting with a demo for the lilting Spanish-language track “Regalame Esta Noche” in 2002. But Refraze Studios in Deal’s hometown and Steve Albini’s legendary Electrical Audio in Chicago provided primary staging grounds, mitigating the motley feel of the record.
“In 2004 there were a lot of Pixies reunion gigs, but we were still working on it even then,” Deal said.
The new album even feels patient. It doesn’t contain anything as instantly catchy or radio-ready as “Cannonball,” the single from 1993’s “Last Splash” that became a rallying cry for Alternative Nation devotees. But it doesn’t need to.
Songs like “Overglazed” offer all the tumbling surf-rock electricity of the Breeders of old, while the spare, lo-fi “Bang On” and rambling “No Way” would have fit neatly on any number of alt-rock compilations from the last decade.
And though “Mountain Battles” presents a weirder, darker, slightly more frayed Breeders than we’re used to, the band itself — sister Kelley on guitar and vocals, Jose Medeles on drums and Mando Lopez on bass — has lately settled into a comfortable touring routine, including upcoming dates in Japan, Europe, Australia and even Israel.
“I’m excited but then I also get a little nervous, because didn’t Hezbollah just take over half of Beirut?” Deal asked. “A short-range rocket could reach anywhere you are in Israel.”
Fortunately, most of the Breeders’ recent gigs have taken place in tamer environs, like Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest festival (“I liked the change of playing an outdoor stage instead of a darkened bar”) and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., (“We did 45 minutes in the middle of the day, which was rough, but we got to meet Tegan and Sara.”)
Just don’t expect any gigs in Deal’s hometown of Dayton, where even the Pixies failed to sell enough tickets to justify a reunion tour stop.
“I just assumed people might know the Pixies, but we only pre-sold 500 tickets and they had to pull the gig,” she said. “But it’s fine. It’s Dayton, I love it.”
Some things, it seems, never change.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
The Breeders
Alt rock. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., with Montana Boys. Wednesday. 8 p.m. $20-$22. 303-830-8497 or .
