Kim Deal
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Kim Deal (born Kimberly Ann Deal on June 10, 1961) is an American musician known for her work in the seminal alternative rock band Pixies and The Breeders.
Early days
She was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, with her twin sister Kelley. In high school she was a cheerleader and often got into conflicts with authority. Deal married and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Murphy. She became a bassist and vocalist for Pixies in 1986, after answering an advertisement for a female bassist who was into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary. Initially she went under the stage name "Mrs. John Murphy," and she is credited that way on 1988's Surfer Rosa. Deal recorded and performed with The Pixies until 1992, when the group split, largely because of increasing tension between her and frontman Black Francis.
The Breeders
In 1989, in order to play a larger vocal role in a band, she teamed up with Tanya Donelly and Josephine Wiggs to form a band called The Breeders, who released their debut album, Pod, in 1990.
A year after the Pixies breakup, The Breeders released their second album, Last Splash, to critical acclaim and considerable commercial success.
At the height of The Breeders' popularity in the mid-1990s, they scored a number of MTV hits, including "Cannonball," "Divine Hammer," and "Saints." The band also released the vinyl only "Head to Toe" during the summer of 1994, when they appeared on the main stage of Lollapallooza. Although the band went into stasis in 1994 when Kelley Deal entered rehab for heroin addiction, the band never officially split up, and in 2002 released Title TK. During this 8-year hiatus, Kim Deal kept busy by forming, recording, and touring with The Amps. She also produced albums for other groups, most notably fellow Dayton band Guided By Voices. For a while, she was engaged to Guided By Voices bassist Jim Greer. While Title TK did not receive the mainstream acclaim of Last Splash, diehard fans of the Deal sisters often sought out shows played in support of the album.
In 1996, Kim contributed her voice to the Sonic Youth single, "Little Trouble Girl" from their '95 album Washing Machine.
In 2004, Kim Deal returned to a newly-reunited Pixies and toured North America with them. The Pixies also were a headliner of the 2005 re-emergence of Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park.
Deal co-wrote several early Pixies songs, including one of their most notable, "Gigantic". She wrote the first new Pixies song to appear since the reunion, "Bam Thwok", after being inspired by a children's book illustration featuring monsters throwing a party. "Bam Thwok" was written for the Shrek 2 soundtrack but did not appear on that album.
Tributes
- Dandy Warhols' released a tribute song, "Cool As Kim Deal", on their 1997 album ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down.
- Japanese rock group the pillows released a tribute song, "Kim Deal", on 1999's HAPPY BIVOUAC.