[koolthing78]

If you think I'm crazy for liking the new Breeders, check this out: I am in LOVE with the Magik Markers album (especially track 3). It took me months of periodically putting the album in, going "ehh, what the hell is this?" until one night everything clicked. There is so much hidden meaning in that album, from the "making & performing art for one's self/making & performing art for others (and then is it really authentic?)" conundrum hinted at in track 3, to the literary references in "Harry Angstrom" (and her empowered retort in the final track: "This is a circle!"). So my point is, just because you don't "get" something, or it doesn't do anything for you, doesn't mean it's bad. There's tons of well-respected bands that I just can't get into (like Wilco), but it's just a matter of what personally moves me. The new Breeders album DOES sound kind of like a joke in spots, and I guess that's part of why I like it so much. Every time I hear "German Studies," it gets funnier and funnier, cause I just picture Kim and Kelley in the basement, goofing around in faux German accents, and totally butchering the language. "Istanbul" is kind of the same--they weren't *really* trying to make a serious song about an exotic location, they were just having fun, seeing how far they could take a random idea (this one presumably about doing drugs and/or changing your state of mind ("..it's not far/it's here/it's where you are"). To me, this album is kind of like a Breeders version of Deerhoof's "Friend Opportunity," except instead of being more accessible than their previous efforts, it's less. But it's just this random, fuzzy patchwork of oddball idiosynchrasies, which to me is a much more interesting portrait of an artist