Friday 7 March 2014

Breeders - Well Bred Music (1981)

Our run through the early days of Calgary's underground scene continues with this tape from Thee James Muretich Collection. We'd heard whispers about the Breeders before, but had never heard them... until now!

There's a snide comment in an issue of Iconoclast about these guys being perhaps overly-similar to Blondie, which is kind of hard to argue against. But it's listenable and fun, and has been getting a lot of play in the CCPS offices. It also reminds us a bit of the Cutz, which turns out to be not surprising, as the signature on the tape pictured above is Sandy Switzer's. Our pal Allen Baekeland tells us that the band was made up of Virginia McKendry on vocals, Rick Valleau on drums, Sandy Switzer on guitar and Hutch on bass. Allen helped us connect some dots, and pointed out that Hutch (Patrick Hutchinson) is now the legendary soundman for QOTSA.

So, this isn't the similarly-named band from the 90's. This is the real deal!


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the good stuff. He must have had the early Patabeatniks .. yes?

Unknown said...

Wow! When we lived in Banff as ski bums from out east, we'd occasionally visit Calgary and The Calgarian and other places punk bands played. We saw The Breeders, being amongst a very small crowd of people dancing around enjoying them. It was a good show. They should have been more popular. Always wondered what happened to them. Thanks for finding this gem of a cassette!

Unknown said...

I thought that Duane Froslev played with the Breeders a lot more than Hutch did.
I remember seeing Duane and I think her name was Virginia playing at the Calgarian one night got zapped on a mic....

Leeanimal said...

The Breeders were great and who could take their eyes off Virginia?! Style, beauty and a very good songwriter ta boot. There was a song she wrote called "Helen" but I'm not sure if it was recorded or not. If so, do you have a copy Allen? Please post, thanks!

Grant , Ian I said...

Yes, "Helen" (you're so explosive) was recorded. The Thunder Road tape I have managed to get garbled, maybe it can be repaired, but I have a great 4 track reel to reel version too.

Anonymous said...

CCPS - please note the Ian I Grant comment above !!!!!!

Randy__Now said...

Wow! is right. I lived in Calgary for a brief time in the early 80's. Me and my flat mates, 428 Marsh Rd N/E, spent most weekends jumping between The Calgarian, The Cecil, The St. Louis. Virginia was a force at the time. Thank you for stirring these memories!