Watch Kim and Kelley Deal Perform ‘Gigantic,’ ‘Cannonball’ Unplugged
Kim Deal was on hand at Chicago’s Reckless Records last month for Record Store Day, where she treated a group of fans to an acoustic rendition of the Pixies “Gigantic,” her first performance of the track since leaving the band last year. Deal also received a vocal assist from her sister, Kelley, who then picked up a guitar for a performance of the Breeders‘ classic “Cannonball” (which you can watch below) that begins with Kim cracking a smile as she conducts the crowd through the track’s opening “A-ohhh ohh”‘s.
Find Out Where the Breeders’ ‘Last Splash’ Ranks on Our List of the 100 Best Albums of the 1990s
Around the time she left the Pixies, the Deals and the Breeders were busy touring behind the 20th anniversary reissue of their 1993 album, Last Splash. “We never thought anyone would hear us,” Kim Deal told Rolling Stone about the album’s surprise success. “There was no intention of getting on the radio, ever. When we started, if you did get on to the radio, it meant there was something weirdly wrong. Like Paula Abdul.”
The Pixies were actually in the midst of recording what would become Indie Cindy when Deal departed. The group’s first LP in 23 years was released last month, and during a recent chat with Rolling Stone, frontman Black Francis spoke about the challenge of finishing the album without Deal. “The general feeling talking about it amongst ourselves, with [producer] Gil [Norton] and our manager, was rather than try to replace Kim at the time, even if the record has this Kim-shaped hole in it, we needed to leave the hole there. Not ‘Let’s get a girl in that sounds like Kim!’ We had those thoughts of course. We had to do it ourselves.”