VH1 100 GREATEST: KIM DEAL

There's lots of great artists on VH1's 100 Greatest Women countdown, and many of them were in great bands.  But how many of them were in two great bands? Just Kim Deal.

She was the bass player in The Pixies.  If you're a true music fan, you know that they are one of the greatest bands ever. And even though she wasn't their lead singer (that would be Black Francis), she sang what was probably their best song, "Gigantic." If you haven't heard it, check it out. But her bass playing was bouncy and made the songs much more fun than they would have been without her.  The Pixies are a band who absolutely deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

During breaks from The Pixies, she started her own band, The Breeders, where she took the singer/songwriter role. Their debut album, Pod, was great. After The Pixies broke up, The Breeders put out Last Splash, which featured the huge hit "Cannonball," but the entire LP was great. There was a weird dichotomy with Kim, because she looked so normal, but musically, she was so weird, but in a really welcoming way.  It was fun to listen to her music, and you usually felt like she was having a great time.

I know she went through a lot of issues through the late '90s and early '00s, but now with the Pixies reunited (for touring, not recording, it seems) and The Breeders back in business, it seems like she's back for the long haul.  I don't know if she has any Last Splashes left in her, but it's always interesting to check out what she's up to.   If you want to check her music out (and you should) try The Pixies' Surfer Rosa and Dolittle, and The Breeders' Pod, the Safari EP and Last Splash. They are so easy to like, it's surprising in a way that they weren't all hit albums.

THE PIXIES BOX SET

The Pixies will re-release all of their studio albums in a box set called Minotaur.  It will have bonus tracks and new artwork by legendary 4AD graphic artist Vaughan Oliver.  Find out more at the A+R website. Meanwhile, Frank Black's new band, Grand Duchy, is about to go on tour. And The Breeders have a new EP, Fate To Fatal. 

NEW MUSIC: THE BREEDERS, JAMIE LIDELL, ERIC AVERY, ASHES DIVIDE AND MORE

As usual, I've been picking up a bunch of singles at the iTunes store. Here's my take on some new stuff I've been listening to:

The Breeders: I loved Pod, Safari and Last Splash. I didn't like the last one, Title TK, it took like a decade, and felt like it was a record to say "remember us?" I thought Kim Deal would be re-energized by the love she got on The Pixies' reunion tour. It's not well known, but The Pixies recorded two new songs during the reunion: one was for a Warren Zevon tribute album, the other, "Bam Thwok," was written by Kim for the Shreck soundtrack. They didn't use it, but the band released it (on iTunes) and it was a lot of fun. Anyway, though, I'm sorry to say that based on "We're Gonna Rise" and "Bang On," I'm not really feeling the new Breeders record.

Jamie Lidell is a guy with a modern take on classic R&B. Which is music industry speak for "the press and industry will love him, until they realize that he won't sell records, and then they'll move on." He had a great song called "Multiply" that I really loved, and I also like his new one, "Little Bit Of Feel Good."

Ashes Divide is a new project by Billy Howerdell, the guitar tech guy to many an alternative rock band, who went on to found the great project A Perfect Circle with Maynard James Keenan of Tool. Lots of it is Perfet Circle-ish, which is natural, but it's hard not to think of Maynard when you hear the songs. That's the way I feel.

I've written about how I have been looking forward to hearing Eric Avery's solo debut, Help Wanted. I have two songs - "All Remote And No Control" and "Belly Of An Insect." His vocals are kind of like Ian Curtis from Joy Division. It's pretty cool, but like his first post-Jane's Addiction project Deconstruction (which featured Dave Navarro) I don't know that these are songs that I'll go back to very often.

Ike Reilly is a great singer/songwriter who I discovered only due to a former boss of mine - he had me do a feature on him for VH1 News, surprisingly. I'm glad I discovered him, and hearing his new songs "Hip-Hop Thighs #16" (which sounds like it starts out with a voicemail message from Joe Strummer) and "Fish Plant Rebellion" remind me that I need to check out more of Ike's music.

Was (Not Was) reunited a few years ago, and just released their new album, Boo! Even when I don't love their music, I just find them interesting. You've got two really wacky musicians with two straight up R&B singers, and when it works, it's really fun. "It's A Miracle" should be a hit (but probably won't be) and "Mr. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" has a very interesting back story: Don Was, David Was and Bob Dylan wrote it together in the late '80s, hoping to get it on a Paula Abdul album. Ms. Abdul turned it down, and it languished in song purgatory until now.

Annie Lennox's performance of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers To Cross" from American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" show was pretty powerful. I don't hate on Idol the way other people do - I'm not going to try to defend it either, but Annie could sing nearly anything, and she does a great job on this timeless classic.

ROGER WATERS TO CO-HEADLINE COACHELLA

I'm not a marketing executive, but it seems weird how major brands with lots of credibility with specific fanbases seem willing to compromise their brands.

Bonnaroo, which started as a very inclusive jam band festival, last year featured Tool and The White Stripes as headliners. The year before it was Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Radiohead. I remember years ago, the H.O.R.D.E festival did a similar thing. After years of having predominatly bands from the jam band scene with some other artists that sort of made sense, they did a tour that featured Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Primus, Beck, Ben Folds Five and a few other bands that didn't have a real connection to the scene. I myself loved that bill... but to fans, "H.O.R.D.E" didn't mean anything anymore.

Likewise, after catering to the "alternative rock" crowd, Lollapalooza went "off message" by having Metallica headline. I thought it was a great tour, but after that, "Lollapalooza" lost it's meaning. So, I don't understand how Coachella hasn't learned from that. This year, Jack Johnson and Roger Waters are two of the headliners. Waters, as he did last summer, will be performing Dark Side Of The Moon. I wonder how it will go. On one hand, I think people have good enough taste to be respectful of this masterpiece, even though it is one of the best selling albums of all time, and hardly "alternative" (although it's as creative as any album you'd care to mention). Also, Coachella often promts artists to do something for the "first" time - they were behind the Pixies, Stooges and Jesus & Mary Chain reunions, which led to full on tours. If they got Roger to do Dark Side for the first time, that'd be one thing. But he's been doing it on tour for well over a year.

Anyway, there seems to be less excitement about the festival's lineup than usual. But there are some pretty cool artists: other than Rog, there's The Verve (who recently reunited), The Breeders, Madness, The Raconteurs and... Dwight Yoakam.