What’s That Sound? The sewing machine sampled in ‘SOS’ by The Breeders
The Breeders’ Last Splash is an instantly recognisable album of the 1990s’ alternative rock boom, with its vibrant red-and-green cover resembling a dripping heart and the unforgettable vocal feedback and opening bassline of its lead single, ‘Cannonball’.
“’Alternative’ was a word coined by the media to get more money for their advertisers,” vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Kim Deal told Spin in 2013. “We were like, ‘What’s up? Nobody calls us ‘alternative.’ Why do they keep putting it on the cover of magazines?’”
Released at the end of summer in 1993, Last Splash encapsulated the greatest sonic influences of the era: whispers of grunge angst, noise pop and indie rock, melded with the infectious lyricism that tackled subjects like love and existentialism, two mainstays of Generation X.
The Breeders weren’t afraid to lean into the eccentric, either: numerous riffs on Last Splash are reminiscent of 1960s surf-rock and reggae (‘Cannonball’ was initially titled ‘Grunggae’ for its intriguing mix). Most of all, the album is fun: The Breeders never took themselves too seriously and, while always thoughtful in their compositions, set out to make cathartic music, above all.
This was a factor in how The Breeders first came to be: in 1989, Kim was unsatisfied in her role as the bassist in the Pixies and decided to found a side project to enact her new material. By the recording of Last Splash, Kim had enlisted her sister, Kelley, on guitar, bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim MacPherson to realise her vision. The album’s sessions began with a series of demos recorded at Cro-Magnon Studios in Dayton, Ohio and, a few months later, the band reconvened at Coast Recorders in San Francisco, California.
Before one studio session, Kelley arrived with an unlikely source of inspiration. “When Kelley came to the studio, she brought her sewing machine with her,” Kim recalled to Mojo in 2013. “There’s a lot of dead time in the studio, and she’d spent that time working on this quilt for my mom. So I’d listen to her sewing, and I thought, ‘We should mike that up.’”
The result was ‘SOS’, an instrumental track that is immediately reminiscent of Iggy and the Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’. Recorded through a Marshall amp, Kelley’s sewing machine whirrs across a thumping bassline and duelling guitar riffs. The spontaneity of the jam track is one of many instances on Last Splash that channelled an innovative spirit.
“Kim composes with air and electricity as much as with a guitar,” violinist Carrie Bradley, who provided violins and additional vocals on Last Splash, told Spin. “The whole band was constantly engaged in discussing ideas on arrangements, dynamics, room sounds, string sounds, effects, amp choice, nuance, and energy. If something wasn’t working, they turned the lights off, or changed rooms, or ran a lap.”
Kelley’s sewing machine would gain a second life when the looped, wah-wah riff on ‘SOS’ was sampled by British electronic band The Prodigy, heard in the opening notes of their 1996 mega hit ‘Firestarter’. (The Prodigy would sample from Last Splash again in the future, adapting a sample from The Breeders’ ‘I Just Wanna Get Along’ on their song ‘World’s on Fire’ from their 2009 album Invaders Must Die). Kim would receive songwriting credits on ‘Firestarter’, a lucrative nod.
To think that one of the most enduring sounds of the ‘90s came not from a conventional instrument, but from the sound of a sewing machine piecing together a quilt, is one of the most wholesome unknowns of rock history. 32 years on from Last Splash, the fated sewing machine persists.
