The Amps

American alternative rock band

This article is about the U.S. rock band. For other uses, see AMPS (disambiguation) and amp (disambiguation).

The Amps

Kim Deal performing with the Amps in Dayton, Ohio in 1995

Background information
Origin| Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
Genres| Alternative rock, lo-fi[1]
Years active| 1995–1996
Labels| 4AD
Elektra
Past members| Kim Deal
Kelley Deal
Nate Farley
Luis Lerma
Jim Macpherson

The Amps were an American alternative rock band formed by Kim Deal in 1995, while her band the Breeders went on hiatus. The group consisted of Deal, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Luis Lerma on bass; Nate Farley on lead guitar; and Jim Macpherson of the Breeders on drums. Kelley Deal, Kim's sister, was also briefly involved, but had to leave the band due to drug problems. The group was named when Kim Deal started calling herself Tammy Ampersand for fun, and the band Tammy and the Amps. They recorded the album Pacer in the United States and Ireland.

Pacer was released in October 1995. The group toured the United States, Europe, and Australia with bands including the Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, and Guided by Voices. Critics commented on the loose and rough quality of these performances. The Amps continued as a group until 1996, when Deal changed their name back to the Breeders. By 2000, Macpherson, Lerma, and Farley had left the band; they were all at times involved in various projects with Guided by Voices' Robert Pollard. Deal's next album, the Breeders' Title TK, was released seven years after Pacer.

## Background and formation

[edit]

From 1986 to 1992, Deal was a member of the Pixies[2] and from 1989 onwards, the Breeders.[3] In August 1993, the Breeders released their second album, Last Splash[4] which went platinum in the USA,[5] gold in Canada,[6] and silver in the UK.[7] The other members of the group at that time were Kim's twin sister Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson.[8] By late 1994, after two years of straight touring and recording, and culminating in the Lollapalooza tour, the band members were exhausted; they decided to take some time off from the Breeders, but this hiatus ended up being longer than expected.[8] Kelley was arrested on drug charges in late 1994 and spent time in and out of rehabilitation, while Wiggs became involved in musical projects in New York, including collaborations with members of Luscious Jackson.[8][9]

Meanwhile, Kim Deal was eager to continue recording and performing.[9] At first she envisioned her next album as a solo record, on which she would play all of the instrument parts.[10] When she was recording initial demos for the project, she asked Kelley to play on some of them, to distract her from her drug difficulties.[10][11] Since Kelley was now also involved, Deal decided not to go solo,[10] but formed a new group. She recruited Macpherson to play drums, musician Luis Lerma, bass, and Nate Farley, guitar.[11][12] Later, Kelley dropped out of the project for rehabilitation and moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota.[10][13] For fun, Deal began calling herself Tammy Ampersand, and the group, Tammy and the Amps.[10] This became simply the Amps.[10]

## Recording and touring

[edit]

The Amps released one album, Pacer which was recorded at several different studios.[14] The first session, at Easley Studios in Memphis was engineered by Davis McCain and Doug Easley.[15] Deal recorded new songs there including what would become Pacer's single, "Tipp City".[11][15] While she was producing an upcoming record by Guided by Voices she had a recording opportunity; when the group abandoned work on their album, Deal used the leftover studio time for her own songs.[16] Following the Easley Studios session, recording for Pacer continued at six other locations in total, including studios in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dublin, and Deal's hometown of Dayton.[14] Engineers Steve Albini,[13] John Agnello, Bryce Goggin, and others each helped record one or more of these sessions.[14] Pacer came out in October 1995.[17]

The Amps toured with Sonic Youth in late 1995.[18]

The Amps toured throughout 1995 and 1996. Early performances, before releasing Pacer, included June–July 1995 shows in Dayton: one with Guided by Voices at Gilly's[19] and another with Poster Children.[20] They toured with Guided by Voices and Chavez in the United Kingdom in September, in cities such as Sheffield,[21] Glasgow,[22] Brighton,[23] and London;[24] Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders attended the London concert as a birthday present to herself, and afterwards came backstage to meet Deal.[25] The Amps played another show with Guided by Voices in Ohio in October.[26] The Amps performed a series of US concerts in October and November with Sonic Youth, among which were shows in Detroit and Chicago with Helium,[27][28] in Seattle and Portland with Bikini Kill,[29][30] and in Los Angeles with Mike Watt and Sonic Youth.[31] Following the concerts with Sonic Youth, the Amps did a tour of Europe,[12] including a performance in London on December 7.[32] In January 1996, they played the Summersault festival in Australia.[33] That year, the Amps toured with the Foo Fighters in the United States, in locations such as Chicago (with That Dog),[34][35] Worcester, Massachusetts,[36] and Austin, Texas (with Jawbreaker),[37] as well as playing one more concert with Guided By Voices, in early March in Newport, Kentucky.[38] At this show, Deal had a permanent falling-out with Robert Pollard when Guided By Voices unintentionally used up all the soundcheck time.[39][40] In 1995 or 1996, they also played shows with the Tasties[9][11] and Brainiac.[11]

Reviewers described live concerts by the Amps as unpolished and relaxed. The Chronicle's Drema Crist praised their show at an unidentified location as "fun-spirited and silly".[41] Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune described one of their Chicago performances as "off-kilter" and wrote that "Deal's pungent vocals were swallowed up by the guitars, and the foursome's slight melodies were lost amid all the bashing."[34] A review in The Chicago Reader of the same concert noted that "The Amps play with a low-key, hangout sound."[42] The Phoenix's Matt Ashare felt that at their December 1995 show in Boston "the Amps didn't click in a way that would suggest that this was Deal's new, full-time band"; he added that it was "an unpretentiously gritty way for Deal to let off some steam while the Breeders [took] a little break".[9] In Boston Rock, this concert was characterized as "sloppy" but "charm[ing] ... hanging loosely off Kim's gruff vocals and ebullient personality".[11]

## Reforming the Breeders

[edit]

Later in 1996, Deal changed the name of the group back to the Breeders and the band originally had almost the same line-up as the Amps.[1] Until then Deal had been waiting for Wiggs and Kelley to rejoin the Breeders and record a new album together, and had held back from reforming the Breeders out of respect for them.[43][44] In May 1996, Wiggs revealed that she would not be involved in any immediate Breeders activity; Kelley also chose to stay in Saint Paul, to be close to her rehabilitation facility.[43][44] Deal then decided that she did not want to wait any longer to reform the group, partly because the Breeders' repertoire was larger than the Amps', thereby allowing longer concerts.[43][44] Deal added violinist Carrie Bradley (who had played on the Breeders' Pod album), and with Macpherson, Lerma, and Farley, played some shows in 1996 with Primus.[1]

By 1998, Kelley had rejoined and Macpherson had left the group, and by 2000 Lerma and Farley had also left.[45] With a line-up including the Deal sisters and new members Mando Lopez and Jose Medeles, the Breeders released the albums Title TK in 2002 and Mountain Battles in 2008.[45] Meanwhile Macpherson was a member of Guided by Voices from 1998 to 2001,[46] and participated in other projects with Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard until 2005.[47][48] Lerma and Farley have been members of the Tasties,[1][49] and in 1999 participated in Pollard's Lexo and the Leapers side project group;[49] Farley was also a member of Guided by Voices from 1999 to 2004.[50] In 2013, the Last Splash-era Breeders line-up of Kim and Kelley Deal, Macpherson, and Wiggs reunited to tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that album.[51][52]

## Members

[edit]

* Kim Deal – vocals, guitars
* Kelley Deal – guitars
* Luis Lerma – bass
* Nate Farley – guitars
* Jim Macpherson – drums

## Discography

[edit]

### Album

[edit]

Title | Release date | Label

|
|

Pacer | 1995  | 4AD/Elektra

### Single

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Album  | Label

|
|
|

1995  | "Tipp City"  | Pacer | 4AD/Elektra

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Phares
2. ^ Erlewine: Pixies Biography
3. ^ Rogers 2009
4. ^ The Breeders (4AD)
5. ^ American certifications – Breeders, The
6. ^ Gold Platinum Database
7. ^ Certified Awards Search
8. ^ a b c Petrusich 2013
9. ^ a b c d Ashare 1995
10. ^ a b c d e f Gettelman 1996
11. ^ a b c d e f Moore 1996
12. ^ a b Hawthorne 1995
13. ^ a b Aaron 1995, pp. 86–88
14. ^ a b c Pacer liner notes
15. ^ a b "Tipp City" single liner notes
16. ^ Greer: North of Onhava: The Official Charterhouse of Jim Greer
17. ^ The Amps (4AD)
18. ^ Borzillo 1995, p. 24
19. ^ Gilly's – Dayton, OH, U.S.A.
20. ^ Shows (Posterchildren.com)
21. ^ Leadmill – Sheffield, United Kingdom
22. ^ Cathouse – Glasgow, United Kingdom
23. ^ Concorde – Brighton, United Kingdom
24. ^ Tutu's (King's College) – London, United Kingdom
25. ^ Greer: Hunting Accidents: Being the Further Adventures of Guided By Voices
26. ^ Post Office – Tipp City, OH, U.S.A.
27. ^ 10/25/95 – Detroit, MI @ State Theatre
28. ^ 10/26/95 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
29. ^ 11/03/95 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount
30. ^ 11/05/95 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
31. ^ 11/11/95 – Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theater
32. ^ Rock & Pop Music, p. The Guide 35
33. ^ Australia's Summersault Festival Comes To An End
34. ^ a b Kot 1996
35. ^ Kening 1996, p. 4
36. ^ Upcoming Concerts
37. ^ Music.recos
38. ^ Southgate House – Newport, KY, U.S.A.
39. ^ Greer 2007
40. ^ Cutter 2018
41. ^ Crist 1995
42. ^ Vowell 1996
43. ^ a b c Ashare 1997
44. ^ a b c Catlin 1997
45. ^ a b Erlewine: The Breeders Biography
46. ^ Jim Macpherson (Guided by Voices Database)
47. ^ Motel of Fools (Guided by Voices Database)
48. ^ Lightninghead to Coffee Pot (Guided by Voices Database)
49. ^ a b Sepich
50. ^ Nate Farley (Guided by Voices Database)
51. ^ Rayner 2013
52. ^ Power 2013

## References

[edit]

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* "10/27/95 – Louisville, KY @ The Brewery". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "10/30/95 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "11/01/95 – Missoula, MT @ University of Montana". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "11/03/95 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* "11/04/95 – Bellingham, WA @ Carver Gym". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "11/05/95 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* "11/07/95 – San Francisco, CA @ Warfield Theatre". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "11/10/95 – Hollywood, CA @ Palladium". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "11/11/95 – Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theater". Sonicyouth.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* Aaron, Charles (July 1995). "Raw Deal". Spin. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
* "American certifications – Breeders, The". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* "The Amps". 4AD. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
* Ashare, Matt (December 21, 1995). "The Amps: Kim's New Deal". Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on October 11, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
* Ashare, Matt (March 27, 1997). "New Deal: The Breeders are back—sort of". Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* "Australia's Summersault Festival Comes To An End". MTV. January 10, 1996. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* Borzillo, Carrie (November 11, 1995). "Popular Uprisings". Billboard. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
* "The Breeders". 4AD. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Catlin, Roger (March 13, 1997). "Here's The Deal: Kim Reforms The Breeders For National Tour". Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Cathouse – Glasgow, United Kingdom". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Concorde – Brighton, United Kingdom". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "Certified Awards Search" (To access, enter the search parameter "Breeders"). British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* Crist, Dream (November 8, 1995). "Smashing the Amps". The Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Cutter, Matthew (2018). Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices. Hachette Books. ISBN 978-0-306-82577-4. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
* Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Breeders Biography". Allmusic. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
* Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Pixies Biography". Allmusic. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* Gettelman, Parry (April 12, 1996). "A Chat With Amps' Kim Deal: Eclectic, Electric And Fun". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
* "Gilly's – Dayton, OH, U.S.A." GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Gold Platinum Database". Music Canada. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
* Greer, James (2007). Guided by Voices: A Brief History. Grove Press. ISBN 978-1-55584-641-1. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
* Greer, James (May 10, 2011). "Hunting Accidents: Being the Further Adventures of Guided By Voices". Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2019 - via Goodreads.
* Greer, James (November 13, 2011). "Guided By Voices – Trendspotter Acrobat". North of Onhava: The Official Charterhouse of Jim Greer. Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
* Hawthorne, Marc (November 9, 1995). "And now for a few words with Jim MacPherson". The Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
* Kening, Dan (March 29, 1996). "All the grunge without the angst: Foo Fighters amp it up the Riviera". Daily Herald. Retrieved May 11, 2019 - via Newspaperarchive.com. (subscription required)
* Kot, Greg (April 1, 1996). "Foo Fighters' Show Exudes Exuberance". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Jim Macpherson". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Leadmill – Sheffield, United Kingdom". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Lightninghead to Coffee Pot". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Moore, Lisa (March 1, 1996). "Deal with It: An Interview with Kim Deal". Boston Rock (158).
* "Motel of Fools". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Music.recos". The Austin Chronicle. Vol. 15, no. 32\. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* "Nate Farley". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Pacer (CD booklet). The Amps. London: 4AD. 1995.`{{cite AV media notes}}`: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
* Petrusich, Amanda (May 15, 2013). "Splashdown! The Breeders' Cannonball-like Re-entry". Spin. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
* Phares, Heather. "The Amps Biography". AllMusic. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
* "Post Office – Tipp City, OH, U.S.A." GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Power, Bobby (May 13, 2013). "The Breeders' 'Last Splash' at 20: An interview with Kelley Deal". Creative Loafing. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
* Rayner, Ben (May 10, 2013). "Breeders reunite to celebrate 20th anniversary of Last Splash". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
* "Rock & Pop Music". The Guardian. December 2, 1995. Retrieved June 21, 2019 - via Newspapers.com. (subscription required)
* Rogers, Jude (May 3, 2009). "'It used to be about music. Now, without the drink, it's good to go back to that'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
* Sepich, Scott. "Lexo and the Leapers Biography". Allmusic. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
* "Shows". Posterchildren.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
* "Southgate House – Newport, KY, U.S.A." GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
* "Tipp City" (CD booklet). The Amps. London: 4AD. 1995.`{{cite AV media notes}}`: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
* "Tutu's (King's College) – London, United Kingdom". GBVDB – Guided By Voices Database. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
* "Upcoming Concerts". Hartford Courant. March 28, 1996. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2019.
* Vowell, Sarah (April 11, 1996). "Power Surge". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

Artists|

* MusicBrainz