"Cannonball" (The Breeders)

Back in the 90s, I was either hot or cold about alt rock.  There was no in between.  If you'd asked me as a teenager why I didn't care for bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains, I probably would have said something along the lines of: "They're boring."  And that still rings true; those bands truly did (and do) bore me.  It was if they were trying so hard to be the antithesis of all the booze-n'-floozies-themed hair metal from the previous decade that even their more rocking tunes sank under the weight of their own gloom and dourness.

Apart from that, what I've come to realize in the years since—having had the time and an internet connection to explore rock's back pages—is that those aforementioned bands have/had no sense of groove.  In my humble opinion, the best, most enduring rock & roll takes its cues from the strong melodic and rhythmic roots of the blues, jazz, gospel, and traditional country music. 

The Beatles and the Stones understood that.  So did Jimmy Page.  Kurt Cobain, too.  (His inclusion of Lead Belly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" in Nirvana's Unplugged set is pretty striking evidence of that.)  And that's why I like their music.

And that's why I liked The Breeders back in the day, too.  Kim Deal's side project from Pixies (and eventual full-time venture when the Pixies went on hiatus) knew how to groove.  All it takes is listening to the band's second full-length, Last Splash (1993), and you can feel that sense of rhythm and melody; it's almost like a punk band playing R&B.
And while the entire album is solid (I'd highly recommend checking out lesser known tracks like the bass-heavy, surf rock-tinged "Divine Hammer"), I have a special place in my heart for the album's big hit: "Cannonball."

Not only does "Cannonball" have the kind of tasty mellow-mayhem-mellow dynamics that characterized a lot of Pixies tracks, what with Deal crooning alongside twin sister Kelley on the verses and then screaming into a bullet mic on the refrains, but it has this big, bouncy rhythm section, anchored by Josephine Wiggs on bass and Jim MacPherson on drums.

Speaking of Wiggs, I came across an interview with her from 2013 on Consequence of Sound, and she shed a bit of light on the song's distinctive intro.  

Basically, that little solo bass riff that comes in after the distorted ooo-ooo-ooo vocals was a mistake that stuck.  Wiggs says that, when the band first started practicing the song, she kept coming in a semi-tone flat, every single time.  Only when the guitars kicked in would she realize her mistake and slide up another fret.

"We all just thought it was hilarious and thought it sounded really great.  It kind of sets up a certain expectation, and then your expectation is changed because all of a sudden it's in a different key.  It was clear to us at that moment that that was the right thing to do, to keep the wrong note in there."