this may be blasphemous to say, but i think kelley deal might be my favorite deal sister? i dunno, man - check with me tomorrow.

wednesday night i went to see r. ring, which is basically mike montgomery (from the band ampline) and kelley deal (from the breeders and the kelley deal 6000). just those two, with a friend who occasionally played a lone snare with brushes.

it was good, but of course i’d say that. my unconditional love for the deal sisters is well documented. i make sure to mention that i love both sisters; even though kim has a larger body of work, the stuff that kelley has released is some of my favorite music in the world. i think she’s more willing to take chances stylistically. the duo opened with two TKD6K songs, scary and trixie delicious, then dove into original material. but don’t worry - you can still figure out which r. ring songs kelley probably wrote.

like, say, that one. they did another one that mike said would be on a 7” to be released in a couple of months. (kelley rolled her eyes at that; i hope it comes out.) it was gorgeous. they closed out the set with a rocker - mike playing driving riffs on an electric guitar while kelley sang loudly into a fuzzed-out mic, after announcing, “well, my husband just left me!” - and broke the sound system somehow. they were going to leave it at that, but the 50+ of us wanted more, so they played a completely unplugged cover of shellac’s ghosts.

the whole night felt so throwback-y. i haven’t been to a show in a tiny, smoke-filled club in a minute. so much standing around, avoiding eye contact! so many kids! smoking so many cigarettes! i was in a new skirt that on a younger, thinner girl probably looks light & airy; on me, it looked like i was chaperoning my kid from the back of the room. (thank god for this asymmetrical haircut.) a fellow & i reached for the same shirt at the merch table. “no, after you, i insist,” he said sweetly. i thanked him. then he said, “i gave you a quasi mixtape. the early recordings.” and he was right - the dude used to be a semi-regular at the video store i worked in from ‘98-‘04. he was adorable (still is) and we’d talk music and he made that quasi mixtape for me. my mind is still blown at that merch table exchange.