Fate to Fatal

The Breeders released their fourth studio album, Mountain Battles, in the spring of 2008, and the Deals continued writing new songs. Near the end of their 2008 tour, they were in the United Kingdom, and decided to record the new composition "Fate to Fatal" at Fortress Studios in London. The engineer was Gareth Parton, with assistants Tom Morris and Nick Trepka. Later, the Breeders found out that they would be curating the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival They had been playing their Mountain Battles material for several months, and decided that it would be nice to have new songs to perform. Their first thought was to put out one or two songs on a single, but subsequently decided to release an EP instead. They had three original compositions that they wanted to release, but felt that this would be too short for an EP, so they decided to also do a cover of Bob Marley's "Chances Are". at her home in Dayton, Ohio, They then sent the track to Mark Lanegan, who recorded his vocals elsewhere, and sent it back to them. The assistant engineer for "Pinnacle Hollow" was James Hutchinson. ==Songs==

Reviewers have characterized "Fate to Fatal" as "ramshackle", "jarring and ... exuberant". The music and singing alternates between loud and quiet, she describes the song as about a lonesome person who does not know how to connect with other people. acoustic rendition. "Pinnacle Hollow", in which Kim hears a Neil Young influence, has been described as having a "bluesy" and a "slightly spooky" sound. There are approximately two and a half minutes of instrumentation before the vocals start. Kim and Kelley sing—in a manner that has been characterized as "deadpan"—lines such as "I don't know a sin I haven't found" and "up and down the road...." Kim was originally going to call the composition "Up and Down" but later decided on "Pinnacle Hollow", named after Pinnacle Holler, a place where the Deals' mother grew up in West Virginia. ==Cover==

The EP's cover was designed by Chris Glass. Not long before this, Glass had designed the logo for U.S. president Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Glass, who is related to the Deals through marriage, had been a fan of the Breeders' music and of the work of Vaughan Oliver, who had designed most of the group's covers for 4AD. ==Release and reception==

All of the Breeders' previous albums and EPs had been released on the record label 4AD: up until 2002's Title TK Kim Deal was under contract with that label, and the Breeders released 2008's Mountain Battles with 4AD as a "one-off". on Period Music. On April 21, 2009, they released 1000 copies on vinyl for Record Store Day; they also made the EP available digitally. ==Video==

The Breeders made a music video for the song "Fate to Fatal", co-directed by Lopez and James Ford. They shot the video at the St. Louis Skatium, a roller rink in St. Louis, where they filmed the Arch Rival Rollergirls women's roller derby team. The idea for this setting came when by chance Kelley met groups of roller derby athletes in the summer and autumn of 2008: first, an Arch Rival member named Amy Whited that the Deals had known since her childhood; next, a roller derby team at a Barack Obama benefit in Cincinnati; then, a different team at a craft competition in Minnesota. The "Fate to Fatal" video also includes footage of the Breeders in studio. ==Track listing==

• Kim Deal – guitar, vocals • Kelley Deal – guitar, vocals • Mando Lopez – bass • Jose Medeles – drums • Mark Lanegan – lead vocals on "The Last Time" ==Notes==