The Breeders play Neumo's Saturday, Nov. 8

The Breeders' second album, "Last Splash," is a rock masterpiece from 1993, as peculiar and arty an album as ever went platinum. And we can all hope the band will play its songs during its Tuesday-night show at Neumo's.

You may know the L.A. alt-rock band by "Cannonball," the unusual "Last Splash" hit. The song's simple "hook" (really just a few two-note bass slides), sways like an inflatable punching toy, stupidly repetitive but engaging — and it happens during the verse, which is the "wrong" section.

But the gravelly, distorted chorus is no less catchy and odd. "Cannonball" is the main reason "Last Splash" went platinum, along with the fame of primary singer Kim Deal, the erstwhile bassist in the Pixies (aka the '90s' best and most-copied rock band, for which Deal wrote some songs, including Kurt Cobain's favorite, "Gigantic").

The band's whole M.O., from the early days all the way up to this year's outstanding "Mountain Battles" album, is taking different moods and atmospheres — hyper and hazy; dark and placid — and stitching them into catchy tunes. Less "college rock" (as their music used to be called) than "collage rock."

Andrew Matson, Seattle Times staff reporter