Kim Deal (born Kimberly Ann Deal on June 10, 1961) is an American musician known for her work in the seminal alternative rock bands Pixies and The Breeders.

She was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, with her identical twin sister Kelley. In high school (Wayne High School, Huber Heights, OH) she was a cheerleader and often got into conflicts with authority. Deal married and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Murphy.

She became a bassist and vocalist for Pixies in 1986, after answering an advertisement for a female bassist who was into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary. Initially she went under the stage name "Mrs. John Murphy," and she is credited that way on 1988's Surfer Rosa. Deal recorded and performed with Pixies until 1992, when the group split, largely because of increasing tension between her and frontman Black Francis.

In 1989, in order to play a larger vocal role in a band, she teamed up with Tanya Donelly and Josephine Wiggs to form a band called The Breeders, who released their debut album, Pod, in 1990.

A year after the Pixies breakup, Kim's identical twin sister Kelley Deal joined the The Breeders on lead guitar and the band released its second album, Last Splash, to critical acclaim and considerable commercial success.

At the height of The Breeders' popularity in the mid-1990s, they scored a number of MTV hits, including "Cannonball," "Divine Hammer," and "Saints." The band also released the vinyl only "Head to Toe" during the summer of 1994, when they appeared on the main stage of Lollapalooza. Although the band went into stasis in 1994 when Kelley Deal entered rehab for heroin addiction, the band never officially split up, and in 2002 released Title TK. During this 8-year hiatus, Kim Deal kept busy by forming, recording, and touring with The Amps. She also produced albums for other groups, most notably fellow Dayton band Guided By Voices. For a while, she was engaged to Guided By Voices bassist Jim Greer. While Title TK did not receive the mainstream acclaim of Last Splash, diehard fans of the Deal sisters often sought out shows played in support of the album.

Kim contributed her voice to the Sonic Youth single, "Little Trouble Girl" from their '95 album Washing Machine. She also appears in the Mark Romanek music video for that song.

In 2004, Kim Deal returned to a newly-reunited Pixies and toured North America with them. One notable performance included a live taping for public television's "Austin City Limits" in October of 2004. The Pixies also were a headliner of the 2005 re-emergence of Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park.

As of May, 2006, Deal is working on new material with The Breeders with plans to release an EP late in the year and a full length in early 2007. The working lineup at this point includes Kim and Kelley Deal, Jose Medeles and Carrie Bradley.

                       

Courtesy of: http://www.wikipedia.com