Tyler Sheilds
Peaches
Issue #30
For those who can handle dirty in their sexy
By Kelly Shindler
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 10:11am
Like the namesake of her new all-star band, Herms, Peaches is a hybrid creature. Her music is part hip-hop, metal, electro, and rock; herself part boy, part girl, “I, you, she, together,” she’s been the underground’s agent provocateur since unleashing Teaches of Peaches in 2000. Armed with her nom de guerre and trademark pottymouth, the 39-year-old Canuck whose real name is Merrill Nisker sings, wails, and raps about everything from vibrators to threesomes and hot guy-on-guy action. She’s done a duet with Iggy Pop, had Joan Jett sing backup, and gotten fake periods onstage during her live shows. The Hottt List may be down with Peaches, but is everyone else?
Public schtick aside, the Toronto music teacher-cum-shock-rockin’ Berliner emitted a relaxed phone vibe from a tour stop in Leeds, England, where she and Herms (featuring Le Tigre’s JD Samson, guitarist Radio Sloan, and drummer Samantha Maloney from Hole and Eagles of Death Metal, among others) were playing in October. But she quickly dismisses notions that her latest album, Impeach My Bush, is her first venture onto political turf. “All my albums question power roles and authority,” she says. “I actually used the word ‘bush’ so it made it seem more tangibly political … I’m not one to sing about rising oil prices or things like that, but it all starts with where the power lies.”
With its heaving lo-fi beats, glam rock–encrusted jams, and one-liners like “hurts so good I got a soregasm,” the record is signature Peaches. However, she’s set her sights higher this time. “A misconception of what I’m doing is that I’m an alternative to the mainstream,” she muses. “My goal is to make a mark on pop culture. … And I’m a fan of party music — hip-hop and rocknroll. I would like to be able to say ‘this is the mainstream.’”
After all, this is a woman who idolizes Prince. “I don’t mean this in an egotistical way, but I think [my live act] is pretty close to a Prince vibe. Prince is my number-one choice for boundary-blurrer, more than Bowie or any other female artist. He continues to amaze me, singing the highest notes in the highest heels, playing the best guitar, writing amazing music. He’s not afraid to be sexual in a female way, but it still comes off as heterosexual. It’s insane. I’ve never seen it done like that with a man,” she marvels.
2003’s Fatherfucker showed Peaches perfecting her own style of gender-jamming. As she explains, that album was “a direct reaction to people being like, ‘Why is she acting so manly onstage?’ That shocked me because I’ve never tried to be a man. And then I was like, ‘Hmm, what is manly? What is womanly? Why is [it] when I give all my energy suddenly I’m male?’ So now I want to start the revolution. Let’s broaden this thing, are you with me? And if not, then censor my pussy. Impeach my bush.”
Are we ready for Peaches’ radical vision? Citing scandalous transgressions in recent stateside events, she’s nonplussed. “Our sexuality is a big part of us, understanding what our urges as animals, as humans are. We have to embrace that more, not take it away. And I’m not saying, ‘Yeah! Everybody fuck everybody!’ No! Find your own way. That’s the big misconception about Peaches, like [in a gravelly New Yorker accent], ‘Ehhh! Yah so dirrrty. Awll yah sawngs are about sex.’”
In essence, sexual metaphors are the grist for Peaches’ liberal Free To Be You and Me message. “I’d rather fuck who I want than kill who I’m told to!” she caterwauls on Impeach My Bush’s title track. She’s got her own army, and remarkably, it includes that proverbial 18- to 24-year-old male moshing to her electro-anthem, “Shake Yer Dix.” So all you ladies, you guys, you down with Peaches? Come on, baby, let’s go.
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