Music

All Sorts of Sleazy

The Power of Peaches

by Kelly O

When I was in the fifth grade, I got in trouble at recess for running around the playground calling the other kids "cocksuckers." At the time, I had absolutely no idea what the word implied--I just loved the way the kids reacted when I said it. Cussing immediately gave me (a chubby little farm girl) an awesome power over my classmates, and I spent many an hour in the principal's office because of my dirty, filthy mouth. Girls, I was repeatedly told, shouldn't swear.

Peaches, a.k.a. Merrill Nisker, understands this power. Armed with only an MC505 Groovebox, a pair of pink vinyl hot pants, and a dirty, dirty mouth, Peaches has established something of a cult following for herself in the short time since the release of her first solo album, The Teaches of Peaches. Her deadpan rapping, accompanied by a bare-bones beatbox sound, is unlike anything I've ever heard. And oh baby, it's all about sex, sex, sex.

She maintains a very ballsy "do me" persona that might, at first, bring to mind Lil' Kim or Madonna. But Peaches is much tougher--sexy without the classic Barbie-doll features, the MAC lipstick glamour, or the perfect porn-star tits. The cleavage-free provocateur raps about sex in the rawest and most shocking of ways, with songs like "Fuck the Pain Away," "Diddle My Skittle," and "Lovertits," and has fun doing it. It's a strangely beautiful combination of punk grrrl meets lo-fi techno. It's smart like Kathleen Hanna and Le Tigre, except Peaches raps about her tits instead of John Cassavetes.

Her live show should be incredible. The 35-year-old Canadian is also a filmmaker, and tours with some pretty bizarre Super-8 films that play behind her. The film version of the song "Lovertits" features two freaky tomboys getting all sorts of sleazy with their banana-seat bicycles. In addition to screening her films, she encourages audiences to take pictures of her crotch while she's onstage. She then collects photos and posts them on her website. Like she says, "There's only one peach with the hole the middle."

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