Album of the Day — July 10
Peaches — The Teaches of Peaches
Peaches — The Teaches of Peaches
10.July.2020
Peaches
The Teaches of Peaches
2000
Trying to explain Peaches is a lot like showing a dog a card trick.
Peaches (born Merrill Nisker) began her career as 1/3 of the folk group Mermaid Cafe before forming a rock band called The Shit in 1995.
Also in, 1995, she dropped her first solo album Fancypants Hoodlum.
Ending up in Berlin, she landed a one-off gig and was signed instantly to the Kitty-Yo label.
Peaches flew from Berlin back to her home in Toronto to begin work on her debut album, The Teaches of Peaches.
The album embraces a minimalist approach and a heavy reliance on the Roland MC-505 (think Beck, Radiohead, and M.I.A.). Its inspiration is pulled from the 80s new wave movement and “electroclash” — a hybrid genre that combined elements of synth-pop, techno, electropop, and EDM.
So … yeah.
While positioning herself as a musician, if you need a label to understand what someone is about, think of Peaches as both musician and performance artist. Her songs sound relatively simple, but the lyrics underneath the beats have a stronger and larger message.
Gender identity is one theme of Peaches’ music, often playing with traditional notions of gender roles representation. And much of The Teaches of Peaches has a strong feminine point of view … specifically a “pro-sex” “postfeminist” perspective.
Pro-sex — a movement that began in the early 1980s centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women’s freedom. The pro-sex (or sex-positive) contingency was often in conflict with the anti-pornography feminists — aka the feminist sex wars.
Postfeminist — a “person who believes in, promotes or embodies any of various ideologies springing from the feminism of the 1970s, whether supportive of or antagonistic towards classical feminism.”
The song that put Peaches on the map is “Fuck the Pain Away”:
Fuck the Pain Away
Suckin’ on my titties like you wanted me,
Callin me, all the time like blondie
Check out my Chrissy behind
It’s fine all of the time
Like sex on the beaches,
What else is in the teaches of peaches? huh? what?
Suckin’ on my titties like you wanted me,
Callin me, all the time like blondie
Check out my Chrissy behind
It’s fine all of the time
What else is in the teaches of peaches?
Like sex on the beaches. huh? what?
huh? right. what? uhh.
huh? what? right. uhh.
SIS IUD, stay in school cause it’s the best.
IUD SIS, stay in school cause it’s the best.
Suckin’ on my titties like you wanted me,
Callin me, all the time like blondie
Check out my Chrissy behind
It’s fine all of the time.
What else is in the teaches of peaches?
Like sex on the beaches. huh? what?
Fuck the pain away. Fuck the pain away.
huh? what? right. uhh. huh? what? right. uhh.
What else in the teaches of peaches, like sex on the beaches.
huh? what? right. uhh.
Fuck the pain away. Fuck the pain away.
“Fuck the Pain Away” was never given a proper recording in a studio. It’s a live recording from the first time Peaches ever performed the song.
The song has been licensed for numerous movies, television shows, and ads that have given the song a life well beyond the album.
“AAXXX” takes a very strong pro-sex stance … with AA referring to her cup size and XXX referring to porn:
AAXXX
Triple bypass at the double-A, triple X
Here it comes
Make sure you can hear me before you speak up
All you motherfuckers step up
I like the innocent type
Deer in the headlight
Rocking me all night
Flexing his might
Doing it right
Keeping me tight
Taking a bite out of the peach tonight
Consider my suspicion
Let’s see if my intuition
Has any volition
’Cause I’m on a mission
For the omission, the competition
And the definition of my position
It’s bitching, it’s bitching, it’s bitching, it’s bitching
Only double A
Thinking triple X
I like the innocent type
Deer in the headlight
Rocking me all night
Flexing his might
Doing it right
Keeping me tight
Taking a bite out of the peach tonight
Only double A
Thinking triple X
Yeah…There’s more
I’m hexed I’m vexed
I’m in the doubles text
Some people say that I put my self-perspective
I’m in the cervix, next
I’m hexed I’m vexed
I’m in the doubles text
Some people say that I put my self-perspective
I’m in the cervix
Only double A
Thinking triple X
Licky licky sucky
Nobody here can tell me they doesn’t want to fucky fucky
Only double A
Thinking triple X
Yeah, who’s gonna motherfucking stop me?
Hey motherfuckers step up
Who’s gonna motherfucking step up?
Based on the buzz surrounding Peaches and The Teaches of Peaches, she landed a European contract with Sony. Throwing their marketing weight behind the single “Set It Off” proved effective as it landed Peaches a top forty hit.
The song was big enough to get Peaches a slot on the influential British television show Top of the Pops.
In what should surprise no one, when Peaches taped her segment for Top of the Pops, it was deemed too racy to air.
Riding high on the success of “Set It Off”, a big-budget video was made.
The concept for the big-budget video had Peaches sitting in a locker room as her pubic hair and armpit hair grew to Rapunzel length.
Sony subsequently dropped Peaches.
Set It Off
Mother fuckers want to get with me
Lay with me, love with me, all right
Mother fuckers want to get with me
Lay with me, love with me, all right
Mother fuckers want to get with me
Lay with me, love with me, all right
C’mon let’s set it off, c’mon let’s set it off
You know it, you love it
You got it, you want it
You know it, you love it
You got it
Mother fuckers want to get with me
Lay with me, love with me, all right
C’mon let’s set it off, c’mon let’s set it off
You know it, you love it
You got it, you want it
You know it, you love it
You got it
C’mon lets set it off
Set it off
Set it off
Set if off
Mother fuckers want to get with me
Lay with me, love with me, all right
C’mon let’s set it off, c’mon let’s set it off
Critics loved The Teaches of Peaches:
Trey Anastasio of the band Phish called the album the “greatest album ever”.
Robert Christgau gave it a B- saying: “Not cock-rock, bukkake-rock. And though you may be lucky enough not to know what that means, Peaches had better. Doesn’t matter whether she’s a performance artist, a concept rocker, a bored schoolteacher, or an ex-pat with a gimmick.”
The Teaches of Peaches was included on The Guardian’s 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list.
Heather Phares from AllMusic said: “Funny, sexy, outrageous, and danceable (not to mention endlessly quotable) all at once, The Teaches of Peaches is a great introduction to a unique artist who defines herself by gleefully blurring boundaries.”
In 2015, the album was named the winner in the 2000s category of the inaugural Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, the annual Canadian music award for classic albums released before the creation of the Polaris Music Prize.
Don’t be fooled by the seemingly rudimentary sound of The Teaches of Peaches. When Professor Peaches is teaching, there is always much to be learned.