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----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Henwood
To: lbo-talk
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 8:33 PM
Subject: [lbo-talk] cultural notes: a night out with Peaches
New York Times - October 19, 2003
Peaches: Tough Girl Tender
By DAVE ITZKOFF
IN just a single performance on a recent Saturday night, the
provocative rocker Peaches assumed multiple personas: a tied-up
bondage victim, a brutal police officer and (with the help of a wig)
a blond bombshell. Afterward, in the basement of the East Village
nightclub Plaid, she played her most surprising role yet: den mother.
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On a narrow staircase outside her dressing room, Peaches (whose real
name is Merrill Nisker, and whose real hair is brunet, worn in a
shoulder-length mullet) was wearing a black lace dress, her eyelashes
thick with mascara and her lavender eye shadow smeared all the way to
her temples. She was surrounded by a half-dozen friends, and a
bouncer was concerned they were creating a fire hazard. "These are my
children," she protested. "I can't just put them out on the street."
You would never know it, but Peaches was once a schoolteacher in her
hometown, Toronto. But what she does for a living these days is
wholly inappropriate for the young. Her electronic rock combines
catchy drum beats, guitar riffs and the occasional Joan Jett sample
with sexually charged lyrics so unambiguous they would make Anaïs Nin
blush. With its anthems of liberation and odes to various parts of
the body, her 2001 debut album, "The Teaches of Peaches," became a
staple of gay and straight dance clubs alike, and a familiar beat on
the fashion runways. On her newest record, which has a title that
cannot be printed here, her music continues to stomp all over
traditional boundaries of gender and sexual orientation. As she says
in the chorus to her song "I U She," "I don't have to make the
choice, I like girls and I like boys."
Now a resident of Berlin, the 36-year-old Peaches, who stands barely
5-foot-3 in a pair of white leather boots, has a fan club that is as
diverse as her taste. She has recently recorded duets with the
godfather of punk, Iggy Pop, and the rock diva Pink, and will be
opening for the Gothic shock rocker Marilyn Manson on a European tour
in November.
Another musical pal, the bawdy rapper Princess Superstar, was waiting
on the staircase to present Peaches with a gift in a shopping bag
from the Lower East Side boutique Babes in Toyland, which sells
sexual aids. Peaches rushed off to show the gift to her backup
dancers, two statuesque women named Annabel and Billie, who were
changing out of impromptu fetish costumes made from garbage bags.
As you might expect from a woman who cribbed her stage name from the
Nina Simone song "Four Women," there is a softer side to Peaches,
too. On a recent trip through France she surprised her dancers by
taking them to a concert by the trashy American rockabilly band the
Cramps. "We were in Cologne, and I told them that I was going to be
on TV, and I wanted them to be on the show with me," Peaches recalled.
Her dancer Annabel interrupted. "When we got there, we were like, why
did she take us to see a Cramps cover band?" she said. "Then we
realized it was the actual band."
As her entourage expanded to include a British club promoter, Sean
McCluskey, and J. D. Samson of the feminist pop trio Le Tigre,
Peaches fielded suggestions on where they should go next. "I want to
take you to Carousel," Princess Superstar said. "It's a strip club
where all the dancers look like Lil' Kim."
Peaches said, "Ooh, I want to check that out, but I should probably
go to my own after-party."
So the group instead moved to a private room that had been reserved
for them in the cellar of Lit, an East Village bar, where the city's
smoking ban seemed to be regarded as a friendly suggestion. The
after-party was supposed to be guest-list only, but at least one fan,
a doe-eyed blonde with a vaguely European accent, managed to slip
inside and approach Peaches directly.
"Your show was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," the woman
said, grasping Peaches by the wrists. "I think some of it rubbed off
on me."
Peaches smiled. "Just play safe," she replied.
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