[lbo-talk] cultural notes: a night out with Peaches

R rhisiart at charter.net
Sun Oct 19 21:00:33 PDT 2003


tonight's world series game on Fox had an internet poll "Which city has the better night life, New York or Miami?" NYC won 52 to 48. must have been peaches who tipped the balance.

R

----- 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.

Advertisement

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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