-
neumu
Thursday, December 5, 2024 
-
-
--archival-captured-cinematronic-continuity error-daily report-datastream-depth of field--
-
--drama-44.1 khz-gramophone-inquisitive-needle drops-picture book-twinklepop--
-
Neumu = Art + Music + Words
Search Neumu:  

illustration



edited by michael goldbergcontact


Peaches On Tour And In Control

"Like, last night, there was a guy who was twiddling his fingers at me, and was like: [puts on extremely creepy voice] 'I'm gonna put my fingers up your pussy,' y'know, during the show. And that actually made me angry, like, grrrrrrr, you know what I mean? I was dancing on the bar by that point, so I told him to get up on the bar, and pull down his pants, because I was going to shove the microphone up his ass."

Merrill Nisker, AKA Peaches, is on tour, and she's talking about being on tour, and about performing. And, so, like, then, we go back to the beginning, to give the back-story whose beginnings illuminate the road taken by Nisker, from Canadian schoolteacher to Eurotrash electro/rap sexpot.

"One of the first ever shows that I did, was opening a singer/songwriter night. Everyone else played acoustic guitar, and I brought my [Roland] 505 [drum machine]. I'm a singer/songwriter, that's my writing utensil, so I brought it. I went on first, and I got so slagged in the local paper, in Toronto. That was the first time I knew that I was doing something right. The writer just, like, couldn't deal with it at all," she recalls. "And, actually, the woman who did sound that night taped the version of 'Fuck The Pain Away' that I did, and that is the recording that's on my first album [The Teaches of Peaches]. It was just at this small club with a small P.A., too. I put that recording on a demo, and I thought people were gonna say, like, 'Oh, y'know, you need to do this, you're gonna have to change that'; but everyone was like 'That sounds really good,' so I was just like 'Oh, I'm gonna put it on the album then!'"

Where her transition from conceived concept to recording artist went pretty quick back in the back-in-the-day, it's been three long years since The Teaches of Peaches descended unto the pop-cultural world at large, charming audiences with a rudimentary marriage of drum-machine beats and pottymouth rhymes that reminded of the early days of Schoolly D. Only this Peaches was — courtesy of her sex-centric rhymes — less some pantomimed tough-guy and more a feminist-with-her-tits-out. Her new, second record, Fatherfucker, is — despite these three years — pushing the same barrow as her first, with some tracks cultivating a sense of minimalism in their punched-in/thunk'd-out 505 beats.

See, in those three years, Peaches hasn't been locked up in a studio striving for crossover or reinvention, or whatever. Rather, she's been doing it old-fashioned "band expands fan-base"-style, spending her time taking her exuberant neo-rock 'n' roll girlie show out on the road for people to see. Sure, some of the b'tween-album delay has been with rock-biz machinations — she signed, strangely, with Sony, only to wrangle her way out of the deal when they released a single, but then sat for, like, forever on their proposed re-release of The Teaches of Peaches, and she eventually ended up on XL — but most of these years have found her almost constantly touring.

Fielding this promotional conversation, she's touring, of course, is in the midst of playing a set of dates in the States in which she plays every night, is in Vermont, actually, walking through a Wal-Mart buying fancy underwear, and DVDs to play in the tour bus. Just a mere mention of her mode of transport gets Nisker excited. "I have my own big bus this time! And a professional driver! He's 28!

"It's so great that we don't have to drive," she continues. "Because that's really the big drag when you're on tour: Whoever's driving is really burnt out all the time, because it's so stressful. So, it's really cool. I can't believe our driver's 28! Driving this big nightliner. I thought we'd have some 50-year-old guy with a big beer/potbelly, y'know? And he's so psyched. He's like 'I rarely take out bands that I'm into!' I mean, he's 28, he's a totally cool guy. He usually takes a lot of Christian bands around. And there's this Christian message on the bus, something about 'the egoless protector,' which is really funny. And the bus used to belong to the Dixie Chicks. So, it's pretty funny the whole way round."

Then, she turns her talk to how much she loves the whole touring party, like some cash-cow cum matriarch whose music allows her to assemble an army of acquaintances to make her on-the-road rock 'n' roll experience a blast. "We have a great opening band, Electrocute from Berlin, and a really cool crew, too; a guitar tech, and my tour manager who's an old friend of mine, and my soundwoman. They're all friends of mine, but they're working professionally. I mean, I can't believe I get to employ all my friends. It's so fun."

Whilst Nisker — especially when taking her tenth interview of the day, on a short break in freakin' Vermont, of all places — talks of how hard touring can be, she's adamant that she loves the grind (matron), that she has a work ethic, and that, like her longtime partner-in-performative-crime Chilly Gonzales, she's a hard-working entertainer. On the road, in the States, she says, every night is different, and every other night there's something amiss, and sometimes that's the crowd. But none of this fazes Peaches. "When I'm playing live, I just try to turn around every circumstance. Sometimes you show up and there's shitty sound, or you show up and no one — including the people at the venue — seems to know who you are, or sometimes you show up and there're thousands of people there. I really find that exciting that it's different every time, because you've gotta apply what you know, and that really shows off a performance, if you don't have the 'I can't do the show without my green mic-stand! I refuse to go on!,' y'know? It's like, whatever, you've just gotta go with what's there and make the best of it."

And, so, then, from that, Nisker starts recalling what's been going on in the tour she's in the midst of. "I was on stage the other night and these two girls jumped up on stage with me, and, hey, this is America, so I said 'let's play MTV Music Awards!,' and so I strutted along like Madonna and gave a big fat kiss to each one of them. It was really fun," she coos. "Last night, I was climbing up pipes on the side of the stage. The night before this girl said 'I'll give you something to stuff up!,' came on stage, and pulled up her skirt. I had a towel on, and, so, when she went to pull up her skirt, I went down to meet her as kind of a joke, and discovered she had no underwear on. Every night I've been doing 'Fuck the Pain Away' karaoke, where people come up on stage on sing along. So I've had a big cast of characters coming up and doing that."

And Peaches loves that escalating involvement from fans. This is obvious in her dreams for what her fanbase will become. "I want it to soon be like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' I want people to throw food at me when I tell them I'm hungry, I want 'Fuck the Pain Away' karaoke people to be ready to go, y'know, I want it to be a cult live show in the way that 'Rocky Horror' was a cult movie. By the end of the European tour, I started to get some of that; you could tell that people had been to other places and were following the tour." — Anthony Carew [Wednesday, November 19, 2003]


Alejandro Escovedo's Joyous Rebirth

John Vanderslice Kicks Genre

Paul Duncan's Elusive Pop

Stephen Yerkey's Wandering Songs

French Kicks Complete 'Two Thousand'

Spazzy Romanticism: Love Story In Blood Red

Brain Surgeons NYC Rock The Big Questions

Jarboe's 'Men' Charts Turbulent Emotions

Delta 5's Edgy Post-Punk Resurrected

Blitzen Trapper Spiff Things Up

Minus Five: Booze, Betrayal, Bibles and Guns

New Compilation Spotlights Forgotten Folk Guitar Heroes

Chris Brokaw's Experiment In Pop

Old And New With Death Vessel

Silver Jews: Salvation And Redemption

Jana Hunter's Beautiful Doom

Vashti Bunyan Finds Her Voice Again

Nick Castro's Turkish Folk Delight

Katrina Hits New Orleans Musicians Hard

Paula Frazer's Eerie Beauty

The National Find Emotional Balance

Death Cab For Cutie's New Album, Tour

Heavy Trash's Rockabilly Rampage

Help The Wrens Get Their Albums Released!

Devendra Banhart, Andy Cabic Launch Label

Lydia Lunch's Noir Seductions

Bosque Brown's The Real Deal

PDX Pop Now! Fest Announces Lineup

Sarah Dougher Starts Women-Focused Label

Jennifer Gentle's Joyful Psyche

Mountain Goat Darnielle Gets Autobiographical With 'Sunset Tree'

Mia Doi Todd's Beautiful Collaboration

Return of the Gang of Four

Martha Wainwright Finds Her Voice

Brian Jonestown Massacre's Acid Joyride

Solo Disc Due From Pixies' Frank Black

Heartless Bastards' Big-Hearted Rock

Mike Watt's Midlife Journey

The Black Swans Balance Old And New

Nicolai Dunger's Swedish Blues

The Insomniacs' Hard-Edged Pop

Yo La Tengo Collection Due

Juana Molina's 'Homemade' Sound

Beans Evolves

Earlimart's Songs Of Loss

Devendra Banhart's 'Mosquito Drawings'

Negativland Rerelease 'Helter Stupid'

Alina Simone Transforms The Ordinary

Sounds From Nature: Laura Veirs

Octet's Fractured Electric Pop

Sleater-Kinney Working With Lips Producer

The Cult Of Silkworm

The Evolution Of The Concretes

Devendra Banhart's Exuberant New Songs

Catching Up With The Incredible String Band

Gram Rabbit's Desert Visions

Three Indie-Rock Stars Unite As Maritime

Remembering Johnny Ramone

Jarboe's Many Voices

Phil Elvrum's Long Hard Winter

First U.S. Release For Vashti Bunyan Album

Incredible String Band To Tour U.S.

New Music From Lydia Lunch

Le Tigre Protest The Bush War Presidency

Joel RL Phelps: Bleak Songs Rock Hard

Time Tripping With Galaxie 500

Patti Smith Wants Bush Out!

Sharron Kraus: A New Kind Of Folk Music

The Fiery Furnaces' Psychedelic Theater

Harder, Heavier Burning Brides

Sonic Youth's Ongoing Experiment

The Dt's Do It Their Way

Poster Children Cover Political Rock

Rare Thelonious Monk Recordings Due

Uneasy Pop From dios

Beck, Lips, Waits Cover Daniel Johnston

Understanding Franz Ferdinand

The Truly Amazing Joanna Newsom

Mylab's Boundary-Crossing Experiments In Sound

Have You Heard Jolie Holland Whistle?

The 'Magical Realism' Of Vetiver

The Restless, Rootsy Songs Of Eszter Balint

The Sun Sets On The Blasters

Devendra Banhart To Tour U.S.

The East/West Fusion Sounds Of Macha

Destroyer Gets Mellow For Your Blues

TV On The Radio Get Political

Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse To Play Lollapalooza 2004

New Music From The Fall

Apocalyptic Sound From The Intelligence

Fast And Rude With The Casual Dots

'Rejoicing' With Devendra Banhart

New Album, Tour From The Polyphonic Spree

Shearwater Take Wing

Sleater-Kinney To Tour East/West Coasts

Resurrecting Rocket From The Tombs

Visqueen Want To Get A Riot Goin' On

Lloyd Cole Makes A Commotion

Funkstörung's 'Cut-Up' Theory

Waiting For Mirah's C'mon Miracle

Electrelane Find Their Voice

The Television Is Still On!

Experimental Sounds From Hannah Marcus

The Ponys Play With Rayguns

Ex-Mono Men Leader Returns With The Dt's

Mountain Goats' Darnielle Adopts A More Hi-Fi Sound

Sun Kil Moon To Tour U.S., Europe

Nothin' But The Truth From The Von Bondies

Sultans Survive 'Shipwreck'

Sebadoh Reunite For Spring Tour

Xiu Xiu's 'Reality' Rock

Meet The Patients

Beth Orton, M. Ward Make Sadness Taste Sweet

Oneida's Pathway To Ecstasy

Radiohead, Pixies, Dizzee Rascal To Play Coachella

Young People Tour Behind War Prayers

Pixies Tour Dates Announced

Ani DiFranco Tells It Like It Is

Deerhoof Back For 2004 With Milkman

McLusky Set To 'Bring On The Big Guitars' Again

Pixies Reunite For U.S., European Tours

American Music Club, Decemberists To Play NoisePop 2004

Damien Rice Set To Tour U.S.

The Frames Accept Your Love

Punk Rock's A-Frames To Re-Record Third Album

Finally! Mission Of Burma Record New Album

A Solo Detour For Ladybug Transistor's Sasha Bell

Return Of The Old 97's

Spending The Night With Damien Rice

Tindersticks Reissues Due This Spring

The Evolution Of 'A Silver Mt. Zion'

Neil Young Rocks Australia With 'Greendale'

Poster Children Back In Action

'The Great Cat Power Disaster Of 2003'

Chicks On Speed's Subversive Strategies

Oranger At A Crossroad

Peaches On Tour And In Control

Jawbreaker's Complete Dear You Sessions To Be Released

Belle & Sebastian + Trevor Horn = Sunny Pop Nirvana

Von Bondies' Pawn Shoppe Heart

Descendents Are Back!

Modest Mouse Touring; Album Due in 2004

London Suede Take A (Permanent?) Break

Saul Williams Wants You To Think For Yourself

The 'Zen' Sound Of Calexico

Elliott Smith Dead AT 34

Debut Due From Mark Kozelek's Sun Kil Moon

The Hunches: Music That'll 'Fucking Live Forever'

Vic Chesnutt Speaks His Mind

90 Day Men Cancel Tour

Keith Jarrett, Cecil Taylor Highlight SF Jazz Festival

For My Morning Jacket, It's The Music That Matters

EP Due From The Polyphonic Spree

Bright Eyes, Neva Dinova Collaborate On EP

The Rise & Fall & Rise Of Ben Lee

Catching Up With Cheerfully Defiant Tricky

Hanging Around With The Polyphonic Spree

Sophomore Album Due From The Shins

Noise Rock From Iceland's Singapore Sling

Death Cab To Tour U.S.

Rufus Wainwright's Want One Is 'Family Affair'

Death Cab's Transatlanticism On The Way

Heartfelt Rock From Sweden's Last Days Of April

The Minus 5 Get Down With Wilco

Tywanna Jo Baskette's Southern-Gothic Rock

Xiu Xiu's Stewart Takes On 'Gay-bashing'

Portishead Producer Resurfaces Behind New Diva

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wire, Primal Scream On Buddyhead Comp

Yeah Yeah Yeahs To Tour West Coast

Sonic Youth, Erase Errata Kick Off 'Buddy Series'

The Locust Are One Scary Band

Damien Rice In The 'Here And Now'

Remembering Karp's Scott Jernigan

ATP-NY Postponed 'Til At Least 2004

The Soul Of Chris Lee

Gits' Frenching The Bully To See Re-Release

Stephen Malkmus Is In Control

Superchunk To Release Rarities Set; Teenage Girls To Swoon As A Result

Summer Touring For The Gossip

Babbling On About Deerhoof

Irish Song Poet Damien Rice's O Released In U.S.

Chatting With ATP's Barry Hogan

Former Digable Planets Frontman Surfaces With Cherrywine

ATP L.A. Festival Rescheduled For Fall

Freakwater's Janet Bean Takes A Solo Turn

Lee's 'Cool Rock'

Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Highlight YES NEW YORK

Mark Romanek's 'Hurt' Revives Johnny Cash's Career

The Rapture's Post-Punk, Post-Dance Sound

R.E.M., Wilco, Modest Mouse Highlight Bumbershoot Fest

Set Fires To Flames' Sleep-Deprivation Sound

Southern Gothic Past Shadows Verbena's La Musica Negra

The Subtle Evolution Of Yo La Tengo

Spring Tour For Jolie Holland (Plus A Live Album)

Liz Phair Still Pushing The Limits

Gold Chains Wants You To Dance And Think

Young People's War Prayers On The Way



peruse archival
 



-
-snippetcontactsnippetcontributorssnippetvisionsnippethelpsnippetcopyrightsnippetlegalsnippetterms of usesnippetThis site is Copyright © 2003 Insider One LLC
-