NSFW: Wednesday night I was fortunate to be in the small listening crowd at the Manderlay Bar at the McKittrick Hotel to hear Peaches new album, Rub. She came out to Eye of the Tiger (with a nod to Kim Davis) in a pseudo-wrestling, Vegas Diva cape and won the crowd over immediately. She DJ’d and mixed her own music and sang atop her DJ booth.
It’s been six years since she released her last studio album, but these past six years have been some of the most productive of her career. From theater productions to her cinematic debut at the Toronto International Film Festival to the release of her first book, Peaches pushed herself further than ever. This bitch works HARD and she’s just emerged from the studio in rare form with her fifth and most unequivocal album to date. Peaches explains of the impetus for her studio hiatus.
“Since 2000, I’ve been making a record for a year, and then touring it for two years over and over. After 10 years of doing that, I needed a change. I didn’t feel like writing another album and touring it for two years again, so I was really excited to try new projects.”
This led to her one-woman production of Jesus Christ Superstar, redubbed Peaches Christ Superstar and mounted initially in Berlin before touring the world.
“It was an endurance performance and a time for me to celebrate my actual singing voice, which I never pursued as Peaches.”
Peaches spent the past decade pushing buttons and boundaries with a sexually-charged blend of electronic music, hip hop, and punk rock that she delivered via one of the most raw and creative stage shows in popular music. When she first emerged to international attention with The Teaches of Peaches, her 2000 debut album, single Fuck The Pain Away catapulted her into the spotlight and appeared everywhere from Sofia Coppola‘s Lost In Translation to South Park and True Blood.
She followed it up with Fatherfucker, which further challenged and reversed issues of gender politics and sexual identity and featured an appearance by Iggy Pop. The whole period is documented in the new book What Else Is In The Teaches Of Peaches, a collection of Holger Talinski’s photos from at home and on the road, on-stage and behind-the-scenes, as Peaches conquered new artistic heights. Yoko Ono, Ellen Page, and Michael Stipe all contributed to the text, which offers unique insight into a side of the artist the audience has rarely seen.
RUB begins where the book leaves off, in 2014, as Peaches headed into her newly-built garage studio in Los Angeles to begin more than a full year of work on the album, collaborating with longtime friend Vice Cooler.
“After six years, I was excited about my lyrics again, about what Peaches was. I felt more comfortable living out any idea I wanted to try. We spent ten hours a day making beats, and whatever stuck, I would write on and develop. The only agenda was to make the best album we could.”
Dick In The Air flips gender roles with an absurdist twist, as Peaches preaches,
“I’m sick of hands in the air
And shake our asses like we don’t care
We’ve been shaking our tits for years
So let’s switch positions no inhibitions
put your dick in the air.”
It doesn’t stop with just the music, though. Peaches plans to direct once again present videos for every track on the album with a slew of collaborators. First up, Margaret Cho on Dick in the Air.
And that’s what’s in the teaches of Peaches. Watch and learn, bitches!
The post #WatchNow: Peaches New Album “Rub” Is Cumming & “Dick in the Air” Is Here! appeared first on World of Wonder.