The provocative electro-punk artist goes on tour for the 20th anniversary of her debut album in Teaches of Peaches. Toronto-born Merrill Nisker, better known by her stage name Peaches, is preparing to go on tour to mark the 20th anniversary of her 2000 debut album “The Teaches of Peaches.” Featuring songs created using beats from a Roland MC-505 groovebox and highly sexual lyrics, Peaches would go on to become a feminist icon. Archival footage is combined with rehearsal and performance footage to track Peaches’ evolution over two decades.
Teaches of Peaches Synopsis
Teaches of Peaches is a documentary by German filmmakers Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer about Canadian artist Peaches and features interviews with the artist along with her band members, her partner Black Cracker, her early collaborator Chilly Gonzales, former roommate and fellow musician Leslie Feist and Shirley Manson of the band Garbage. Beginning as a children’s music teacher in the 1990s, while performing in folk and punk bands, Merrill Nisker would develop her Peaches stage persona after moving to Berlin. While her album “The Teaches of Peaches” would fail at its attempts to reach the mainstream, the bisexual artist would go on to become an icon within the LGBTQ community.
My Thoughts on Teaches of Peaches
Instead of being a full career retrospective, Teaches of Peaches instead focuses primarily on the history of the titular album, giving the background of songs such as “F**k the Pain Away” and “Set It Off,” the latter of which was released by Sony Music as a single and ended up halting the mainstream release of the album, due to its poor performance. If anything, Teaches of Peaches proves that Peaches is anything but a mainstream artist and the highly sexual nature of her performances, featuring female musicians wearing little or nothing, might turn off more prudish viewers. At least, it should be applauded that Peaches is still willing to perform like this in her mid-late 50s.
Trailer for Teaches of Peaches – Hot Docs 2024
