Peaches (born Merrill Beth Nisker, 11 November 1966) is a Canadian artist whose music is best described as pioneering electroclash, while taking some inspiration from hip-hop.
Gender identity and sexuality are common themes in Peaches' music, often playing with traditional notions of gender roles representation. Her lyrics and live shows consciously blur the distinction between male and female; for example, she appears on the cover of Fatherfucker with a full beard.
Nearly all of her songs are about Intercourse with You, and she isn't shy about being explicit about it. Luckily, their Refuge in Audacity means that listening to her doesn't get too uncomfortable, but you still wouldn't play a single one of her songs around your grandmother.
Her most well known songs include "Fuck the Pain Away", which was featured in My Little Eye, Lost in Translation, Jackass 2, Drive Angry, The Boys, Plinkett's review of Baby's Day Out, everything from Lost in Translation (2003) to South Park. "Boys Wanna Be Her", which you might know as the theme song for the late night satire Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Fans of Mean Girls are probably very familiar with her song "Operate."
Discography:
- Fancypants Hoodlum (1995, as Merrill Nisker)
- The Teaches of Peaches (2000)
- Fatherfucker (2003)
- Impeach My Bush (2006)
- I Feel Cream (2009)
- Rub (2015)
Provides the following tropes:
- '80s Hair: She sports it occasionally.
- Album Title Drop:
- The Teaches of Peaches is cribbed from a line in "Fuck the Pain Away".
- Impeach My Bush and "Fuck or Kill".
- "Shake Your Dix" for Fatherfucker.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: "Tent in Your Pants".
- Broken Record: "Rock N' Roll," the title of which is repeated literally over a hundred times. Combine that with the fact that there's only one riff churning away the whole time, and this song could give Daft Punk's "Robot Rock" a run for its money.
- The Cameo: She makes an appearance in episode 4.07 of Orphan Black, performing at a bar.
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Fuck the Pain Away", "Fuck or Kill", and "I Don't Give a Fuck".
- Depraved Bisexual: Men, women, it doesn't matter; Peaches is down. Spelled out in "I U She."
- Double Entendre: When she bothers with double entendres instead of single ones."'Cause I wanna take you downtown/Show you my thing..."
- Guy on Guy Is Hot: "Two Guys (For Every Girl)."
- I Love the Dead: "Operate" is about Peaches turning a freshly-dead man into a Frankenstein's Monster-type hunk for her to fuck.
- Intentionally Awkward Title: Loads of them. Some examples include "Slippery Dick", "Diddle My Skittle", "Suck and Let Go", "Lovertits", "Stuff Me Up", "Tent in Your Pants" and of course, "Fuck the Pain Away". Not to mention album titles like Fatherfucker, Impeach My Bush and I Feel Cream.
- Intercourse with You: Averted in "Fuck the Pain Away", lampshaded in "Back it Up" (You know what I'm talking about, right? Because it can only be one thing, you know.), and played straight in most of her songs. Lampshaded again in "Stick it to the Pimp" (You wanna stick it/I wanna stick it/I bet you thought I was gonna say in..but I'm not." From threesomes to going solo. She has two albums titled Impeach My Bush and I Feel Cream.
- Protest Song: "Fuck Or Kill" strips it down to the bare basics, Peaches style.note
- Refuge in Audacity: Every lyric is laced with either Double Entendres or just plain smut. Her body of work is just a monument of filth. It culminates into her stage show depicting herself as a weirdo Jesus Christ, complete with Crucifixion.
- Title-Only Chorus:
- "Fuck The Pain Away". That causes, however, a Cluster F-Bomb (see above).
- "Keine Melodien".
- Unusual Euphemism: All over the place, ranging from the obvious ("pull back the curtains and feed the clam") to mockingly subverted ("Slippery Dick[[note]Yes, it's a fish.... it's just another fish in the Atlantic").
- Yaoi Fangirl: "Two Guys (For Every Girl)."
