Peaches: The Teaches of Peaches [XL]

Why you'll love it

This XL Recordings LP brings back the album that made Peaches a cult star on both sides of the Atlantic. It's built on her signature song, and every note was made, mixed and mixed again by Peaches herself.

About the album

Before she was Peaches, Merrill Nisker was a schoolteacher in Toronto, so the album title is more literal than it looks. She'd played in folk trio Mermaid Cafe and in a band with Chilly Gonzales and Mocky, roomed with Feist (who sang backup at her early shows), then moved to Berlin, signed to Kitty-Yo and came home to Toronto to make this album.

It's stripped to the bone: a Roland MC-505 groovebox, thick electro beats, crunchy guitar samples and a voice that dares you not to dance. "Set It Off" is the club anthem, "Rock Show" is a grinning nod to guitar rock, and "Hot Rod" and "AA XXX" rattle along on pure attitude. The album arrived after her Lovert*ts EP and became a cornerstone of the electroclash scene.

She toured England with Feist from 2000, inspired M.I.A. to pick up the MC-505, and went on to open for Marilyn Manson and Queens of the Stone Age. Variety calls her a feminist and queer icon. Of all the Toronto teachers to change music, she's comfortably the loudest; the staff room never stood a chance.

Also at Kops: more Peaches on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Kitty-Yo / XL Recordings (cat# XLLP 163), a reissue of the 2000 album.