Oct
19
with JD Samson, Sandy Kane & Chris E. Pants
Sat October 19th, 2013
9:00PM
Main Space
Minimum Age: 21+
Doors Open: 9:00PM
Show Time: 9:00PM
Event Ticket: $25
Day of Show: $30
Peaches’ debut feature film Peaches Does Herself will begin its New York City theatrical release at Quad Cinema on October 18th. Peaches will be in attendance at select screenings for Q&A sessions (see schedule below) and will also perform a special post-screening live show at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on October 19th. Tickets for the film can be purchased online HERE as well as the Quad Cinema Box Office located at 34 West 13th Street in Manhattan (212-255-8800). The New York City theatrical release of Peaches Does Herself is scheduled ahead of the film’s video-on-demand premiere set for December 18th. Please visit PeachesDoesHerself.com .
Over the past year, Peaches Does Herself has received overwhelming critical acclaim from screenings at the 2013 Sundance London Film & Music Festival, 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival, as well as over 50 others across five continents. Rolling Stone called it “…a cult classic in the vein of The Rocky Horror Picture Show” while The Hollywood Reporter stated that it was “A loosely biographical rock opera featuring outlandish costumes, transsexual dancers, lashing of smutty humor and simulated hardcore sex, this self-directed carnival of carnal excess feels like The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a postgrad doctorate in Queer Theory.” The film, an ‘anti-jukebox musical,’ was written, directed by and stars Peaches. The official Peaches Does Herself trailer can be seen HERE and co-stars comedian Sandy Kane (The Naked Cowgirl) and transgender performance artist Dani Daniels. The 80-minute film is an electro rock opera stage show that recounts a mythical history of Peaches and follows her journey from bedroom musician-wannabe to rock star. After being given advice by a 65-year old stripper, Peaches begins to make sexually forthright music. Her popularity quickly grows and she becomes what her fans expect her to be – transsexual. Along her journey, Peaches falls in love with a beautiful she-male, but before longs she suffers a broken heart and ventures on a path of self-discovery. Originally a stage production of the same name held at Berlin’s prestigious Hebbel Theater, Peaches’ career-chronicling opera Peaches Does Herself, featured 23 original songs from her catalog and included a cast of over 40. In the film, songs from Peaches’ four official albums are woven into an invented biography based on the misconceptions surrounding her shocking image.
About the film, Peaches stated, “Peaches Does Herself gave me a new way to express my views on gender, age, performance and entertainment in general. It was an extraordinary opportunity to take my own songs and turn them into a narrative without using extraneous dialogue. It also allowed me to recreate and solidify the iconography that I have built up through my 10 years of work as Peaches.”
Peaches, a legendary live performer and revolutionary figure in electronic music, has released four studio albums, and many EPs and singles – most recently, last year’s BURST! EP released by Boysnoize Records. She has co-written songs with Christina Aguilera and Pink, among others, was prominently featured on R.E.M.’s final studio album, Collapse Into Now as well as the Flaming Lips cover version of Pink Floyd’sDark Side Of The Moon. She also received wide critical acclaim for her one-woman performance of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar(rechristened Peaches Christ Superstar). Additionally, Peaches has been a keynote speaker and guest lecturer at institutions like New York University and the University of Toronto. She was also featured in her own episode of The Creators Project, a partnership between Vice and Intel. The Creators Project, is a network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media and around the world. In 2012, she took the stage as the titular character in a production of L’Orfeo, Monteverdi’s 1607 opera, standing out as the only classically untrained cast member. Most recently Peaches was seen this summer at the Yoko Ono curated Meltdown Festival at Southbank in London as well as this year’s Lorcarno Film Festival where she served as juror, performed at and presented Peaches Does Herself.
This is a general admission, standing event.
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Peaches Live At LPR – celebrating the theatrical release of “Peaches Does Herself”
“…A cult classic in the vein of The Rocky Horror Picture Show” – Rolling Stone
“Peaches Does Herself is an impressively bold statement from its director-star and her team of dancers, choreographers and designers……this ambitious rock-doc pushes plenty of buttons as polymorphously perverse Pop Art spectacle. Peaches shows technical competence as a first-time director, while the taboos she celebrates and subverts onstage make for funny, frank, full-frontal entertainment.” – Hollywood Reporter
“…Gleefully over-the-top rock opera” – TimeOut Chicago
“The film is a semi-autobiographical adaptation of (Peaches’) stage show and features 22 of her songs brought to incredible life via innovative, jaw-dropping performances” – Indiewire
“Peaches is an artist with many talents, all of which are hard to ignore, thanks to their sheer levels of diversity and brilliance.” – ION Magazine
“Outrageously sexual sets and choreography are stunning backdrops for this transgressive ‘anti-jukebox’ rock opera” – Cimmfest.com
“One of the world’s most beloved performance artists and a legendary transgressive rock ’n’ roller, Toronto-born Peaches has been an icon of the Berlin art scene for more than a decade. Her constantly evolving practice has created a host of famous and indelible videos, performances, installations, lectures and kick-ass concerts. Peaches Does Herself, her first feature film, brings together all of these elements and more, serving as both a rich retrospective of, and whiplash introduction to, this elemental performer’s work.” – Noah Cowan, TIFF co-director
“Peaches Does Herself is an infectious manifesto for a society that isn’t bound by gender norms and fickle social attitudes.” – MQFF (Melbourne Queer Film Festival)
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Since the release of her debut album in 2000, Peaches has spread her seed on the pop culture landscape, harnessing a worldwide audience and, along with the countless followers she’s inspired, has shaped the mainstream into a more inclusive and sexually progressive surrounding. Over the years, she’s built a reputation on her suggestive and intelligent lyrics, her amalgamation of rock and electro sounds and her balls-out performances, continuing to outdo herself with each brash step.
“Fuck the Pain Away”, the lead song from The Teaches of Peaches, was her first breakthrough statement amidst a multifaceted career: Never officially released as a single (and before the era of blogs) it still sucked in listeners from the indie, fashion and queer circles, and even managed to worm its way into the ears of frat boys and soccer moms (thanks to its subsequent inclusion in a number of films and television shows). Some fans are surprised to learn the track was recorded live on stage the first time she ever performed the song in her hometown of Toronto, before she made Berlin her home, back when the minimalism of her stage setup (a mic and a beatbox) was cutting edge, and it remains a testament to her DIY ethos.
After XL Recordings gave Teaches an international re-release, those privy (and pervy) were anxiously awaiting her second LP Fatherfucker. The title and the artwork (on which Peaches boasts a thick beard) would hint at the gender politics inside as Peaches alchemized cock-rock clichés into riot grrrl machisma (with a guest spot from godfather of punk Iggy Pop along the way). If the first album was like masturbation – the sound of Peaches finding herself – then the second was an exploration in role-play. Fittingly, her live show experimented with burlesque, video projection and various pranks, such as actors who would lip-synch to Peaches’ offstage delivery. Aside from performing, Peaches took on the role of director for three of her own music videos, accepted Pink’s invitation to co-write a song, remixed Daft Punk, appeared in The L-Word., and mentored a pre-debutant M.I.A. on the drum machine.
By 2006, Peaches was in full thrust, and Impeach my Bush further infused the sexual and political into pop territory. This record, with our protagonist donning a sequined burqa, incited a full-on revolutionary orgy, highlighted by the anthem “Boys Wanna Be Her” as well as guest spots from Gossip’s Beth Ditto, former roommate Feist, and her teen idol Joan Jett. And for this incarnation of Peaches’ live concerts, she got to fulfill a longtime fantasy by forming the Herms, her own version of the Runaways. This all-girl supergroup of sorts, consisting of J.D. Samson (Le Tigre), Samantha Maloney (Hole) and Radio Sloan (The Need), toured the U.S. with Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails and played a number of international festivals. Parallel to this, Peaches the solo entity forged new paths, exhibiting visual work for the Canadian Biennial and gaining strength as a DJ in club settings.
Peaches’ fourth album, I Feel Cream, cemented her longevity with her biggest evolutionary leap to date. Here she tested the extremes of her vocal chords, ranging from sweet falsetto to heavy-flow rapping, and this time around, she invited some of the friends she’d made on tour to co-produce several tracks: Soulwax highlighted Peaches’ heated soulful belting in “Talk to Me”, while Simian Mobile Disco helped craft the icy disco beats of “Lose You”. Following the thematic progression of her records, this chapter represented a romantic candlelight dinner ending with a tabletop fuck, wax and champagne spilled in every crevasse.
In 2010, Peaches celebrated a decade of existence with several projects that challenged not just the public’s expectations, but also her own personal stamina: First up, she debuted her one-woman rendition of the classic Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Rechristened Peaches Christ Superstar, Peaches sang every note and played every role herself, accompanied on piano by longtime friend and collaborator Chilly Gonzalez. Peaches Christ Superstar received overwhelming critical acclaim with ARTFORUM stating in their review, “Not only did Peaches set it off, she managed to surprise us all by showing off an expansive vocal range, a musicians’ natural sensitivity to the dynamics of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score, and an emotive prowess that is rarely if ever displayed in her own, less holy, music.” The Boston Globe also stated “Her vocal gifts, in particular, were a revelation as Peaches wailed, intoned, and even crooned as if Broadway beckoned.”
On the other end of the spectrum, she conceived Peaches Does Herself, a quasi-autobiographical, career-chronicling theatrical production that pastiched over 20 of her songs into an abstract narrative. The retrospective extravaganza employed a cast and crew of over 40, including her backing band Sweet Machine, full-frontal nudity courtesy of trans porn actress Danni Daniels, oversize upholstered vaginae, and elements from the Peaches Laser Show she had brought to several European capitals earlier in the year. Peaches Does Herself represented her body of work dealing with such themes as gender, beauty and age.
Aside from her featured appearances on the latest albums from R.E.M., Christina Aguilera and the Flaming Lips, Peaches has been a keynote speaker and guest lecturer at institutions like NYU and the University of Toronto. Her plans for 2012 involve producing the next album from Taiwanese band Go Chic and taking the stage as the titular character in a production of L’Orfio, Monteverdi’s 1607 opera, standing out as the only classically untrained cast member.
Peaches is also in the early phases of her fifth full-length (technically her sixth, if you count the one released under her birth name Merrill Nisker in 1995, before she plucked her stage name from Nina Simone’s feminist anthem “Four Women”). Meanwhile, Peaches’ lyrical, musical and stylistic influences continue to be seen and heard in artists around the world, from mainstream to underground. But making direct comparisons would never do justice to her uniqueness. Apples to oranges. She’s just Peaches!
JD Samson
Sandy Kane
Chris E. Pants
Chris Shively is a DJ, producer, and staple of Chicago’s dance music scene, performing as Chrissy Murderbot (juke / footwork / bass music) and Chris E. Pants (disco & house).
Now based in Brooklyn, he runs the hard-hitting juke label Loose Squares, the sleazy house label Sleazetone Records, and the now-legendary My Year of Mixtapes blog.
Since beginning in the ‘90s rave scene, Chrissy has played 600+ gigs in 20 countries, and done official remixes for Star Slinger & Teki Latex, Shaun J Wright & Alinka, Ssion, Machinedrum, Starkey, Theophilus London, Pixelord, Far East Movement, Mark Stewart, Delorean, Warrior Queen, Waxmaster, and others.
His original productions are found on labels like Hypercolour, Planet Mu, HaloCyan, Loose Squares, and Hyperboloid Records.