Post by No Personality on Apr 5, 2010 11:54:56 GMT -5
As it's been nearly a month since I saw Lady Gaga's "Telephone" (when it debuted in March) and decided I actually had enough to say about it to put it here... I hadn't been listening to much Peaches. I burned a CD of her stuff earlier this year (each track bought all legal-like, on the new Napster) (oh wait, most people online probably don't remember the old days when Napster was illegal, well it was once) and... it was actually my first taste of Peaches. She'd actually been producing hit hip-hop / dance (electroclash) records and singles for nearly 10 years prior to my even hearing about her and having been on YouTube for more than 3. My quick lesson in the Teaches of Peaches was that her latest album, I Feel Cream, is incredible and her most accessible work. In my personal opinion, also her best (Heather Phares, who I love, disagrees).
After a heaping helping of no less than 5 music videos from her latest album (she hasn't done nearly that many videos for any of her other releases), I also learned that Peaches was rocking 2009... but I did not know she seeks to dominate 2010 as well. On a much smaller scale than Lady Gaga, that is. Another short round-trip to YouTube and... I found out since I last checked in January... Peaches has 5 more new music videos!! That's 10 videos, all for I Feel Cream. She only has 12 tracks on the album! And friend / fan YouTube channel, Fatherfucker, informs viewers that she has 11 videos! I searched and couldn't find one for "Mud" nor "Show Stopper," so I'm not quite sure what Ff means yet. But each of these (even the one for the fairly nauseating track "More," which I sincerely doubt is / will be a single) are tutorials to Lady Gaga on how to do a music video right!
A lot of hot pop artists have been very into retro this decade (who wouldn't be, as a way of desperately trying to escape the shit and war we've been entrenched in nearly every year of this prior decade?). Especially Gwen Stefani, Goldfrapp, Gaga again. There's some major classic funk influence going on in Peaches' new music. She definitely likes the late 70's / early 80's. Mixed with some disco (that's probably what makes "More" so unbearable). And the first thing that comes to brain when I look at this video right now is 80's music videos. The idea of a movie theme is probably best seen in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Alice in Wonderland-inspired "Don't Come Around Here No More." I have to think Peaches had that video somewhere in her mind when this project came up. For one... iconic American female fantasy-movie characters: Dorothy and Alice. That's not the only element here that screams 80's music video. There's also the moment where a fly lands on Peaches' shoulder. Because another video that could have been an influence is from the same time as "Don't Come Around...," The Cars' "You Might Think" (although, now that I check it, lead singer Rik Ocasek was a bee- not a fly).
By now, I've gotten used to music videos that have absolutely no relation to the song / track they're made for. How boring would it be if artists couldn't go nuts on camera like this? "Billionaire" is a raunchy anti-the sweetness of Wizard of Oz, but pro the witchy fashion and pretty colors. And it features, as you can see above, Peaches' own Dorothy as a kind of diva who's - along with her buddy, Shunda K; The Good Witch - joined forces with The Wicked Witch of the West and her monsterous flying monkey slave. The 4 go on a shotgun-toting mission to murder the queeny Wizard and steal his cloak. In the meantime, they also seek to slaughter a fidgety (see the character of the same name in John Waters' Cecil B. Demented for what I mean when I say "fidgety") Scare Crow, a rather limp-wristed Tin Man, and a gluttonous pig Lion. Pretty much just so they'd have someones' grave to grind over.
A bit different than how you've all heard it told, no doubt. For me the most potent images are the black bleed-written headstones and the prissy team of player-cheerleaders. Or... "player haters"? Can you read lips? One of them said, "Whatever- bitch!" I could easier get fully behind an artist trying to make a humble social statement. This is at best just another competition for attention. But, with what I can only imagine is a budget considerably less than Gaga's trash-fests, I'd say Peaches has gotten our attention. I mean, success has to be part of the reason she keeps coming back with at least one new video per month. I'm not hating on Gaga or loving only for Peach. They're both trying to let us have fun with American culture in the face of a still-crippling national budget deficit. And right now- we continue to be obsessed with rap egos, pop stars, Hollywood, being rich and famous, and looking like a big deal. Within that scope of ambition, "Billionaire" is a rare, enjoyable twisted fairy tale.
