The Best Moments From 'Peaches Goes Bananas,' The New Documentary on Influential Feminist Punk Artist Peaches
The documentary, which follows the career of Canadian musician Peaches, just had its North American premiere at Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinema and shows why her brand of feminist punk and electroclash has resonated for 20+ years.
Peaches in Peaches Goes Bananas
A new documentary paints a portrait of one of Canada's most adventurous musicians.
Peaches Goes Bananas, directed by French director Marie Losier, follows punk performance artist Peaches across 20+ years of her career. The documentary had its North American premiere at Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinema this weekend (Oct. 12), and Billboard Canada was in attendance to learn all about the teaches of Peaches.
The documentary — which comes amidst a wave of new documentaries about Canadian musicians — doesn't follow a linear narrative. Instead, it weaves together concert footage, behind-the-scenes tour diaries, and slice-of-life clips from Peaches' world. The musician and performance artist, real name Merrill Nisker, rose to fame in the early 2000s for her brash feminist approach to sexuality and her invigorating electroclash tracks.
In the doc, Nisker recalls living with Feist above a sex shop on Toronto's Queen Street while they were both writing music. Since then, Peaches has toured the world, collaborated with artists like Pink and Christina Aguilera, and released six full-length albums, four of which have charted in the top 5 of Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, all while staying true to her queer punk iconography. Here are the best moments from Peaches Goes Bananas.
Fans Screaming Every Word to Her Signature Song
In a thrilling concert montage, the documentary showcases Peaches' best-known track, "F--k the Pain Away" from her breakthrough album The Teaches of Peaches. The montage cuts between what feels like a dozen different performances of the track, and for each one, Peaches brings fans up on stage, inviting them to belt along to the song's in-your-face lyrics.
Peaches gets up close and personal with the fans while they sing, jumping and screaming with them, creating a chaotic atmosphere that is both aggressive and deeply welcoming. The fans don't always share Peaches' confidence, but she makes it clear the song belongs to them.
The montage drives home the exhilarating punk spirit of Peaches' music and how much that music means to people like Peaches all over the world.
A Moving Duet Between Peaches and Her Late Sister
Though Peaches Goes Bananas doesn't tell a single story, its focus on Peaches' relationship with her late sister Suri stands out as the doc's emotional core. Suri, who lived with multiple sclerosis, clearly loved music as much as Peaches, and was one of her biggest fans.
The doc features clips of Suri singing along to Peaches' music and describing its power. In another scene, Nisker visits Suri in her NYC home, and the two sing together, in a moving scene that demonstrates their close bond.
Kids Are Very Punk
Archival footage in the documentary shows Nisker before she became Peaches. She worked as a caregiver at the YMCA, looking after little kids, but the job was boring — so boring that she picked up her acoustic guitar and started writing songs. Nisker found that she could connect with the kids through music, and there's extremely cute footage of her performing for toddlers who seem mesmerized by her songs.
In voiceover, Peaches says that working with kids was actually great training for her music career, because little kids aren't so different from punk audiences. If kids lose interest in what you're doing, Peaches explains, they'll stick their finger up your nose — just like punks.
A Bombastic Finale
A true performance artist, Peaches always performs in outlandish outfits that expand on the feminist punk themes of her songs, poking fun at sexual norms and our relationship to what bodies could and should look like. The documentary's closing performance finds Peaches performing a recent song, "Dumb F--k," wearing a vagina on her head, alongside a chorus of young people — bridging the YMCA performances of Merrill Nisker with the raunchy art of Peaches.
The film cuts to a scene of Peaches alone at the head of a table, while the song continues to play. She's surrounded by a lavish feast of sweets in pastel colours. She proceeds to destroy the cakes and confections, stepping on them, sitting on them, and eating them — going bananas, as only Peaches can.
