The Moldy Peaches
As a child, Adam Green loved mathematics. In his teens, he became interested in the occult, particularly Satanism. At the age of 19, he became acquainted with a volunteer minister named Eldar who took him under his wing. Eldar, who was an alchemist in many ways, asked Geoff Travis(the owner of Rough Trade Records) to provide him with funding to put together a hard hitting Satanist boy/girl group. Travis, already impressed with Eldar’s success with The Strokes, was all too eager to dish out the cash. Now that the money was coming in, Eldar began to form the band. He teamed Green up with Kimya Dawson. As a child Kimya sang her devil music to the good catholic kids in school, but her only previous experience in the “business” was singing subliminal satanic backup vocals for young Hellraisers Ben Kweller and the Bay Area Bad Boys known more commonly as Third Eye Blind.
After teaching Adam and Kimya the songs, Eldar brought in four new musicians to add textures and to fill out the sound. Most of them were exotic male models who had recently left their agencies. With the exception of Jack Dishel, Strictly Beats, Toby Goodshank, and Steven Mertens, none of them had ever played musical instruments before, especially Steven. Jack, known mostly for his tender listmaking, was also trained in quantum-enthusiasm and was called away from his vittles ranch in NYC to gently play sweetly with the band. Beats, responsible for the “I’m with stupid—->” shirts, and Mertens, responsible for the “<—-I’m with stupid” shirts, used blindingly complex rhythms to express the anger they felt towards each other, accidently weaving a delicate web of spiderlike understanding. Goodshank, on the other hand, had to be pulled from the soccer field kicking and screaming and is still, to this day, in a permanent state of drug induced compliance. Eldar and Travis agreed on the bandname “The Moldy Peaches,” and then they were off to the studio.
Working long hours in a Chelsea dance rehearsal space learning routines, was hard, but it paid off when their single, and favorite song, “Who’s got the crack?” hit the top of the UK indie charts. With the help of master choreographer David Scheid, who had worked with such greats as Mike Watt and J Mascis and whose top selling home video, “D.S.‘s Breaking and Popping” came out 3 months before Alfonso’s from Silver Spoons did in 1984, they learned how to really backlight their strengths. After a long and successful tour with The Strokes in arenas across Europe and America Eldar, passed the baton to Juliet “you do the math” Joslin, the Peaches seemed unstopable and since then the momentmum has somehow continued, with every self respecting indie kid at some point having the same realisation: that you need this music in your life.
After teaching Adam and Kimya the songs, Eldar brought in four new musicians to add textures and to fill out the sound. Most of them were exotic male models who had recently left their agencies. With the exception of Jack Dishel, Strictly Beats, Toby Goodshank, and Steven Mertens, none of them had ever played musical instruments before, especially Steven. Jack, known mostly for his tender listmaking, was also trained in quantum-enthusiasm and was called away from his vittles ranch in NYC to gently play sweetly with the band. Beats, responsible for the “I’m with stupid—->” shirts, and Mertens, responsible for the “<—-I’m with stupid” shirts, used blindingly complex rhythms to express the anger they felt towards each other, accidently weaving a delicate web of spiderlike understanding. Goodshank, on the other hand, had to be pulled from the soccer field kicking and screaming and is still, to this day, in a permanent state of drug induced compliance. Eldar and Travis agreed on the bandname “The Moldy Peaches,” and then they were off to the studio.
Working long hours in a Chelsea dance rehearsal space learning routines, was hard, but it paid off when their single, and favorite song, “Who’s got the crack?” hit the top of the UK indie charts. With the help of master choreographer David Scheid, who had worked with such greats as Mike Watt and J Mascis and whose top selling home video, “D.S.‘s Breaking and Popping” came out 3 months before Alfonso’s from Silver Spoons did in 1984, they learned how to really backlight their strengths. After a long and successful tour with The Strokes in arenas across Europe and America Eldar, passed the baton to Juliet “you do the math” Joslin, the Peaches seemed unstopable and since then the momentmum has somehow continued, with every self respecting indie kid at some point having the same realisation: that you need this music in your life.
