Moldy Peaches Split, for a Bit
The Moldy Peaches will hang up their Robin Hood and bunny costumes
on November 1st, when the band plays its last scheduled gig during
the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. However, the show does not mark
a permanent split, assures one half of the songwriting duo. “These
types of things aren’t forever,” says Adam Green. “This is the last
show we scheduled for now, and if we decide to do something later
then we’re going to do it.”
While Green and co-Peach Kimya Dawson have been writing and
playing together since 1994, it wasn’t until last year that the
Peaches’ self-titled debut release garnered them national
attention. The band, which on stage includes bassist Steve Mertens,
drummer Strictly Beats, and guitarists Jack Dishel and Toby
Goodshank, toured for the last two years and Dawson and Green did a
solo stint opening for Tenacious D. And while the extra attention
might make it harder for some bands to give that up, for the
Peaches it had the opposite effect. “I think everyone is relieved
to have some time to do their own thing,” says Green, whose solo
album Garfield was released this week. Dawson’s own debut
album, I’m Sorry That Sometimes I’m Mean, is due November
5th, while the rest of the band members are currently working on
their own projects.
“When we tour we’re putting everything else we love to do on
hold, and it’s just too much,” Dawson says. “We never started
playing to become popular, and when you hear the original
recordings, you’ll see that,” Dawson says, laughing. “It was always
just friends having fun together and we got to do some awesome
things . . . We’re not going to stop being Moldy Peaches, and I
feel like we’ll last forever if we respect how everyone feels and
what everybody feels like doing.”
And while the November 1st show will be the Moldy Peaches’ last
for awhile, they will release a double-CD live album, compiling
their work from 1994 through the present. Moldy Peaches
2000/The Moldy Peaches: Unreleased Cutz and Live Jamz
1994-2002 features fifty-five tracks with multiple versions of
songs that show off the band’s progression over the last eight
years.
“If we just had the new live stuff on the album, people would
go, ‘Oh, they improved,’ but if you hear how we used to play, then
you can really tell,” Dawson says. “I love the way we are now but
every once in a while it’s fun to be completely chaotic. It’s not
like I’m embarrassed of how we used to play, ’cause I think that’s
cool; it’s more punk. I mean there’s people who are like, ‘I can’t
believe you guys got tight.’ And it’s like, ‘Well you know
what? If you play a certain amount of shows, it just happens.’ You
can’t stay sloppy forever, and if you’re doing it on purpose it
comes across that way.”
While Green and Dawson are both looking forward to having extra
time to spend on solo work, Dawson is confident that the time apart
will make the Peaches stronger. “I’ll miss them when we’re all
touring and doing our separate stuff,” she says, “but at the same
time I know how exciting it will be when we all see each other
again, and knowing cool things will come out of that.”