The Moldy Peaches: A Study In Binary Opposition

In their seminal text, Steak For Chicken, Port Towsend duo The Moldy Peaches explore a number of themes which bear closer examination.

Throughout where the sung lines differ, I have indicated Adam Green’s lines in red and Kimya Dawson’s in blue. Now on with the text.

The composition begins with a lightly plucked acoustic guitar, which resolves into a strum, backed with brush drums.

Mardi Gras came and went
All my money has been spent
How am I gonna pay the rent?
Sitting on your face Sitting on my ass

Here the Moldy Peaches invoke the image familiar to many: in an attempt to satisfy their hunger for instant gratification they have found themselves short of what they need for the necessities of life; in this case a roof over their heads. Note the differing reactions of the two protaganists: sex and laziness respectively.

Who mistook the steak for chicken?
Who am I gonna stick my dick in?
We’re not those kids, sitting on the couch.

Here the Moldy Peaches bemoan the lack of cooking and culinary knowledge amongst the young people of today, explicitly separating themselves from “those kids”. Note also the rhythmic similarities between “steak” and “stick” as well as “chicken” and “dick in”.

My former life, I was a high roller My former life, I had a sister
Walked around in a diamond stroller I abused her and I dissed her
Found my calling as a part-time bowler She got swept up in a twister
Traded my wife in for a new three holer First I laughed and then I missed her

Note here the fracturing of the narrative. While Green boasts of his material wealth in his former life and makes a possible crude sexual pun comparing his significant other to a bowling bowl – the three holes possibly being significant, Dawson alludes to sibling rivalry and possibly in a subconscious reaction to her guilt imagines her sister being driven away by a twister in a similar manner to The Wizard Of Oz. Only after this happens is she allowed to admit her guilt.

Who mistook these baths for showers?
Who fucked up that leaning tower?
We’re not those kids, sitting on the couch.

Again the Moldy Peaches bemoan the lack of cultural sophistication amongst their contemparies, with the “fucked up leaning tower” a possible allusion to castration anxiety.

Oh get on a greyhound and ride away
Live on birthday cake each day Different dreams than yesterday
Tell your grandparents that they’re gay Tell your grandma, you’re okay
Steal their money and run away Kiss her cheek and run away
Cuz me and my friends are so smart
We invented this new kind of art We invented this new kind of dart
Post-Modernest Throwing Darts Hit A Bulls-eye, cut a fart
Smoking crack and cutting…crack

Here the narrative fragments yet further, with the stanza length different to previously. Throughout this stanza Green generally taking the more puerile and childish approach using homosexuality as a pejorative and boasting about consuming narcotics, despite his previous protestations about the attitudes of the young, perhaps he is attempting to have it both ways, evidenced by his reference to post-modernism. Dawson does eventually make a reference to flatulence, co-incidentally at the same time Green boasts of his post-modernism in the field of sport.

Who mistook this crap for genius? Who is dancing on the ceiling?
Who is gonna stroke my penis? Who is gonna hurt my feelings?
We’re not those kids, sitting on the couch.

Here Green references the “secret meaning” behind all art: self-promotion (tempered with self-deprecation) and sex. Dawson instead throws in a reference to Lionel Ritchie and references the darkness behind Green’s crudity.

Oh people are shiny like a brand new book Even your mother is a crook
But if you get a closer look But if I get a closer look
There’s shit on every hand you shook There’s shit on every road you took
If you don’t believe me, look at your hand If you don’t believe me, read the book

The symmetry of the narrative is important here, the book reference moving across and the nigh-on simultaneous scatology.

Who made all these things for killing? Somebody’s making a killing
Who’s pussy hole needs filling? Who’s empty heart needs filling?
We’re not those kids, sitting on the couch.
Who mistook the steak for chicken?
Who am I gonna stick my dick in?
We’re not those kids, sitting on the couch.

For the final chorus a explicit reference is made to the connection between disordered sexuality and violence. Also Dawson sings about her “dick” which I assume is a reference to the phallus.

Next week: “The Kingdom of God is Within You: Religion, Lust and Disappointment in Beat Happening’s Angel Gone.”