As someone who first heard Peaches via her collaboration with Gonzales for the song Red Leather, back when I actually used to listen to radio, I never understood or appreciated her subsequent duet with Iggy Pop on her Kick It single. Whilst its minimal, riff-rocking guitar and drums production suits her ranting vocals, Iggy’s contribution sounds curiously lackluster, despite being typically grunting and guttural. Their vocal performances clash and split the song between genres.
One line from that song has Peaches singing “Like you said ‘Search and Destroy.‘” I guess, therefore, if she was going to do a cover for War Child Heroes, it was bound to be this one.
It’s through this cover of Search and Destroy that one makes the connection between these two musicians, because Peaches’ bassline and synth lead treatment takes the original’s Vietnam War-inspired protopunk glam and turns into a sweet but lonely night time drive. A song of desperate isolation rather than the nihilism of Iggy and The Stooges, and yet it sounds like either of them could have written it. Perhaps that’s a clue for bands looking to create a good cover? Not so much to reinvent or replicate, but to wear a song and inhabit it, to make it fit their own style.
Peaches - Search and Destroy (Last.fm, full version)
Peaches - official website
