The Moldy Peaches

iTunes Review

Long Before Kimya Dawson and Adam Green released a number of solo records and became anti-folk icons, her partnership with Adam Green yielded the Moldy Peaches, an X-rated, primitive, folk-pop outfit with a small but devoted following. (An official breakup of the group has never been formally announced, although both Green and Dawson have released numerous solo records since this collection was released.) This, their debut and lone studio album to date, was a disarmingly uneven and polarizing affair: you were either a rabid fan, or you reached for the “off” switch when you heard the band on college radio or at your hippie-folk friends’ houses.  A distant relative of early Jonathan Richman and his Modern Lovers, as well as Calvin Johnson’s Beat Happening, and the Mountain Goats, the Peaches don’t care much for polish or shine or cohesiveness: it’s all about the message — the awkwardness of growing up and remaining true to yourself — and Green's amazing way with words: “I kiss you all starry eyed, my body's swinging from side to side / I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else / But you.” Songs are by turns playful, off-kilter, delicate and powerful (and offensive to some). Tracks like “Lazy Confessions” and “Jorge Regula” even recall the Velvet Underground in that band’s more innocent moments, in particular “Anyone Else But You,” which ended up a central track on the “Juno” film soundtrack in 2007.