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."

CHRISTINA SARACENO
(October 24, 2002)