Perhaps you’ve read to be cautious when finishing off a peach — that the pit contains trace amounts of cyanide. While not quite true (it contains a compound that the enzymes in your gut turn into the poison), it’s close enough that one should probably refrain from crunching on the pits of stone fruits.
I couldn’t help but come back to this fact while listening to Yearn 2 Cleanse, the latest EP by Iowa City songstress Penny Peach (a.k.a. Elly Hofmaier). The seven tracks on this EP are as acerbic as they are straightforward. They seethe with justified anger at the state of affairs we see ourselves in in 2025.
The first thing we hear on the opening track “hero” is the always-on-point vocals of Penny Peach, “oh I need a hero / someone to follow / someone to help me grow.” The track, like the majority of the tracks on the EP, is minimal, with most of the musical space taken up by the strumming of an acoustic guitar and Peach’s vocals.
But this is not to say that the arrangements are simple. Take the way Peach stretches the enunciations of “one time, twwwo times…” on the latter half of the track. Hofmaier wielded her voice in a similar way on her last project, the art rock funhouse stylings of KL!NG’s 5 SONG SWEETIE PIE! Given the stripped down arrangements and somber lyrical content, Peach’s vocals hit here differently. There are hisses in frustration and the yawps of discontent swelling in the crowds of the oppressed.
But don’t take my word for it; look at the title of the second track on the project: “if a tree falls in the woods and no one’s around to hear it,, is it still complicit in imperialist capitalism??” The track is a diatribe on the temptation towards complicity we all experience. “Oh I’m tempted / to just give up / move out the country / and sell all my stuff.” This resignation is in conflict with our urge to acknowledge the truth, the temptation “to reclaim my labor / from the corporate regime / to refuse to further fuel / the killing machine.”
If Yearn 2 Cleanse had a thesis statement, it would be the standout track “i.c.p.d.” Peach asks of the Iowa City and University of Iowa Police Departments, “What’s it gonna take to get you off my case???” Like all great political songs, it has a laser-like efficiency, “icpd / please don’t stop me / i’m not guilty / i was only walking.” There are no similes or metaphors; this is about the police in our community fucking with people we know. It also happens to be one of the catchiest songs on the project. It’s not hard to imagine an audience joining in for the track’s denouement, “icccccpdddddd / you wonnnnntttt / stop meeeeeeee.” (This is how Peach writes out the lyrics, which are helpfully supplied for each track on Bandcamp.)
It takes skill to synthesize such palpable frustration in music. This deserves to be an anthem, a chant adopted on streets across the country. God knows there are plenty of opportunities to sing it.
To be effective in calling out injustice, you have to be clear and put something on the line. Yearn 2 Cleanse could be a manifesto — a poison pill one jams down the throat of the fascist imperialists that seemed to have kicked up their feet in our living rooms. Perhaps Penny Peach was our hero all along?
This article was originally published in Little Village’s July 2025 issue.
