Amanda MacKinnon Palmer
(born April 30, 1976) is a performer most noted for being the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the "Brechtian punk cabaret" duo The Dresden Dolls. [1]
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AMANDA PALMER TICKETS
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Biography
Palmer grew up in
Lexington, Massachusetts. She attended
Lexington High School, where she was heavily involved in the
drama department, and attended
Wesleyan University where she was a member of the
Eclectic Society. She worked for some time at an ice cream shop in
Cambridge, Massachusetts called
Toscanini's. She staged performances based on work by
the Legendary Pink Dots, an early influence, and was involved in the Legendary Pink Dots electronic mailing list, Cloud Zero. She then formed the Shadowbox Collective, devoted to putting on theatrical shows (such as the 2002 play,
Hotel Blanc
,
[2] which she directed) and
street theatre, and
busked as a
living statue called "The Eight Foot Bride" in
Harvard Square as well as in many other locations. She references this line of work on The Dresden Dolls'
self-titled CD, with the song "The Perfect Fit":
"I can paint my face
And stand very, very still
It's not very practical
But it still pays the bills"
as well as on the
A is for Accident
track "Glass Slipper":
"I give out flowers
To curious strangers
who throw dollars at my feet."
A group of white-painted living statues appears in the music video to the single "Sing" from the Dresden Dolls' album
Yes, Virginia....
Despite the fact that Palmer never learned to read music (though she briefly took lessons at two different times), she started a solo effort, named "Amanda Palmer and the Void."
The Dresden Dolls
At a
Halloween party in
2000, Palmer met
drummer Brian Viglione and together they formed the
Dresden Dolls. In an effort to expand the performance experience and interactivity, Palmer began inviting
Lexington High School students to perform drama pieces at her live shows. Currently, the Dirty Business Brigade, a troupe of seasoned and new artists, perform at many gigs. The invited costumed characters mingle with the crowd before and during the show, and veteran groups sometimes join in with a choreographed stage act. Life-sized marionettes, coin-operated boys, living statues, and other undergroundlings greet fans while circus and burlesque draw the audience into the Dolls' music, creating a participatory atmosphere that allows the audience to experience numerous types of art simultaneously.
After gathering to her a cult following, the band recorded their debut album in 2002, which they
self-published before being picked up by
Roadrunner Records
In 2006, the
Dresden Dolls Companion
,
[3] was published, with "words, music & artwork" by Amanda Palmer.
In it she has written a history of the album
The Dresden Dolls
and of the duo, as well as a partial autobiography. The book also contains the lyrics, sheet music, and notes on each song in the album, all written by her, as well as a DVD with a 20 minute interview of Amanda about making the book.
In June 2007, as part of the Dresden Dolls, she toured with the
True Colors Tour 2007,
[4] including her debut in New York City's
Radio City Music Hall,
[5] and her first review in the
New York Times.
July 2008 saw the release of the second Dresden Dolls book, the
Virginia Companion
.
[6] It is a follow-up to the Dresden Dolls Companion, featuring the music and lyrics from the
Yes, Virginia...
and
No, Virginia...
albums.
Amanda Palmer and the Onion Cellar
Palmer conceived a musical,
The Onion Cellar, which the Dresden Dolls performed in conjunction with the
American Repertory Theater at the
Zero Arrow Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from December 9, 2006 to January 13, 2007.
[7] [8]
Solo career
Palmer's solo album,
Who Killed Amanda Palmer
, was released on
16 September 2008.
[9] Ben Folds produced and also played on the album.
[10] [11] The title is a play on an expression used by fans during
Twin Peaks
original run, "Who killed
Laura Palmer?" A companion book of photos of Amanda looking as if she were murdered was released in July 2009 featuring photography by
Kyle Cassidy and accompanying writing by
Neil Gaiman.
In July 2007, Amanda played three sold out shows (Boston, Hoboken, and NYC) in rare "with band" performances. Her backing band was Boston alternative rock group
Aberdeen City, who also opened along with
Dixie Dirt. In August 2007, Amanda traveled to perform in the
Spiegeltent and other venues at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in
Scotland, and also performed on
BBC Two's
The Edinburgh Show
. She collaborated with Australian theater company, "The Danger Ensemble"; both again appeared at the
Spiegeltent in
Melbourne and at other venues around Australia in December 2007. In September 2007 Amanda collaborated with
Jason Webley to release Evelyn Evelyn's debut EP "Elephant Elephant" via Jason's . In June 2008, Amanda established her solo career with two well-received performances with the
Boston Pops.
[12] [13] [14] In Autumn 2008, she toured Europe with Jason Webley,
Zoe Keating and
The Danger Ensemble, performing songs mostly from her debut solo album. She did most of the shows with a broken foot she had sustained in Ireland when a car ran over her foot as she stepped out into a street.
[15]
In April 2009, she played at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
[16]
In the spring of 2009, Amanda went back to her alma mater,
Lexington High School in Massachusetts to collaborate with her old director and mentor Steven Bogart on a workshop piece for the department's spring production. The play, "With the Needle that Sings in Her Heart" was inspired by
Neutral Milk Hotel's album "
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" and the Diary of Anne Frank.
[17] It received an overwhelmingly positive response from the Lexington community and abroad. NPR's Avishay Artsy interviewed the cast in a piece featured on All Things Considered on closing night of the production
[18] Amanda described this process as "what it's all about" in her blog.
She has amassed an online following of over 74,900 people.
[19]
Fans' "ReBellyon"
After the release of her music video for the song "Leeds United," Palmer sparked controversy with a post in her blog. She claimed
Roadrunner Records had wanted to pull certain shots from the video that exposed her stomach, because "they thought I looked fat." After her fans read about this, they immediately posted pictures of their stomachs online with messages to Roadrunner, lyrics, and words of comfort. They then sent in their pictures to the record label, and even started their own Web site. The fans coined a term for the movement: The ReBellyon.
[20] Pitchfork Magazine
[21] and
The Guardian
[22] were among publications reporting on the controversy. Since then The Rebellyon has developed a Web site run by independent musician
Matt Wyllie [23]. Partly because of the controversy caused by the Leeds video, Palmer has recently made attempts to be dropped from Roadrunner Records, which included posting a song on her online blog which asked the label to do so.
[24]
Oasis controversy
Amanda's song "Oasis," and its follow up video, sparked more controversy. Her semi-autobiographical lyrics
[25] tell a story of rape and abortion from the perspective of a teenager, who gets through the traumatic experience thanks to her preoccupation with the Brit-pop band
Oasis. The subject matter of the song, and the upbeat way it was portrayed in the video, proved to be too much for broadcasters in the United Kingdom. Palmer received an e-mail while she was in the U.K. from her label there explaining that "all" of the TV outlets in the U.K. had refused to play the video due to its "making light of rape, religion, and abortion." Palmer, in response, reached out to her fans via a lengthy message on her blog.
[26] There, she wrote "i suggested that i might be allowed to play it if i just slowed it way down and played it in a minor key. think about it. if they heard the same lyrics against the backdrop of a very sad and liliting piano, maybe with some tear-jerking strings thrown in for good measure, would they take issue?"
Personal life
Amanda's residence in Boston, the Cloud Club, was featured in a 2006 episode of
Chronicle the
Boston Channel's newsmagazine, which is archived on YouTube.
Amanda practices meditation and has written an article
Melody vs. Meditation,
[27] for the Buddhist Publication
Shambhala Sun on the struggle between being a songwriter and being able to clear one's mind in order to meditate.
She identifies as
bisexual.
[28] "I'm bisexual, but it's not the sort of thing I spent a lot of time thinking about," Palmer said. "I've slept with girls; I've slept with guys, so I guess that's what they call it! I'm not anti trying to use language to simplify our lives."
[29]
Palmer has stated on her blog that she had an abortion at age 17. In the same blog post, she stated that she was date raped when she was 20 years old.
[30]
Palmer has also mentioned her
vegetarianism in videos and blogs (although she does include fish in her diet).
[31]
In June 2009, during the Q&A at an event they were doing together, writer
Neil Gaiman and Amanda stated that they are dating.
[32] [33]
Awards and honors
- 2009 - #100 on After Ellen's Hot 100 of 2009 [34]
- 2008 – #6 on the Best Solo artist list in the the Guardian's Readers' Poll of 2008 [35]
- 2007 – #6 on Spinner.com's Women Who Rock Right Now
[36]
- 2006 – the Boston Globe named her the most stylish woman in Boston. [37]
- 2006 – listed in Blender Magazine's hottest women of rock. [38]
- 2005 – won Best Female Vocalist in the WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll. [39] [40]
Discography
Albums
As a solo artist
- Songs from 1989-1995...
(1996)
- Summer 1998 Five Song Demo
(1997)
- Who Killed Amanda Palmer
(2008) #77 US [41]
As part of The Dresden Dolls
- The Dresden Dolls EP
(2002)
- A Is for Accident
(2003)
- The Dresden Dolls
(2003)
- The Dresden Dolls
(reissue) (2004)
- Yes, Virginia...
(2006)
- No, Virginia...
(2008)
Collaborations
- Murder By Death/Amanda Palmer Split 7" (2009)
- "Black Versus White" (with Apoptygma Berzerk
on Rocket Science
) (2009)
- "Everybody Hurts" (with Cormac Bride
on Stereogum Presents... DRIVE XV: A Tribute to Automatic For the People
) (2007)
- Elephant Elephant
(with Jason Webley
as Evelyn Evelyn) (2007) [42] [43]
- "Stuck with You" (with Voltaire
on Ooky Spooky
) (2007)
- "The Lovers" (with Meredith Yayanos
) on Brainwaves
(2006)
- "Life", "Eight Days of Hell" and "Witch's Web" (with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
on So Divided
) (2006)
- Amanda Palmer has appeared with Meow Meow.
- "Warsaw Is Khelm" (with Golem!
on Fresh Off Boat
) (2006)
- "Circus Freak Love Triangle" (with Hierosonic
on Pornos and Razorblades
) (2005)
- "Trudy" (with Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women
on In Girl Trouble
) (2003)
Cameo appearances
- '"Let Me Borrow That Top" (by Liam Kyle Sullivan aka. "Kelly") (2004) appearing briefly in the mall scene.
Bibliography
- The Dresden Dolls Companion
, by Amanda Palmer, eight foot music publishing, June 2006, ISBN 157560888X ISBN 978-1575608884
- The Dresden Dolls – The Virginia Companion
, by The Dresden Dolls, Cherry Lane Music Company, July 2008, ISBN 1603780793 ISBN 978-1603780797
- Who Killed Amanda Palmer: A Collection of Photographic Evidence
, by Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman, Eight Foot Music, July 2009, ISBN 978-0-615-23439-7 ISBN 0-615-23439-9
See also
- Brian Viglione
- Dark Cabaret
- List of Dark cabaret artists
- World/Inferno Friendship Society
- The Tiger Lillies
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- Klaus Nomi
- Salon Betty
- Gavin Friday
- Nina Hagen
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