BRAAAINS: the artist, divided, and a zombie wedding (NSFW - nekkid photos)

HOLA dear comrades,

a note about the blog for the next few weeks: i’m putting up production updates about the record, the tour, and the album on the kickstarter page, some for backers only.
i’m not going to drive everybody crazy and double-post all of those photos and stories on the blog. if you want to get in on it, go to the kickstarter and pay a dollar.
otherwise i’d feel like i was repeating myself over and over and over and over and over and over.

…………….

dividing my brain between business and art, between art and survival, between thinking like a flake-ass poet and thinking like a bad-ass business-person…forget about it, man, i’ve been doing it since day one.

and seriously…..every artist has been dealing with this hilarious conundrum from the dawn of time.

i’ve been imagining the earliest cave painters were like (in caveman language): 
“URGH. DUDE, i’m TOTALLY on a roll here and i’m STARVING, can you do me a solid favor and go out and just grab, like, two handfuls of nuts and berries for me? please? one handful? just like, a couple of nuts?? one nut? listen, if you do i SWEAR i’ll give you a sneak peak of this SICK hunting scene before the rest of the cave gets to see it.”

and thus, direct artist support patronage was born.

crowdfunding kickstarter is hopping on long-standing bandwagon, it’s just giving us better tools. 
artists are now getting to pass a light-speed hat of infinite depth. 
that’s progress.

……………………………..

BRAINS.



……………………

it’s been a crazy, crazy, crazy 13 days since i last blogged that the kickstarter was up.
this shit has gone MENTAL. and i gotta say….i’d hoped it would. i expected nothing less.

at the time i’m writing this it’s got over 12,00 backers and has topped $600k.

i could say i’m shocked but i’m not.
i’ve been waiting years, YEARS, YEEEEEAAAAAARS for this moment. 
and it came, and you guys have not disappointed me.
you’ve made me so, so, so proud.

my mentor always used to tell me this thing his italian dad used to tell him (please imagine thick boston-italian accent): 
“it’s one thing to believe in the horse, it’s another thing to buy the ticket.”

i’m the horse. you guys bought the ticket. 
big time. lotsa tickets.

the whole world has been paying attention to what’s going on here. 
this shit’s been all over the news, people are arguing left and right about all sorts of things relating to it…and i’m not even going to go into it. i’ll post some of the links below if you wanna read further.
but i’m not getting involved in the arguments on those blogs and stuff. i can’t. i don’t have the energy, not now. i’m so, so, so tired. all i’ve been doing (wait for it…) is WORKING ON THE FUCKING RECORD RELEASE. i’ve barely had time to stop and breathe. i’m not going to use the energy i could be spending on my record on some nitwits who think that using kickstarter is “shaking my fans up and down for change” or that kickstarter should be reserved “real struggling artists.” man alive. who are these people and where have they been? i’ve seen so many people in the last week MISS THE POINT COMPLETELY that i just have to turn away and hunker down - i can’t even look any more. 

this is the fucking future. 
the old label system is DYING. 
artists are going to ASK YOU FOR DIRECT SUPPORT. 
that’s the reality.

as bob dylan so clearly put it in a great song: 

please get out of the way if you can’t lend a hand, motherfuckers. 

the times, they are a-changing.

…………….

the nutso-est thing about the last few weeks has been that i’ve been fielding all of this kickstarter energy right alongside everything else careening into full speed: band photoshoots, video prep calls, packaging meetings, hiring crew for the upcoming year, dealing with all the things i’d be doing if the kickstarter hadn’t happened. my brain is exploding.

one of the first days of the kickstarter campaing (day 3 to be exact), i did two weird gigs in one night.

one was to sing as a guest at jherek bischoff (bassist of the grand theft orchestra)’s big deal show at BAM, the brooklyn academy of music, for the “crossing brooklyn ferry” festival. a bunch of other acts played, the walkmen, st. vincent, on and on. i missed most of it.

jherek’d given me a beautiful bitch of a song to learn, with tons and tons of lyrics.
it’s on his new album that comes out later this month (pre-order linkies can be found HERE). the song’s called ”counting” and the original features carla bozulich.

i’m usually pretty good at memorizing lyrics, but this was a barrage of gorgeous stream-of-consciousness that i had a really hard time with: a non-stop three minute art-poem that i had put off til the last minute to learn…thinking i could get it into my brain in an hour like any other song: WRONG. it’s been a long, long time since i’ve been that nervous to go on a stage. i didn’t want to fuck up jherek’s beautiful orchestra show by sucking. i literally stood there about to go onstage thinking: holy shit. i don’t actually know all these lyrics. i might really, truly fuck this up. by then it was too late to grab a lyric sheet. i raced for my phone and loaded the lyrics, to take onstage as a crutch - somehow forgetting that a phone requires scrolling and looks stupid and i’d honestly rather royally screw up than be a person scrolling an iphone in front of an orchestra. so i just had a strange glow emanating from my left hand throughout the song. 

background: i spent the two days before the guest spot fielding kickstarter press, watching my inbox explode, sitting in meetings, answering the phone every five minutes…..and hiding in bathrooms practicing the song. my head really was overwhelmed those first few days. i can never learn a song in just one sitting. i need a dozen for something that complicated. but art and business had collided and i’d put it off until the last two days (i was a HOPELESS crammer in high school)….and then bam, voila, i had to undergo the ultimate 48-hour collision of song-brain and business-brain. it was hilarious. 

the day of, kate came with me on the subway to the gig as i put on headphones and sang the song over and over again on the R subway from brooklyn, looking like a crazy person making wild memory-linking hand-gestures. she probably looked crazier than i did, because she was sitting with me as if nothing was amiss. god bless her.

and so…in the end…..it was fine. i pulled it off and only mumbled about five percent of the lyrics. david byrne was watching (he guested on jherek’s record) which totally bugged me out and made me even more nervous. 

we made friends and we got pizza later. i think even making a million dollars on kickstarter is not as good as going out for pizza with david byrne (and his awesome daughter, who, it turns out, is an artist in her own right and forging her own creative path of joy).

here’s me on stage at BAM. that look? emotion, yes. also sheer terror that i’m going to forget the next line:


and for good measure, here’s david byrne & jherek a few moments later:

(photos via David Andrako for brooklyn vegan)

then, later that night, i went and played at my friend lance horne’s bizarre variety show at “the players club,” a private old-school anachronistic joint for broadway and new york theater people. 
it was founded by edwin booth, used to house a drunken mark twain, and WAS very useful back in the day as a private club during prohibition when going to bars wasn’t really an option.
lance paid me one crisp $100 bill to do a set of three songs. bolstered by my new-found thrilling kickstarter success and my (breathe!) non-butchering of jherek’s song earlier in the night, i was in such a crazed mood by that point in the evening that i gave a totally I GIVE NO FUCK screaming-ukulele performance in this weird hunting lodge for old new york broadway theater people who had no idea who the fuck i was. it was awesome.

i mostly enjoyed the club members, most of them over 60, who approached me after my set, clapped me on the shoulder, gave me their business cards, and told me that i “really had talent and could make something of myself someday if i stuck with it.” i nodded and, in the bizarre mood i was in (and maybe because i was surrounded by strange, strange act-y broadway musical people) started playing this strange version of myself i’ve never seen before, saying things like “well, gosh darn it…shucks! i will stick with it! thanks!” 

and i will, goddamit. that wasn’t no lie.

here’s me, at that thing (photo by lance horne):

…………………….


then i went to a very very special fucking wedding.

the bride: julie atlas muz, reigning performance-art-burlesque-stunt queen of new york, old pal of mine.
the groom: mat fraser, long-time beau of julie’s, long-time coney island regular as “seal boy” (he has phocomelia of both arms).

here’s a notso-nekkid couple photos of them: 
you know all you people who tweet “OMG neil and amanda are such an inspiring couple”…?
this is the most inspiring couple *I* know.

(photo via the age):


(photo by matt turner, via adelaide now):


and here they be, on all their nekkid glory:


that picture’s actually from an older performance, but could’ve been from their more recent show (i’ve seen it, it’s brilliant) “the freak and the showgirl.”
which was, when i think about it, kind of like “an evening with neil gaiman and amanda palmer” except with more nakedness and more circus stunts and less reading

their wedding was a colorful explosion of love and SERIOUSLY the most eclectic bunch of people you’ve ever seen in your life. 
the combination of coney island freaks and buxom burlesque girls and new york circus composers and family and friends and children and people of all shapes and sizes and colors put even the boldest multi-cultrual benneton ads to fecking shame.
words can barely describe it. it was a fucking love gathering of epic scope.

we got there about 4 hours before the wedding for zombie-schoolgirl bridesmaid rehearsal….and rehearsed our zombie entrance with the wedding party.

julie wore a giant blue gown (here she is, getting ready)…


here’s a few shots of me, best-zombie assistant ever superkate (@_superkate_), and my good friend alina simone (@alinasimone) backstage just after zombie-ing ourselves:


the scene backstage before the wedding was EPIC:





(can you spot ex dresden dolls brigade wrangler jen gapay? hint: look for the one with the champagne)…

i want a Pulitzer for this one:


that 12-year old girl looking at herself in the mirror looks like the effing BAD SEED, no?

here’s me with burlesque grande dame and fellow zombie bridesmaid veronica varlow:


more post-wedding bliss….me with alt-porn queen stoya (on right) and her friend justine:


the bouquet catcher, who i was standing RIGHT NEXT TO:


and more awesome attendees:


the party (photo by larisa fuchs):


i have no idea who this is, but she is definitely an ALLY:


and this (from later in the night), because it fit in with the current crowd-funding theme so perfectly, is mat & julie’s old-school live & physical honeymoon Kickstarter box:

………………………..

the ceremony itself:

julie entered to a SQUEALING & DEAFENING metal-guitar-solo version of the traditional wedding march.

the groomsmen did a SEXY swagger dance around mat. everyone got WELL INTO IT.

after everyone was seated, we, the assembled an costumed 30+ zombie schoolgirls, broke through a door into the theater, screaming BRAAAAAAAIIIINS while attacking and trying to eat the assembled guests. it was very beautiful. after about 3 minutes of this surreal spectacle, we took our seats with the rest of the congregation (quieting our brain-lust until we were unleashed at the end of the ceremony). 

i wish i had footage from the front of all thirty oozing zombie-school-girls…out of character….WEEPING.

the best part of the wedding was the vows.

mat had a special formal scottish kilt made for him with custom-sleeves that fit his teeny, disfigured arms. 
julie brushed back her giant mermaid-net veil.

as they exchanged their rings, mat and julie took turns saying “DO YOU ACCEPT ME?!?!” to each other, and as they accepted each other, saying “GOOBA GABBA,” the entire auditorium was led in the “freaks”-inspired chant of:

ONE OF US!!

ONE OF US!!

ONE OF US!!

ONE OF US!!

ONE OF US!!

ONE OF US!!

i’ve never cried so much at a wedding in my life. tears. buckets.

love is love.

…………………………….

i’m about to work on answering a shit-ton of kickstarter questions. brace yo-selves.


LOVE
afp

p.s. on friday, our summer tour WENT ON SALE and SOLD THE FUCK OUT for almost every single one of the shows. you can get the lowdown HERE on where we’ll be and how to get the remaining tickets. if you missed it, it’s because you’re not following the twitter, backing the kickstarter, or on the damn mailing list. if you’re not on the damn mailing list, GET ON IT, HERE…

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY AND HERE’S WHAT I WOULD LOVE

good MORNING my dear comrades

guess fucking what? it’s my birthday!!!!!

i’m 36. happy birthday me. la la la la la.

guess what else?

while many of you slept soundly, SHIT WAS AFOOT. my team slaved over the weekend. packages were tweaked and re-bundled.
videos were edited. text was edited and re-edited. art shows were booked and rock and roll spies in every continent synchronized their watches.

then - last night/early this morning - me, the grand theft orchestra, and a group of about 30 album-art artists started our very own midnight ride on the interwebs.

yes, it’s true.

like a rock n’ roll paul revere with tits, i launched my brand-new-album-pre-order on kickstarter in the wee hours of the boston-night.



so before you ask me WHAT YOU CAN GET ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY, um, here’s a hint:

FOR
FUCK’S
SAKE
BACK
THE
KICKSTARTER


this is it, it’s time. for as little as a dollar, you can back me.

this is my FIRST REAL, STUDIO FULL-LENGTH release is FOUR YEARS.
i’ve been working in secret with the artists for MONTHS to get all this shit ready.

i cannot tell you how much it will mean to me if you’re broke but you still choose to give me a dollar to back the project.
if you can’t even do that…spread the link.
and if everybody does that, we will win.


HERE IT IS: http://kck.st/GrandTheftKS
….go, back it, grab the limited edition packages before they ride off into the distance, and seriously, if you don’t even have the minimum to back (which is a dollar) - YOU CAN STILL HELP ME OUT BY SPREADING THAT LINK.



that’s almost more valuable than giving me a dollar. tell EVERYBODY.

it starts NOW…

…let’s DO THIS!!!!!!

if you have QUESTIONS that you know only i can answer (like, ABOUT MY FEELINGS), hit me here in the blog comments.
if you have questions about the kickstarter packages and details, use the addresses provided in the FAQ of the kickstarter.

here we GO here we GO GO GO. this is the big one.


love from cafe pamplona,
xxxxx
AFP

on recording, marriage, and the problem with first world problems

i’m in dallas, mixing the record at john’s. (i may NINJA somewhere outside next week. follow the twitter.)

my head is still spinning from five weeks straight of rehearsing-and-recording all day every day….then shooting a video (more on that soon). 
then flying here.

i owe melbourne a big, long blog. i miss you.

at any rate:

the record is a masterpiece. 

the band and all the guest musicians KILLED IT….the grand theft orchestra lived up to its majestic name.
michael, chad, and jherek were the most incredible, patient, intuitive musicians to work with, and john congleton, producer extraordinaire, captained the ship with mind-blowing genius.

i think it’s the best thing i’ve ever done. 
and i’m starting to get sick of it already. like you do. too much listening, too much thinking.

i can’t wait to fucking put it out. 
the kickstarter to preorder the record will launch sometime within the month.
one thing i do regret: that i didn’t kickstarter the record before commencing recording.
but there was a really strategic reason, and unavoidable: people who supported the “evening with neil & amanda” kickstarter campaign still haven’t gotten their stuff - it’s en route pretty much as we speak (download codes are coming in the next 24 hours or so and the physical goods are being readied to ship now, too. updates to neilandamanda.com are on the way).
i thought it would be tasteless to ask for support for project #2 before delivering on project #1. and i didn’t want to step all over the dolls’ tour in australia - that would have been in really bad taste as well. so i let it be.

but i definitely felt lonelier in the studio. i stayed active on twitter, but other than that, the whole process was just a mysterious mystery to everybody. so be it. maybe it was better to work that way. old school. in isolation. the record certainly didn’t suffer any.

……………………………………………

a story.

…………………………………………….

when i was about 7 years old, i used to walk to one of next door neighbor’s houses to be babysat after school.

she (let’s call her mrs. marcy) would take care of me and her own two children, who were both younger than me, until my mother came home from her day job in the city and picked me up.
i have a lot of musty, plant-y vivid, memories of mrs. marcy’s household…she was more of a health nut than my mom, and she served us really strange snacks that involved carob and other foreign substances.

but one moment blares out of all of them. mister marcy was home, and the two parents were looking after us three kids. i burst into the bathroom on the first floor and mrs. marcy was sitting there, fully clothed, on the closed toilet seat. she looked at me with an expression that was a bizarre mixture of anger, terror, and just….utter exhaustion.

i was really confused about what was happening. she shooed me out of the room with two words that made ABSOLUTELY no sense to me at the time:

“I’M MEDITATING.” 

i did not know what mediating meant, and i did not understand why you did it sitting on the toilet in the bathroom, and i did not understand why i couldn’t be in there while she did it.

……………………………………………….


when i went in to record the album that i’m going to put out this fall, all i wanted was to have nothing else to do but Make the Record.

i meticulously planned my escape for MONTHS. 
i wanted to do as nothing as possible, to give up as many mundane responsibilities as i could.
that included being a boss, a friend, an emailer, a blogger…and a wife.

it wasn’t that i didn’t have the time to do it. 
i could have easily set aside 2 hours a day to do those things. easily.
but i didn’t want to. i wanted to go down the hole.

i told everyone i was going. and then i left.

my friendships, bless them, withstand a lot. 

my really good, strong deep ones have learned to exist like plants in drought climates.
they sometimes go weeks, months, years in some cases, with no rain. 
then, when it’s time, there’ll be a flood of love and attention. 
the friendships that can’t survive the pattern…those ones die, i guess, or turn into acquaintanceships. 

looking back on the last month i realize how important it was to me that i put up the long-distance wall.

amanda-in-person embraced life with a passion.
amanda-on-email-and-phone put up a Don’t Disturb sign.



the paradoxes.
i set up an autoreply, but i still checked my email. 
i didn’t want to feel responsible for answering any of it.
i would have marathon conversations on twitter, but not commit to having lunch with anyone. 
i wouldn’t email people i knew well, but i would stop and have coffee with a stranger in a cafe.

and neil?

it amazes me how much i’m able to love someone simply because they accept that i want to be alone to work.
that, in the true ironic twists and turns of love, is the ultimate turn-on for me. 
the ultimate turn-off? clinginess. neediness. damnation.

i’ve always been this way. 
pretty much every relationship i’ve ever been in has walked through this fire and mostly come out scorched and defeated.

i can’t believe sometimes that i found him, and that he found me.

two weird artists, flying in tandem, landing and fueling, flying again.

we barely stopped long enough to GET married. it’ll still take ages for us to move in together.
none of this seems strange to me, though.
it only seems strange in the company of other people who look at me with compassion and horror, as if i’ve had a limb amputated, when i say i haven’t seen my husband for three months.

but it works.

he wrote a book, i made my record, now we get to be together for a while and share what we’ve done.
and we’ll finally return to being in the same bed, where i’ll play him the day’s mixes and he’ll read me pages that he typed from his handwritten drafts.
and this, to me, this is paradise. this is the dream of a relationship i always had in my mind…and thought i may never find. 

and there’s a kind of compromise in every chafing moment, and we’re both learning, bit by uncomfortable bit.

but i’m enjoying the work of love.

i think he is, too.

……………………………………………..

i never really wanted to be a wife. 
it wasn’t on the list.
i never even really wanted to be an adult. 

i just desperately wanted to get to the part where people stopped telling me what to do.

i never really wanted anything but to be as much in love as possible at any given moment.

love defined by the moment, not the movies.

…………………………………………………………

when i think back on mrs. marcy, and her teeny household teeming with children, and her desperate search to grab 10 minutes of silence to herself in the bathroom (and failing…let’s not forget that bit), i look at my life and i just have to fucking laugh. i don’t have children, don’t have a household to run…i’ve deliberately built my life to be free of those sorts of responsibilities. 
my idea of freedom is RIDICULOUS, right? i live about the most independent life i could have possibly constructed, given the art i wanted to make, and still…..AGGGHHGHGHGH I FEEL STRANGLED.

and mrs. marcy, in her suburban home with healthy children and plenty to eat, would probably stack up pretty lucky next to a mother and her kids living close to starvation in the sudan. but we don’t work that way, as humans. we compare ourselves to those around us, we compare ourselves to the selves we thought we wanted to be, to the selves we thought we didn’t want to be. 

………………………………..

i think it’s funny that people are constantly saying “first world problems”…bashfully excusing themselves, as if to dismiss their own emotions as invalid compared to the next person. because of course these problems, the problems stemming from our privileged lives pale in comparison to the problems of real-ass starvation, war, extreme physical suffering. 

well, of course. of course. things could always be harder - everything’s relative. and it’s never good to lose perspective. it helps. it does.

and OF COURSE the problems of those in the first world are first world problems. if you’re HAVING them, chances are….that’s where you are.

starving people have starving people problems, dying people have dying people problems, overweight people have overweight people problems, white people have white people problems, black people have black people problems, rich people have rich people problems, gay people have gay people problems, straight people have straight people problems….are we detecting a pattern?

everybody’s got them, period.

you can’t measure human suffering with a yardstick. those who try to do it end up vindictive, even when they’re trying to be helpful.

because the minute you start measuring suffering, you invalidate somebody’s suffering…and that just never works. that’s where the whole shit starts getting ugly.

anyone who says “my pain is bigger than your pain” is speaking from fear. 
anyone who says “my feelings are more valid than your feelings” isn’t speaking from empathy.

the song don’t lie: everybody hurts. everybody suffers, everybody feels pain. and everybody feels it for a different reason on a different day in a different way. and it’s all real….there’s no pain that isn’t valid, there’s no pain that isn’t “real” because somebody has it worse off. pain is pain. all you can do is feel it, accept it, move on and know that everybody else on this spinning ball of dirt is in the same boat, and we all need to acknowledge each other’s pain, no matter what the package, and no matter how big or small that package appears.

when we do this, that’s what keeps us compassionate brothers and sisters on earth. 

will i occasionally still use the “first world problems” joke the next time i find myself complaining that the coffee in this bistro is over-roasted?

eh, probably. 

why?

because it’s a funny fucking joke. 

……………………………………………….

fuck the critics.

……………………………………………….

here’s me the day after we finished tracking the record.

looking at the sky above fitzroy gardens and thinking

FUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in a good way.



everything lately is just pointing me towards a more simple gratitude. 

sometimes i can’t contain the amount of luckiness around me, regardless whether i’ve built the net to catch it or not….i have it.
i have it, and i think the only thing to do when you have it is stand in awe of it…make yourself a study in stupefied wonder.

see above


LOVE,
afp


p.s. speaking of fucking the critics….i made a comment on twitter a little while ago (“haters exit stage right, pursued by a bear”) that lots of people liked. so i asked the twitterverse if someone wanted to design it into a shirt. and someone on twitter, namely Félix Marqués (@felixmarques), mocked something up at that very moment, and lo and behold, we ACTUALLY made the shirt. limited edition. exclusively at post-war trade. PLUS there’s a special right now where you can get $20 off ANY/ALL orders of $75 or above with the coupon code “tomato”. go buy a shirt before they’re gone, the design is hilarious.

there are so many incredibly artistic people on twitter that i’m thinking of making this idea an ongoing thing and having someone random once a month design a limited edition shirt…..why not?

What I Do The Day Before Recording & The Shit I Am Currently Digging.

hola comrades!

TOMORROW, we record.

today? today.

• miles biked: approx 6
• people hugged/visited: approx 7
• visits to LUSH to obtain soap gift for producer: 1
• meetings with said producer: 1
• massages gotten from tom’s mum robyn: 1 
• texts received: approx 18
• voicemails received: 3
• texts read: approx 18
• voicemails listened to: none, yet
• number of st. clare’s seen in debutante ball gowns in the band apartment while everyone shot a video for jherek’s new record: 1*
• number of nick cave songs listened to: 4
• cathedral candles lit in st. paul’s catherdal: 1**
• tea towels for mother purchased in same cathedral: 1
• yoga classes attended: 1
• liters of water drunk: approx 6

ready to make record?
READY TO MAKE RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so. fucking. ready.

it’s funny when you go to make a record.
your brain starts thinking things like

“i should be careful crossing this street with my bicycle. i am making a record tomorrow. if i died it would be bad.”

brains are crazy.

the last show at northcote social club was out of control. people are loving the new songs. it’s terrifying and wonderful.
david j. from bauhaus guested with us and we did a FULL BAND BALLS OUT RENDITION OF “BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD” with him playing bass. when footage arrives, i will share it. it was insane.

we celebrated michael’s birthday. the band got him A UKULELE (photo by Mary B. aka @RockLust):


….and everybody pitched in & signed him a card which was brought at designed by wonderful & helpful sebastian (who also cooked an AMAZING meal for us the other night)….
cake was had, singing was sung.
it was all beautiful.
here’s everyone backstage right after the show, mao-tse-tounging the cake:

too many awesome people in the photo to name, but see if you can spot david j, kim boekbinder, and astrid from Die Roten Punkte in there.
(they killed it, by the way. best opener ever.)



so



the band is ready. i’m ready. we’re all ready. we start at noon.

FUCK.


YES.

…………………………………………………………..


meanwhile……

i haven’t checked in for a long while about The Shit i’m Currently Digging…and it being New Album Springtime and all that, i figured this was a good time.
plus i’ve been getting turned on to all sorts of hip local art in melbourne, and am happy to spread the word about Things I’m Finding.


in life: i’m feeling an extreme calm-before-the-storm weirdness. 

i’ve been doing the equivalent of…nesting? or something. 
cleaning my head out, preparing my brian and body for record-making, getting the email inbox down to a minimum, un-piling my kitchen table.
but for someone who is so perpetually busy this process actually makes me absurdly anxious. 
freedom from the to-do list can feel ironically imprisoning, as the busy distractions that usually keep my mind occupied create clearing for the bigger questions, the thing that always easier to put off because there’s SHIT TO DO. when there’s no SHIT TO DO my brain actually enters a state of confused panic. 

i’ve been becoming increasingly flakier…mis-reading things, forgetting things. mind. in space.
the other day i left my keys in my bicycle lock in the inner city. 
but it’s all a good sign, i think. it means things are getting done in the background, it means my subconscious is a whirling dervish of songs and music, and my focus is shifting to things i don’t usually take such extreme care with…like, how exactly does my throat feel today? it’s the first thing i think when i wake up in the morning. i croak out my first utterance. good vocal day? bad vocal day? and my mood rests on that little one-centimeter band of vocal cord flesh. oi.

yesterday i gave us a surprise off-day, and while the boys in the band went to the Future Music festival to see Die Antwoord & Aphex Twin, i stayed local and went to red bennies to see local drag/burlesque legends. dallas de la force is my new hero. there’s so much bad burlesque and drag out there. 
this shit is the OPPOSITE OF bad. brave, sexy, fucked-up. smart. theater. incredible. go see him if you ever get a chance (photo by Eric Manukov):
 

(photo by salacious sydney, via flickr):



……………………………………..

MUSIC-LAND:

instead of rattling off a list of NEW things i’m listening to….i thought i’d give you guys a weird treat and create a digital mix-tape i gave to the boys in the band to listen to on their flight from the states to australia a few weeks ago. i wanted to fill their heads with mood sounds that would make up some of the sonic building blocks of this beast we’re about to record.

with the exception of a few things (like kaiser chiefs and tegan and sara), the list basically reads EXACTLY like a mixtape i would have made in high school or college….around 1995/1996.
i’ve been listening to the cars, A LOT.
gary numan. my roots. 

i don’t know what this record is going to sound like, but i know how it sounds IN MY HEAD.
and i know i want to make the record sounds as much like that as possible.
and the band, john, and all the techs and engineers….they’re all creative midwives.

anyway, the mix is below, and i hope you enjoy and i hope you find things you haven’t heard before. if you have a massive music-library and just wanna put it together yourself, have at it. or if you’ve got spotify, click HERE…(as a side note, what’re you using for listening to music/sharing playlists…maybe i could start doing this more often…spotify? rdio? MOG? thisismyjam? grooveshark? leave a comment/tell @indeciSEAN where you’re at and what you’d like to see, and we shall…see)

this is some of my favorite music ever, ever, ever.

• plainsong - the cure
• cars - gary numan
• only shallow - my bloody valentine
• every day i love you less and less - the kaiser chiefs
• will you smile again - …and you will know us by the trail of dead
• my sharona - the knack
• 2:1 - elastica
• love of life - swans
• prince charming - adam and the ants
• my best friend’s girl - the cars
• 10:15 saturday night - the cure
• in my room - yaz
• come in alone - my bloody valentine
• sweetest perfection - depeche mode
• london calling - the clash
• stand and deliver - adam and the ants
• the golden boy swallowed by the sea - swans
• my coco - stellastarr
• the con - tegan and sara
• nobody’s diary - yaz
• ocean size - jane’s addiction
• bittersweet symphony - the verve
• jerk it out - caesers
• institutionalized - suicidal tendencies
• total control - the motels

……………………………………..

BOOK-LAND:

when i did Marieke Hardy & Michaela MacGuire’s “Women of Letters” event a few weeks ago in melbourne,  they gifted every letter-writing woman on stage with a book.
this book was my gift, and i just finished reading it. it’s fucking fantastic…

Butterfly, by australian writer Sonia Hartnett.

it follows the story of a painfully insecure 14 year old suburban australian girl through the intimate trials and tribulations of teenage cruelty.
it’s great and graphic….a scathing look into a teenage head. it’s brutal, painful, honest.
the story-camera occasionally wends away from her, painting the darkness of the suburban emotional voids around her…the disconnect, the weirdness….
think david lynch as young adult fiction, without the surreal. it’s a short read, you’ll fly through it.
if anybody reads and likes it, i’ll recommend the book it really reminded me of. tell me.

and speaking of marieke, HER book is also amazing. 
it’s a memoir - honest as fuck, and just hilarious. and also very australian….very melbourne, in fact.
she writes shit i’ve thought a million times and have never had the bravery to even accept.
read it if you can.

…………………………………………


i meditate every morning and i try to read before i do. i find it helps clear my head of garbage and gets my brain chewing on the right thoughts.
i figure: if my brain is going to chew on anything - which it will, of course, endlessly, like a puppy on speed - i can at least redirect it away from merchandising problems, and the email to-do list.
so i read a book, very slowly, usually 2-3 pages at a time. then i sit. it means i can hack away at a single book for a few months, and if it’s a good one, i’ll read it even more slowly.
the book that i’ve just finished eating is this one…Lovingkindness, by sharon salzburg:

sharon came through the insight mediation center in western massachusetts, the same joint where i’ve done a lot of mediation retreats, and practices and talks about a kind of mediation known as vipasana. if you’re into meditation/yoga/that sort of thing, this book is a great read…not a bad book for beginning meditators either. lots of anecdotes about how we drive ourselves to distraction and how we beat ourselves up relentlessly. she’s funny, too. 

………………………………………………….

FILM-LAND:

even though this film has about as much attention as it could possibly need….i’m going to recommend it anyway. it was simply genius.

we went on a band field trip to see it the other day, and we all fucking loved it.
i won’t tell you any more about it, you probably already know the gist, it’s a silent movie with superb acting and a killer, killer script….just go see, “the artist”:

……………………………………………………….

SOAP-LAND!

well, this is a new category, isn’t it.
i have been a fan of LUSH for a few years. 
they make handmade soaps and all variety of cosmetics and bathroom THINGS.
(when we started dating, i was very pleased to learn that lush actually named a bath bomb after a neil gaiman book, stardust. i was like LOOK AT YOU FAMOUS BATH BOMB MAN YOU GO GIRL)

you can read more about them and their cool history on their website, lush.com (follow your flag!), or on your social media of choice:
• facebook
• twitter
• pinterest
• youtube

in a nutshell…
they’re an incredible company, with really fantastic ethics. despite being worldwide (with all of their recipes coming from the UK founders), their stores are fairly-independently-run, and generally pretty “indie” in how they go about doing what they do. the products are all handmade, they use truly organic materials, keep packaging to a minimum (they’re “anti-packing” and anti mass-production), never test on animals, and have basically taken soap and such to a high-art form (that smells and looks wonderful). all that with a direct-to-the-public, damn-the-man ethics. (phew, that’s a lot of hyphens, but ‘tis true.)

a few years ago, i started regularly visiting the harvard square lush store in boston when i was off tour. the people who worked there were really friendly, i made pals with a couple of the girls in the shop (while i was working on Cabaret). when my dresser in the show (steven) asked me why i smelled delicious, i told him i was using a tuca tuca massage bar to soothe my aching throat. i went the next day and bought him a tuca tuca perfume stick. he was thrilled. i find that buying people lush soaps is an excellent way of expressing love.

THEN my friend max melton (who you would recognize from his many bizarre appearances in the Who Killed Amanda Palmer photo book) wrote me from the UK to tell me he’d gotten a job at lush, and has found true happiness working there and hocking soap.

this is max:


and that, above, from a very intellectual man who was angling to be an embalmer/undertaker just months before. this news made me ecstatic and made me love max more.

the point?

the point: neil and i went into the LUSH in melbourne (their twitter/facebook) right before christmas and bought ALL SORTS OF SOAPS for people, and a couple of the girls there were really happy we’d come into the store. one thing led to another, and i kept going back to get more soaps and massage bars for my aching throat (from too much singing lately). we started getting all too intimate. everyone who works there is just so fucking NICE. 
so, logically, i started trading show tickets and guest list spaces for soap. 
then i brought jherek and michael from the band in. we all got soap. i got more massage bars for my aching throat. 

here’s me, jherek, and michael, in the store, with Alicia, who is awesome…..

finally i got an email from ‘em saying that they’d be happy to hook us up with free soap and things for the band for the rest of the month because they loved us so much.
but not just that. they’ve been actually following what i’ve been doing in town and watching me crowdsource food, and help, and bikes, and rides.
and they were like: we can help. we’ll give you soap. i can’t tell you how deeply moving it is to be a city with your band, and to have people offer to just take care of you like this.
it’s everything. it’s amazing.

alicia came to the last northcote social club show night before last…..and HAND DELIVERED me two new massage bars in little yellow paper bags.
i biked over today, and got some soap and shaving foam for our producer, john congleton, which i then biked to his hotel for our we’re-starting-to-record-aaaghhh meeting.

here’s me in the melbourne shop today, getting john’s soap.
that’s alex on the right. she was one of the first people at the melbourne lush who was nice to me & neil.
extra points if you can decode my t-shirt:

this is natasha…..

and here’s seren, natasha, alex, and terri….who call work in the store.
they are doing what they refer to as the “UNICORN SALUTE”…
honestly….these people are just my favorite:

side note, just for kicks. here are my all-time favorite lush products….the ones i regularly use and restock (and some pictures of a few of ‘em):
• face wash: angels on bare skin (lasts forever and is awesome for travel)


• massage bar: PEACE (the story on this is amazing…in short, this is the first of their products to be made w/ fair-trade cocoa beans. they’re sourced from a small village in Columbia where they refuse to participate in the turmoil around them and strive for peace…ahm, yes.)


• face mask: BB seaweed


• bath bomb: IMPOSSIBLE TO DECIDE (HERE’s all of ‘em)


• shampoo: seanick (blue and full of seaweed. rocking. also amazing for travel…comes in a little silver tin and fits in a pocket. perfect for touring)


• conditioner: veganese


and neil uses: the BIG shampoo:

(he claims it tames his wild locks. i don’t know if i’d believe him.)

i’ve told the girls at the store that the only problem i have with all of their amazing handmade soap products and shower massage bars and shower jellies and excitement is that i am now wasting water by showering longer than usual. in australia, this is a problem. they’re running out of water. i’ll figure it out.

i’ve never endorsed a company outright like this, but damn, these guys deserve it, and it’s all the right things, done the right way.
so, GO LUSH. unicorn salute to the maxxxxx.

this whole record-making process is going to smell incredible.


wish us luck in the belly of the beast.


not sure how much blogging i’ll do from in there, as i’m going to try to be very focused and very off email and the net….
but i’ll probably be twittering, so if you want to catch up on the antics, that’s your best bet.




massive love and gratitude, more than i can say…
xxxxx
AFP

* st. clare & the ball gown:


** cathedral candles:

dispatch from an international low-maintenance diva

hola comrads!

i send you love from the bathroom of the northcote social club, where me & the band share mirrors and toilets with the peoples….as we ready ourselves for the Task Of Rock.



in melbourne, it is turning fall.
it’s been a long, long time since i’ve been in a not-hometown city for long enough that i smelled and felt the change of a season.
but it’s happening. summer was. 

i feel almost privileged, if you can understand that. 
like the way a new yorker probably feels secretly proud the first time they get mugged outside the subway. 

local, man.

i feel a deep love for melbourne, for australia, it grows the way the love for a person does….i fall more and more in love with the people, the street culture, the  cafes, the art, the fucked up heritage and brash attitude. i feel like i belong here. that said…it’s getting to the point where i’m getting homesick. 

not for my city, but for the people in my life who keep me stable. my husband. my friends. it feels a little lonely here, even with all the love.

but

i’m making actual friends here. me & the band go out a lot with kim boekbinder & her main squeeze jim batt, who’s a great filmmaker…i can’t walk down the street without running into mikelangelo’s immaculate quiff, and jess daly and anthony cleave (yes, the ones who did the strip act at northcote, if you saw it) work in the shop downstairs and are first-rate allies.

when you’re a rock star on the road, you don’t think very much about making friends. 
you don’t really have the wherewithal to do it like a normal person.

you live on the road, with your crew and fellow musicians, and you make friends with your crew and your fellow musicians. you make fleeting pals with the other bands you play with and the people you encounter on the road. you collect a lot of emails and amass a lot of people to stay in touch with, but you don’t get too many opportunities to create depth. depth takes time; staying in one place, watching people go through the shit of their life while you go through the shit of yours and you share the unfolding story. that’s what creates a friendship, a real one. simultaneous plot-following.

………………………

i’ve been spending my days locked up in a rehearsal space working on getting these new songs right with the band.

and loving it. i’m so fucking ready to make this record.

the band is amazing. i couldn’t not have picked three more incredible people to flesh out these songs.
i was talking about the birth of the band with michael and the many many coincidences that were necessary to bring us all together at the same place at the same time to make this record.
i just feel so lucky, so grateful.

they get me. they work hard. they’re beautiful souls, all three…all curious about the world, all hearts out, all brains up. 

we’ve been having a blast experimenting with the songs…..who’s playing what, how to intro, how to arrange, how things should feel, sound….how to use the horns, where to add strings, if to add strings, what colors go in this palette. we joke a lot. we’re learning each other. jess from the costume shop drops into our lives and brings dress-up clothes. this week, we went deco.

i touch base with john congleton, who’s about to get on a plane to join us in the studio (we’re 6 days away…..AAAGGGGHHHH) on a regular basis….i send him shitty iphone recordings of our rehearsals and he listens with a critical ear, doling out praise and criticisms. 

everybody’s doing their job.

i keep remarking to my friends:
things are going a bit too well, and i’m not used to it.

………………………

this is what the DJ in the bar/cafe has played in the last twenty minutes since i started typung this, and i think i’m love with him: 

wire 
new order
my bloody valentine
the pixies

he’s four for four.
i can’t wait to see what happens next.

………………

melbourne, and especially the neighborhood i’m living in, is full of hip people wearing beautiful creative clothing.

i somehow vowed in my head that i would become a different person one day, the kind of person who wears really exciting clothing and does my hair.

i never do it.

………………


mission of burma. five for five. and a BOSTON band no less. i fucking love this DJ.

…………………

i never do it because i always want to do something else. sleep. email. eat. sit. write. talk. anything.

i always imagine that i’m going to get to this point in my life where i exert more effort and i walk down the street shining like a well-coiffed freak.

instead i feel like i’ve been procrastinating for a lifetime….wearing practical flat shoes, sweatpants and the same rotating 5 dirty t-shirts (laundry is another thing i find really horribly painful….i wear shit into the GROUND. i’m a mulitiple-day underwear wearer and i’ll wear a t-shirt until it clears a room, and pants until they are VISIBLY filthy).

i considered it a heroic effort when i actually started wearing a bra on a daily basis about 3 years ago (i actually do like the way my tits look rounder, and i sort of like something cradling them at all times, it actually feels quite nice and comforting….) and applying black eyeliner on a regular basis. this adds a full 2 minutes to my daily activities and it makes me feel HIGH FUCKING MAINTENANCE. i just do not know how girls who spend a full half hour doing full-on hair things and full-on make-up things. the patience. the commitment. i’m always fucking impressed and jealous, and baffled.

i think i am just going to have to accept my fate as an international low-maintenance diva and leave it at that.

i’ll make up for it when i sit in a make-up and hair chair for 3 full hours sometime this year to do a magazine shoot or some other high-glam undertaking.

i’ve been meaning to get my hair cut and colored for a month. 
i just don’t do it. i’ll do it when i get home.

oh my god.

fuck it.

…………………

the DJ is playing blur.

………………….


here are some fabulous photos from the shenanigans of the last week or so……

i’ve recruited superkate, my fucking incredible assistant, to start pulling more photos from the web and the archive to beef up the photo content of my blogs, espeically as i start careening toward s year of touring…when i always get too tired to pull photos for blogging. she may even upload a batch of photos if i’m too far down the rabbithole.
if you have photos, share them, always. send links to us at photos@amandapalmer.net and we’ll keep everything on file. if you ever see a credit wrong or mis-spelled on the blog, hit us in teh comments or email the photo address and we’ll fix it. we’re trying to get better at this.

this is an amazing shot from my “balcony” ninja gig above rose chong’s costume shop.
i sang out the window to the people in the street below and tired to do my best “evita/don’t cry for me” impression.
it went quite well….

this girl brought flowers.
i love this picture (by Theresa Harrison):


and…


here’s tom dickins guesting with me at the spiegeltent, last week (photo by Carbie Warbie):
 

his killer melbourne band, the jane austen argument, released their first huge record and were the #1 selling band on bandcamp for a while.
go get it at bit.ly/jaaBandcamp or by clicking the cover-art, below:


my beautiful new friend mark winmill guesting with me on aerial for a version of the tigerlillies “flying robert”, at the same spiegeltent show (photo by Carbie Warbie):


kim boekbinder with me at the spiegel show (photo by Carbie Warbie):


me & mikelangeklo at the tent, covering a paul kelly song (photo by Carbie Warbie):


…………………………………………………

THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA……the birth of my little band, in pictures….

chad raines, on guitar (photo by John Carney):

jherek bischoff on bass (photos by John Carney):
 

jherek & chad:


michael mcquilken, on drums (photo by Forever Violet):


jherek, chad, and moi (photo by John Carney):


photos by Forever Violet:


chad on trumpet:


….and on keys…..


the HORNS…..sourced from melbourne:


they’re going to be playing on the record with us. 
they are FUCKIng FANTASTIC. 
the blue trombone to the far right is made of lightweight plastic.
chad is amazing.

yours truly….trying to find a magical place between Erté and Siouxsie (photo by Bridget aka @sidsthename):


…and rocking out on jherek’s bass during “missed me”….in which we EXPERIMENT WITH SOUND (photo by Forever Violet):


it’s all happening.

LOVE,
AFP.

p.s. we didn’t allow any video/audio at the show, but we did have our friend guy filming & if you wanna see the c;ub we’ve been hiding in, and band in action covering radiohead (specifically, “idioteque”), here’s a peek:


p.p.s. my moxy’s taken to giving relationship advice on his tumblr, specifically on how one might try to seduce a writer…have a look by clicking on alreadypre-knownknowledge’s awesome picture…

pictures of the new band, and i warn you, they are hot.

hola dear comrades…..

the grand theft orchestra has been officially born.

i’m…..feeling awkward and record-terrified. nothing unexpected.
i’ve been spending my days working and thinking of nothing but my songs, the shows, the thing ahead.
i’ve become obsessed like you have to.
it makes me a bad friend, a bad wife, a bad blogger, a bad housekeeper, a bad street-crosser, a bad appointment-rememberer…pretty much a BAD EVERYTHINGer, and possibly even a bad musician: that part remains to be seen. god i fucking hope not. i hope that all these lost items gain one good record. i dunno. i dunno. i dunno.

we hit the studio in twelve days.

DUN DUN DUN.



getting ready for a record feels like being an athlete getting ready for a race except nobody trains you, nobody tells you what and what not to do, you just have to find your self-discipline and pray that you make the right choices so you don’t walk into the studio a distracted, broken, unorganized mess. you can suggest to the people around you that you need to be undistorted, undistracted, and focused, but nobody will go out of their way to not bother you.
so you basically have to start an ongoing duck and cover tactic, even with the people who you love, who are, of course, the exact people who assume they are exempt from distracting you.

i’ve been slowly but surely peeling myself away from emailing. twittering is nice because twittering is all joy and no responsibility.
i may give up email completely and just twitter and phone for two weeks. the Fleeting and the Huge. everything else, the mundane business of life, can wait.

rock is not sport. but sometimes i feel like it’s exactly the same. you train, but then you make it all up.

there are, however, no rules. making a rock record has no manual. i know a little about a little now that i’ve made three huge ones, but the most i’ve learned is that every studio, musical situation and producer and engineer is different, and your job is to enter in a zen state of mind ready for fucking anything to happen. ANYTHING.

i’m terrified of anything.

it doesn’t help when you haven’t made a real record for four years and the pressure of all that extra time sits on your shoulders, whispering DON’T FUCK THIS UP in your ear very loudly all day long.

so anyway.


……………………..


the first two warm-up shows were incredible….no footage, no setlist, no photos….all secrets. well, almost…ERIC’S BACK TO BLOGGING. hot gossip from the engine room, friends…check out his newest tour blog, HERE.
the rest of the residency shows are all SOLD OUT (1500 tickets, BAM! GO US, and thank you everyone who twittered and helped spread word, WE DID IT…..) and we’re going to keep working on the material and adding new songs & surprises.

DJ DAMEZA is my new favorite person and has been spinning us on and off stage every night.
my favorite moment of both shows has been dancing & freaking to this guy spinning records. he’s a genius. i’d love to keep him with us for the whole year.
and i found him IN TASMANIA. who knew?

we had a beautiful surprise opener the first night: georgia fields.
she played beautiful songs on the uke AND THE CASIO. here she is:



and as for me & the band….we rehearsed for 5 straight days before taking stage.
(here’s a good one of chad in our rehearsal space in carlton, writing down lyric notes…..):



i, predictably, lost my voice. i spent today in bed, not talking, waiting for it to come back.
it’s hilarious.

i can’t sing half the new shit i’ve written.

it’s a wonderful….sinking feeling.

everybody was high-fucking-fiving after the first show and i sat there in a stupor, looking despondent, thinking HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO SING THESE SONGS ON THE ROAD FOR A YEAR. I AM FUCKED.

it’s like that EXACT moment when you’ve taken a sip of a scalding hot drink without realizing how hot it was, but it’s too late to not take the sip and yet before the moment you start doing crazed mouth acrobatics to try to minimize the damage done to your tastebuds. you already know, in a split second, that your tongue is going to be a fuzz-ache for the next 24 hours. i feel that right now.
it’s just like that.

i’ll figure it out.

but the new songs sound….amazing. more than amazing. scalding.

they don’t even feel like i wrote them. which is how i know they’re probably good.

they’re all in G.

how did that happen?

i don’t know, but it happened.

not ALL. but the VAST MAJORITY.

G. G. ALL G, ALL THE TIME.

i find solace in the raveonettes.

the story goes that they recorded their first EP (“WHIP IT ON”) under the self-imposed “guidelines” of all songs being under three minutes, and all in B-flat minor…i think maybe they just realized (while recording, i presume) that all of the songs they’d written were in the same key…(their followup album was a sister-set-of-songs, tongue in cheekly almost entirely in B-flat MAJOR, btw)
so they simply celebrated these facts on the covers:



……………………………


seeing as i’m pretty much living at a costume shop in melbourne, we decided to plunder it with the help of jess daly, my friend who works here.
some of you may remember her from around this time last year…she and her beautiful friend anthony were the SURPRISE STRIPPING KOALAS at my melbourne forum show…
and after that, she went on tour with peaches for a while doing all sorts of rad things including costume design:



she’s also a wig stylist. jherek had a fantasy. as you’ll see below, we obliged. how could we not?

the band is going to do a different evolving outfit every week.
things will morph, though we did get slightly attached to this week’s outfits.
this week’s evolution was inspired by …. um, guess.
(i’ll give you a hint…a recent tweet ‘o mine)

jess took some photos backstage right before we went on the first night.

i want baseball cards.


JHEREK BISCHOFF | @jherekbischoff (bass, guitar):



MICHAEL McQUILKEN | @quilken (drums):



MOI | @amandapalmer (piano, screaming):



CHAD RAINES | @radchaines (synth, guitar, trumpet):



jess applying make-up to michael:


chad, jess, and jherek:


GOD DAMN I LOVE MY FUCKING BAND.
there they are, the core members of the grand theft orchestra.
(and HERE’s a twitter “List” of all of us)

they sound…..like gods.
they plunder, they sleigh.
they’re all beautiful & kind human beings, generous souls, and musicians, every one.

the local melburnians have been feeding and caring for us and making us feel so so so at home.
we never want to leave.
i’ve been walking around in disguise glasses during the day. they make me feel invincible.



neil thinks they’re sexy. i knew it.

i’m so fucking lucky.


so. fucking. lucky.


more more soon.



x
afp

p.s. i’ve talked about the amazing book “You Must Go And Win” by my dear friend alina simone - in fact, HERE’s a whole blog about it - but since last i wrote, more exciting stuff’s happened…neil (in collaboration with audible.com and the audiobook creation exchange) launched “neil gaiman presents” and picked it as one of the very first books to put out!!



SO…because it’s a REALLY funny (and very emotional, deep, and honest) book, and more people should check it out, alina’s posted an entire chapter to give you a sampling:


set aside 40 minutes, make yourself some tea, and enjoy…(the above widget is also HTML5 friendly meaning it’ll work on most mobile devices if you wanna start it playing before a drive somewhere or something)…
neil posted about it over on his tumblr, too…if i haven’t persuaded you yet, check out his post.
if you like it (and you will), you can get the whole thing HERE on audible.
one last thing: you can also find alina’s MUSIC on her bandcamp. give it a listen, too.

p.p.s. i did a guest spot with MIKELANGELO at the old bar for SLAM DAY.
here is a video of us playing “before too long”: vimeo.com/37226698
photo by konrad lenz on flickr:


the whole band is headed to see him and his group The Black Sea Gentlemen at the spiegeltent. get more info/RSVP HERE on facebook and check HERE to see if there are still any tickets available…but it’s a show you don’t wanna miss if you’re in melbourne.

threw my bad fortune

hola hola.

in quick melbourne show news: about 500 of you in Melbourne got an email yesterday from The Wheeler Centre telling you that this friday’s talk with meow meow (“FRANK”) was cancelled & that you’d be refunded. lots of people tweeted asking what was up…there was confusion, and i’m sorry you didn’t hear it straight from me. meow is sick but alive; no alarm. we’re definitely going to reschedule; just not sure when.

i’m so sorry about it; nothing to be done EXCEPT…
for those of you who were flying to the event, i’ve added a ninja gig Saturday morning unlike any other!!! i’m going to play AT A GARAGE SALE at ROSE CHONG’S costume shop where my friends Antony and Jess work. come, sift through elvis jackets, buy koala suits, try on powdered wigs, and hear ukulele. what could be better on a Saturday afternoon in melbourne? the event/more deets are on FB (RSVP here). i’ll be on around 1pm.
come play…?


 

also: stay tuned to the twitter feed for a possible show to be added Sunday night (the 26th) - it’s looking probable.


SO……………

it’s been a busy week in melbourne, gigging and working my ass off while simultaneously quieting my head and voice down and getting ready to record the album. some of the things i’ve been doing have been deliberately chosen to prep my album brain…like the songwriting talk to mac.robertson girl’s school in melbourne:



…the public letter-writing-and-reading forum held every few months in melbourne called “women of letters,” curated by the incredible marieke hardy…at which i wrote and read aloud a letter that made me cry….here we are (wendy harmer, virginia triolli, georgia fields, moi, and nicki greenberg):


…or the foreward that i crammed out last night for a book called “live through this,” about art and self-destruction, about to go into its second edition. the more i try to write the more respect i have for neil. Jesus it’s hard. 

but some things have just been sheer abstract distraction…like the random idea i had to collaborate with chipmusic artist Dot_AY to sing Lana Del Rey’s “video games” with my wrists tied up at the BLIP festival a few nights ago. i don’t know what it is about that song…but ever since the first time i heard it i’ve wanted to sing it tied up. it just seemed like the right thing to do. i fucked up the first entry and some of the lyrics. but it’s still pretty awesome. 


(click here for the vimeo upload)

the band is all in town and we’re getting bikes for everyone…and getting settled, and getting ready to create what i want to believe is going to be the best and most creative record i’ve ever made. we picked the right city. 

melbourne loves us, and we love melbourne. i’ve never felt so much love for a city in my life…not quite this way. introducing my band to the city and watching them fall in love as i nervously coax them from spot to spot is like the feeling of introducing the person you’ve fallen madly in love with to your friends. you want them to fall in love too. you want to know it’s not just you. you want them to feel the same fever. they do. 

pj said it perfect :

and i feel like
some bird of paradise
my bad fortune
slipping away
and i feel the innocence of a child
everybody’s got something good to say


g’night people of the world
afp

my earth-shattering news, by amanda fucking palmer.

hola comrades!

first of all….thank you all SO so very much for all the positive response to the “polly” video. holy shit. it had more impact than i’d imagined, for real.
thank you all, deeply, for sharing the link and tweeting it around and generally helping us spread it far and wide….it’s getting tons of views and love online. 
nirvana posted it to their official facebook page (which in my opinion is a seal of approval far superior to getting it played on MTV). thank you, thank you.

now for the news: yes, you guessed it. 

all signs were pointing this way for ages.


i’m pregnant.

not with a child, but….


….WITH A MOTHERFUCKING RECORD ALBUM!!!!!!!

that’s right: i’m about to give birth to a COLLECTION OF SONG-SPAWN that’s going to blow your domepiece off.
me and the new band (the grand theft orchestra) are going to hit the studio in almost exactly one month, in melbourne. 

i have about 20+ songs ready to record. 

almost all of them have never been heard.

they’ve all been written, slowly and in secret, over the past 3 years.
i’ve never made a record anything like this. it will be like….me. but different. the songs are amazing. i’m really, really incredibly proud of them.

the producer/engineer is going to be the fabulous john congleton, who’s produced a ton of amazing indie stuff…including the past few st. vincent records.
(you can geek out/drool over his production credits HERE)

i hope he forgives me for stealing this particular photo from his fan-run tumblr:


i’ve been waiting to make this new record for a long, long, LONG, LONG time.
not the run the pregnancy metaphor into the ground, but it does feel like i’ve been carrying this thing around for longer than is necessary or comfortable.

the last time i went into the studio and made a “proper” studio album was back in 2008 when i recorded “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” in nashville with ben folds wearing the producer hat.

since then, my life has been a mishy-mashy wonderland of bizarre side-projects, theater detours and…other things. 
like finding my wonderful husband (he’s nice) and getting married (several times). 

and writing songs when they came, and tucking them away….sometimes playing them live and testing them out, mostly not.

waiting for certain things to settle. trying to put the right band together. 

and, knowing that this time would eventually come (and that i’d have to work on this record for about two years solid): running full force in my own free, random ninja directions (which is my version of “resting”).

and most importantly (and kind of most boringly; i never talk about this shit) i’ve been re-configuring my behind-the-scenes team and management until i felt i had a team capable of helping me BIRTH this BEAST. and i do now, and we’re ready.

you might have seen one of the little under-the-radar shows i did (when i didn’t allow ANY FOOTAGE to be taken) this last spring or summer with the new band…michael mcquilken on drums (and bass, and more) and chad on guitar and synths and trumpet (and more), with a variety of guest musicians on stage with us…..

here we is (photo by Rene Huemer):

and then on stage, with superkate leading us in AEROBICS (photo by chrisdonia via flickr):


breaking the sound barrier of DANCE with superkate (photo by Bryndís Blackadder):


drew forrest - who filmed us lots in the UK last summer - put this together:

(visit youtu.be/ZZMgRyKDK_c if that embed doesn’t work…)

the edinburgh iteration of the grand theft orchestra before taking stage at the HMV picturehouse……with DREW on camera duty:


AND AND AND…
we’ve added a new thief!!
under cover of night, Jherek Bischoff has joined the band….he’ll be mostly on bass guitar duty, but he plays a ton of instruments:


jherek is a true musical genius….he’s been jason’s touring bassist for years, and i had the pleasure of playing onstage with him and michael at the pre-halloween LA show.
a lot of you already know him. in impressive news: he just finished up a huge night at the ecstatic music festival presenting his own incredible avant-garde-beautiful-classical compositions….with collaborators no less fancy than David Byrne and the dude from Deerhoof. 

so that’s the band: me, michael, chad and jherek. and one more thing:

you.

all y’all.

we’re calling this band AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA because we plan ALL YEAR on doing what we did over the summer: stealing local musicians everywhere we go and getting them onstage with us. besides the fact that it’s impossibly expensive to tour around with a string section and a ton of horn players….WHY WOULD WE when we can STEAL THEM? so be prepared: we are coming for you. once we cut this record, we’ll be seeking musicians EVERYWHERE WE GO. it may not be limited to brass and strings.

we also want to push the limits of HOW WE CAN INCLUDE people in our art-making as part of the live experience. it’s exciting. we have PLANS. well….maybe not real plans. 
we have IDEAS. (there is also an INCREDIBLE ALBUM ART PROJECT secretly underway….and i’ll tell you all about that soon.)

tour dates, release dates, and everything else will all be in the pipeline in the coming months….the first glimpses of tour will be starting late spring/early summer, once the album’s totally finished.

ho my god.

…………………….


as you know, i’m independent, free of my major label, tra la la!

i don’t have a stock-pile of capital hidden away, and i am going to have to crowd-fund huge parts of the record and the tour….and given everything that’s been going on in internet-land, i’m excited to do it. 
anything we make: the recording, the videos, the costumes, the strange live internet tools, the touring engine, it’s ALL going to have to be either crowd-funded or covered by loans from people who have the spare cash to front me: the scope of the process and the size/scale of the tour will truly be dictated by the fanbase and how much money we can come up with.

i have a good feeling about it, but who the fuck knows: it feels like the first moment of sticking out your thumb when you decided to hitchhike A LONG DISTANCE. terrifying and exhilarating. no idea where this is going to take you, but you’re ready to jump.

we’ll be crowdfunding the majority of the money we need around april by doing a giant outreach and pre-order for the album.

so i’m not asking for anything now, except just….be happy for us!

i sure the fuck am.

……………..

and yes….MELBOURNE, you win.

we thought about making the record in a few other cities (mostly in the states), but i decided, hell….i’m already over here from the dolls tour, and there’s a ton of resources here for the band.
we’ve already had 3 different people volunteer to make us dinner. (if you want to…email us@amandapalmer.net. we’ll take it. no joke.)

the band is meeting up in melbourne in two weeks. we’re going to REHEARSE OUR ASSES OFF, then play run of small shows to get the songs perfect perfect perfect in front of a crowd before putting them down on tape.

thus, our UPCOMING MELBOURNE RESIDENCY at the NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB!



we’re going to do FIVE shows. audio/video recording will be forbidden at all show. 
special guests will be rampant (and unconfirmed at the moment).

we tried to make the shows as CHEAP as humanly possible. 
they’re all $10 ($15 day of show). they’re all 18+ and doors are 7pm.

tickets for all five shows are on sale NOW! here’s the info:

• FEBRUARY 28th
BUY TICKETS | RSVP on facebook
w/ DJ DAMEZA (one half of ACUMEN/@dameza on twitter)
DJ DAMEZA is my favorite new DJ - i danced my ASS OFF to one of his late night sets at the MONA FOMA festival a few weeks ago, and i’ve manged to convince him to come up and DJ us into a dancing FRENZY for these two show. hopefully we can convince him to come to some other nights, too…he’s checking. 

• FEBRUARY 29th
BUY TICKETS | RSVP on facebook
also w/ DJ DAMEZA

• MARCH 6th
BUY TICKETS | RSVP on facebook
guests TBA

• MARCH 7th
BUY TICKETS | RSVP on facebook
guests TBA

• MARCH 12th
BUY TICKETS | RSVP on facebook
w/ DIE ROTEN PUNKTE and more TBA
die rotten punkte are one of my absolute favorite fucking acts, and i’ve been trying to do a show together with them for AGES!!!
here’s a clip of me joining them for a very bizarre song/interpretive dance in edinburgh a few summers ago:

do not fret, every single night is going to be UBER-SPECIAL…these are bascially open rehearsals with the band…anything goes.

dress to impress….your mom.

if you want to help spread the word about these shows, here’s how…
i am personally going to be wandering around melbourne, handing out these flyers and leaving them on the benches of many an unsuspecting vegan record shop.

i’ve missed doing that. i’m never in town long enough before a gig to be able to.

but i could always use help…we put up a download link for the poster (and handbills) up on the shadowbox, so please: grab the assets HERE (or click the thumbnails below), go get some printer ink and tape, and hit the streets……and if you don’t live in the area but know people who do, let them know? just link ‘em to http://bit.ly/NorthcotePromo

 
………………………………

also, MELBOURNE (and this is getting dorky) if you have any of this GEAR or a music shop/rental hook-up, we need you!!!!
you can save us tons of money if you have any of the following we can borrow (or rent for cheap or barter!):

- a Kurzweill PC3 keyboard
- a Nord Electro 3
- really, ANY kind of sequential-circuit synthesizer 
 
- a Juno 106 synthesizer
- a Moog Voyager
or
- a Korg ms20 synthesizer

and maybe maybe maybe one of you has…
- 2 x Technics 1200/1210 turntables

(would definitely also need the cables, etc to all of the above, but we could source our own in a pinch.)

and this one i really need NOW (before the shows):
- a digital piano (of any kind), with a stand and some sort of speakers for practicing. anyone? we’ll happily trade you show tickets and get you a coffee. or tea. or water…whatever your little heart desires.

if you’re in melbourne have leads on any of this gear, or you think you know someone who can help us….email! us@amandapalmer.net.
(& if you think you have something comparable, talk to us! we’re open)

………………………..

yes, virginia….there are going to be synthesizers on the album.

………………………

i am so excited.

i am so, so, so excited.

i am more excited than rebecca black on a thursday night.

i am so excited i just rubbed one of my eyebrows off by accident.



THAT’S HOW EXCITED I AM

here we go, here we go, here we go

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


LOVE,
AFP

new video for “polly” (nirvana cover)…with some explaining.

hola dear comrades……

greetings from sunny melbourne, I’ve decamped here for the next few months and have some incredible news forthcoming about my new record, stay tuned…will be letting the magic shit hit the fan in the next week or so. 

better yet, get the blog emailed straight to your inbox: HERE.

SO…

i already wrote a blog about the recording of this song back in june, but the video is another matter, and i’d like to do some explaining.
 
first of all, the reason we decided to make a video for this song AT ALL was because we were so fucking thrilled with the way it came out…and it got a hugely positive response when SPIN magazine released it on their “nevermind” tribute compilation. i cut a deal with SPIN that we could release the song ourselves (HOORAY NO LABEL) after a few months went by, and that time has come. so we’re releasing it - a brand new master with some cleanups to the mix thanks to chad and michael - direct through my website/bandcamp for cost + donation. this is always the deal with cover songs since we need to pay about 50¢ a song for royalty rates plus the paypal fees to charge ANYTHING AT ALL (which is, indeed, weird). and yes, it’s also up on iTunes, amazon, etc. but i won’t see as much from any of those places so as always, DIRECT=the best way.
 
when i was first asked to do a cover of a song from “nevermind,” SPIN sent me a list of tracks that were still available (i think there were 5 left) and eric sussman, in my management, wrote back immediately saying “WTF NOBODY’S TAKEN POLLY???” and that set my brain on the track to think about how the band could possibly cover the song.
 
the band is an important part of this….
 
 ….i’m about to make a huge, new solo record with these guys (chad, michael, and jherek) under the moniker of AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA and this cover song was a chance for us (minus jherek, who hadn’t come on board yet) to get into the studio and start feeling each other out. everyone in the band plays a variety of instruments….chad plays guitar, keys, and trumpet, but for the “polly” cover he picked up a banjo. jherek’s going to be playing the bass (mostly), and michael will generally be on the drums (but for this “polly” recording michael played bass, and you can see him doing so for about .96 seconds in the video). michael’s also (among other things, he’s a total renaissance hack) a great director and an engineer. 
 
rule number one of modern bands: make sure everyone can do AT LEAST FIVE JOBS (seriously, look at the credits on this thing when you watch the video). 
    
so, i decided it might be a fun idea to make a low-budget video for “polly” with michael in the director’s chair & his pal sarah lasley behind the camera.
 
i wrote the treatment one night in san francisco, while i was on tour with neil (and, coincidentally, waiting in a bar for noah briton to bring me my passport, which i’d left in…..boston…..long story…dude saved my ASS) and emailed it over to michael. he got a crew together on a shoestring budget, cast the actors, and we were good to go.

…………………………………………………..  
 
here are some of the best stills & behind-the scenes shots from the day we shot…
 
getting The Face done, by the incredible make-up artist justin tyme, at a gas station:


blake getting done up out of the back of a truck:

 
sarah shooting the escape (click to enlarge):


before we got to new haven, we were trying to twitter-source a rad vintage car…
then we get to the gas station we’re shooting some of the video at, and michael noticed THIS:


…AND THEY LET US BORROW IT. I DIED.

look at ‘er…she’s gorgeous (click to enlarge):


and it’s just PERFECT in the video…you’ll see.

here are some gorgeous stills of jillian from the video (which if-you-so-choose, you can use as alternate cover artwork when you download the song):









 
…………………………………………………..
 
before we recorded the song itself, at yale, where michael had free access to a studio, i had a couple chats with him beforehand about the direction of the cover.
 
i’d been googling and found out things about the song i’d never known…
from wiki:
Bass player Krist Novoselic remembers Kurt Cobain writing “Polly” after reading a newspaper article about the abduction, torture, and rape of a 14-year-old girl who had just finished attending a rock show in Tacoma, Washington. In June 1987 Gerald Arthur Friend picked up a 14-year-old female friend after leaving a concert at the Tacoma Dome. Upon trying to exit the car the girl was handcuffed and held hostage at knife point. The girl was taken to a mobile home where she was tortured and raped with various objects for two days. She was also threatened with a blowtorch.
 
the story continued and the google trail led to strange places….
apparently there was a guy (a nirvana fan) who bragged about raping a girl while the song played, and kurt spoke out against it publicly.
kurt was, after all, a feminist.
 
i wanted the song, and later, the video, to focus on the terrifying experience of being….trapped like that.
the video, seen without any knowledge of the backstory, would probably come across differently, and i wondered for a while whether to spread the story behind the song along with the clip.
i think it makes it better.
i’d recommend watching this when you have a quiet moment, and with headphones (trust me):
 

(if the embed gives you trouble, click HERE to watch it on youtube)
 
and if you want the song, go download it HERE.
 
& as always….please share if you dig it. you are my record label. thanks.
 

love
AFP
 
  
p.s. yes, that’s blake in the woods. THE blake. if you’re a-twtitter: he’s @electroblake. michael is @quilken & chad is @radchaines. follow the thickening plot.