EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT.

hola comrades!

i’m sorry such lack of bloggage – my head has been like the inside of the crumb of a piece of fried dough at the very bottom of the oil tray at a carnival that’s been closed for weeks – lost, lost, lost and likely inedible. classic tour mush-head. i’ve been twittering a ton and tumlbr’ing…my head seems to be able to manage one sentence at a time.

as usual, i’m sure i’ll just start a new plot and never look back….but in summary, tour is killing me softly and is all up, all down, all around, and generally more life-like than i could wish on my best enemies, everything is slamming, my inner punk cabaret flames are being heavily fanned, my best friend is very sick, i’m at home recuperating, and….and. life. death. hurrah here we are.

the record is doing great. as expected, it dropped off the charts since we did such a giant push to make people pre-order (AND HOOARH it worked)…and it’s getting great radio play. call local stations and request….they do listen. the press has mostly decided to stop demonizing me as a greedy capitalist looking to “scrape a last dollar from the hides of the desperate” (-the new yorker) and is now demonizing other people. it’s funny. when the press decides to pitchfork me, i start looking at the other victims out there (billie joe from green day ranting on a festival stage and getting hauled to rehab, justin bieber puking onstage, animal collective dude not fulfilling his kickstarter, even the poor presidential candidates….) with an even more empathetic eye than usual. at the end of the day they’re just human beings. it can be hard to remember that as we pass judgement, laugh heartily, discuss them like the weather. some things dullen me inside, some things sharpen me inside. this one sharpened. i’m feeling more.

speaking of feeling.

i wanted to share this video before i forgot. sarah lasley, aka @slazzle, has been on tour with us posting an awesome on-the-road video every day and i’ll try to be better about blogging them…but this is classic. it’s me & meow meow on the bus in portland, OR, the night after i wound up accidentally at a garbage show and got to commune with shirley manson backstage.

in summary, shirley and amanda say: fuck the critics.

EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT.

………..

i’ll try to say something more intelligent-er in the next blog. i’m also tumblr’ing my smaller thoughts, it seems to be a kind of combination of blogging and tweeting, and i’d love you guys to weigh in (as my blog readers) about that: do you tumbl? is cross-posting annoying? WHAT SHOULD I DO? tell.

love from cambridge, mass.

xx
a

p.s. the australian and new zealand shows JUST went on sale and the tickets are FLYING. (all shows, including the last of the almost-sold-out US/euro dates are listed HERE)
for those asking, YESSSSS, we’re definitely looking for musicians to join us again…horns & strings galore in exchange for beer, hugs, high-fives and a sum of cold hard australian/NZ currency. interested? HORNS, email horns@thegrandtheftorchestra.com
and STRINGS/QUARTETS, email strings@thegrandtheftorchestra.com if you’re in any of these cities and wanna join the circus…

AUCKLAND, NZ – Q THEATRE
SUN. 27 JANUARY
ALL AGES | TICKETS | RSVP

WELLINGTON, NZ – SAN FRAN BATH HOUSE
WED. 30 JANUARY
18+ | TICKETS | RSVP

MELBOURNE, AU – FORUM THEATRE
FRI. 1 FEBRUARY
18+ | TICKETS | RSVP

SYDNEY, AU – ENMORE THEATRE
THU. 7 FEBRUARY
ALL AGES | TICKETS | RSVP

BYRON BAY, AU – THE NORTHERN
SAT. 9 FEBRUARY
18+ | TICKETS | RSVP

BRISBANE, AU – THE TIVOLI
SUN. 10 FEBRUARY
18+ | TICKETS | RSVP

PERTH, AU – ASTOR THEATRE
THU. 14 FEBRUARY
18+ | TICKETS | RSVP

ADELAIDE, AU – THEBARTON THEATRE
SUN. 17 FEBRUARY
ALL AGES | TICKETS | RSVP

when you email, please put the show date, city, and instrument in the subject line of the email i.e. “Trumpet – New York, NY – Sept 11th” or “Violin – Brisbane – February 10th”…it’ll make sorting go much easier for us.