Former lead singer, pianist and songwriter for Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer is undead and kicking, touring the US in support of newly released debut solo album "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?"
What's not to love about her? From her deadpan delivery on jolly songs about abortion ("Oasis") to the photo book where she poses as a beautiful corpse (with text by Neil Gaiman) she's irreverent, creative and always interesting.
Here are my top five reasons to love Amanda Palmer:
1. She's conceptual - the title of her debut solo album, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" references the wonderfully spooky Twin Peaks, and she's made videos of nine of the tracks for her website.
2. She shares. Amanda blogs often and at length, talking passionately about getting fans to feel included in the show. With videographer Chip Yamada on tour creating high quality video blog posts on the fly, she's embracing social media concepts and running with them.
3. She does things her way. When her record company, Roadrunner, said they wanted to re-edit recent video for "Leeds United" because she looked too fat, she not only told them where to stick it but went public, emailing this to her fans:
the fine folks at roadrunner records wanted us to re-cut this video so that shots of my belly wouldn't be included.
they basically told me that i looked too fat.
i told them to fuck off.
the saga continues, but i'll fill you in later.
long live the belly.
love
AFP
Her fans responded with a 'Rebellyon', sending in photos of their own tums in solidarity. Is it relevant to point out Amanda's belly isn't even slightly fat? Not really.
4. She's redefining the rock tour - how it looks and how it's put together. Not only does she have physical theatre actors - known collectively as The Danger Ensemble - performing on stage with her every night, but they've come on tour for free and survive only on the generosity of the audience - who are so far paying them more than they'd earn in a normal job.
5. She's sardonic - signing off blog posts and emails as AFP. That's Amanda Fucking Palmer.
Amanda Fucking Palmer, I love you!
Image courtesy of M. Garbutt's Flickr stream.