Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is her latest offering as a solo artist. A collection of live and studio tracks with an Antipodean theme, the album berates a lover for his love of vegemite and celebrates a lady’s nether regions with the new single “Map of Tasmania” which you can download HERE. All materialfor this album was lovingly penned for and recorded in Australia and New Zealand. It includes some special tributes in the form of covers of Nick Cave and New Zealand’s Peter Jefferies.
Having just struggled to be release from her major label contract, Amanda has been trailblazing in Internet and creative distribution with an effective new model for distribution of music. Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under will be available exclusively for her Down Under fans as a physical release through Liberator. However, true to Amanda’s unique and successful music model, fans will be able to choose their contribution for download, packages and once in a lifetime experiences. As with her latest release Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele, check out her website for package details.
“This whole record is a love letter to Australia and New Zealand,“ Amanda says flirting wildly with her southern neighbors. Amanda has made no secret of the fact that she’d love to relocate to her “second home” in Melbourne during the New York winter and keep her summer home in the Big Apple the rest of the time. “I have a special relationship with the Australian people. It was the first continent where Dresden Dolls landed and it was Beatlemania. I have a huge resonance with the place and the people. Plus I hate being cold,” she says.
Anyone who’s ever seen or heard Palmer – whether raising eyebrows as the gender-bending “emcee” in the prestigious American Repertoire Theatre’s production of the musical ‘Cabaret’, delivering dramatically direct, wildly theatrical performances as one half of the cabaret-punk duo The Dresden Dolls or, most recently, as a solo artist whose uncompromising vision has frequently made her a flashpoint for both admiration and controversy – will attest to the fact that being a musician and rock star is not merely a job, and never has been.
Instead, Palmer is her art. And, in turn, her art is an extension of who she is, and is always becoming: a voracious seeker of creative catharsis and emotional release, a bold participant in games of truth or dare (she always opts for both) on a life-sized stage and above all, an utterly un-categorize-able work-in-progress. She’s a fearless singer, songwriter and an audaciously expressive pianist who simultaneously embraces – and explodes – traditional frameworks of composition.
Palmer has collaborated with indie-pop pianist Ben Folds (who produced her most recent solo work Who Killed Amanda Palmer) and teamed with acclaimed author Neil Gaiman for a storybook of photography that beautifully expands the conceptual and narrative ideas outlined in her ambitious solo album.
Amanda Palmer Goes Down Undercoincides with the Opera House “Australia Day Spectacular” with Amanda inviting special guests husband Neil Gaiman, cabaret darling Meow Meow and Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentleman to join her on this January 26th celebration.
Amanda Palmer will also be touring January & February taking in the MONO FOMA festival in Tasmania as a special guest of curator Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes. She will also be reprising her much lauded performance at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne. She will bring the spectacular to the Adelaide Fringe in early March.
Amanda Palmer brings her special brand of humor to Australia w/ headline performances across the country.
FESTIVAL DATES:
01/15/11: Tasmania @ MONO FOMA FESTIVAL
Curated by Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes
FREE info available HERE
01/17/2011: Tasmania @ MONO FOMA WORKSHOP
Info available HERE
01/26/11: Sydney @ SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under: Australia Day Spectacular
With special guests Neil Gaiman, cabaret act Meow Meow and Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen
Tickets available HERE
