News

Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under

• 17th Jan 2011

A collection of live and studio tracks with an Antipodean theme, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is her latest offering as a solo artist. All material for this album was lovingly penned for and recorded in Australia and New Zealand. The album includes some special tributes in the form of covers of Nick Cave and New Zealand’s Peter Jefferies as well as original songs berating a lover for his love of vegemite, and the new single ‘Map of Tasmania’, which celebrates a lady’s nether regions..

Having just struggled to be released 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 music model where fans are able to choose their contribution for download, packages and once in a lifetime experiences they can go to her website for more details. It’s been a successful model for her latest record which saw Amanda perform the hits of Radiohead on the ukulele.

“This whole record is a love letter to Australia and New Zealand, “ Amanda says, flirting wildly with her southern neighbours. “I have a special relationship with the Australian people. It was the first continent where Dresden Dolls landed and it was like 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 and songwriter, of course, and an audaciously expressive pianist who simultaneously embraces – and explodes – traditional frameworks of composition.

“Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under” coincides 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 Goes Down Under” is released on January 21st through Liberator. It is available for pre-order from:

AUSTRALIA: link
NEW ZEALAND: link
REST OF THE WORLD: link