Is Amanda Palmer a fame whore?

I engaged in a protracted conversation last week with someone who suggested that Amanda Palmer, one of my favourite recording artists, is an attention whore.

Palmer is of late one half of the Dresden Dolls, a Brechtian punk cabaret duo who’s most well known song, Coin Operated Boy, is a thinly veiled euphemism for a woman's love of her vibrator.



In 2008 Palmer left the Dolls to strike out on her own and has been marching to the beat of her particular drum ever since.

In a nutshell the fame whore argument seems to be based around the fact that Palmer’s unshaven armpits, elaborately hand drawn eyebrows and marriage to literary superstar Neil Gaiman are all carefully calculated tactics to help her career.

These links were sent my way to help bolster the agreement.

I was away from a computer as the conversation developed so I was reduced to short (and poorly spelt) rebuttals texted from my phone. But in the back of my head I realized that the issue deserved more than just a stock response on my part.

So let’s get right down to it.

Question: Is Amanda Palmer a fame whore?

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer: Weren’t you paying attention? I said no.

Look, a fame whore is a person to which fame itself is the only goal. They don’t care why they get your attention, just that they have it.

Case in point, witness the career flameout of Britney Spears, who, when her singing career was in steep decline, started stepping out of limousines without any underwear on. Oh, and when that stopped being news she decided to shave her head in a desperate gamble to keep herself on the front page of the tabloids. You could go back and forth about whether or not these were deliberate acts, and I believe that they were, or simply faulty judgment on the part of someone desperate to maintain public interest in a flagging career.

In the end it doesn’t really matter. The end result is that Britney pursued a course of action destined to get her a couple minutes of air time on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT or TMZ and it didn’t have a single thing to do with her artistic ability.

I’d also suggest that the glut of D-List celebrities clogging up the airwaves in a dying spate of reality shows is pretty much the same thing. For the most part, these people aren’t noteworthy for the things they’re doing right now, instead they’re simply cashing in on the 15 minutes of fame their younger selves worked so hard to achieve. Their desire to be in the public eye, under less than flattering circumstances, outweighs the damage they’re doing to their careers and reputations.

So what makes Amanda Palmer any different?

Simply put, I don’t believe that fame in and of itself is her end goal.

Its easy to shape the facts to suit your attention seeking theory when you’ve got an outgoing and artistic personality like Palmer’s. She’s assertive, she’s creative, she’s unconventional, she’s always trying new things, she’s a relentless self promoter and she’s a social media heavyweight. Which, when you add all those things together, that’s just called being a good artist and businesswoman.

I think the difficulty arises when audiences try to reconcile their vision of what an attractive singer\songwriter looks like with the no holds barred artist on the rampage image that Palmer inhabits.

I could point you to her blog posts where she talks about the difficulty she had with her old record label where she resisted their overtures to record a more commercial style of music because it wasn’t the right fit for her.

Audiences expect their pop stars to be overproduced, their image buffed to a shiny plastic gleam and their personal controversies to be sordid and unseemly. Palmer is none of those things.

To my eye she’s the exhibitionist theatre student type always pushing the limits on what the mainstream will accept, not because she’s seeking attention but rather because that’s what good art is all about, experimentation, messing around, getting your hands dirty. (How many artists do you know who put aside their instrument of choice to take up the ukulele and craft an understated, but no less haunting, album of Radiohead covers.)



Palmer might not always be successful (Evelyn Evelyn I’m looking at you) but she’s never complacent. She’s always moving on to the next project or the next idea so quickly that it seems like she never lets herself get caught up in failures.

Failure being a highly subjective term that is wildly open to interpretation.

Basically, some people are confusing aggressive self promotion, the lifeblood of any independent artist, with being a fame whore. They expect Palmer to sit quietly in a basement and hope that her album, theatre project, or art installation will sell and market itself.

Exhibitionist tendencies and a refusal to fit in should never be labelled fame whorery. Because we’re telling artists that a resistance to conforming is an invitation to ridicule. And I thought we were past all that.

Music: Amanda Palmer - Map of Tasmania Remix Project

Hi everyone,

What Scott said.

I'm just popping on to make you are all aware that over on her bandcamp page Amanda Palmer has just released two albums of remixes of Map of Tasmania f rom her AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER disc.

(I guess putting out four albums in 12 months wasn't enough for AFP.)

The remixes are technically free, but you're encouraged to donate an amount you feel would be appropriate. Why not give them a listen and tell me what you think.

Music Review: AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER by Amanda Palmer

My long promised review of AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER.

A singer\songwriter and pianist by trade I often liken Palmer to Tori Amos when asked to describe her style. Both musicians create piano-centric, deeply personal and emotionally steeped work. But whereas Amos’s inspiration seems to be rooted in the struggle between her musical creativity and her disagreements with organized religion, Palmer’s muse seems to be more chaotic in nature.

She reminds me of the perpetual theatre student, always pushing boundaries and trying new and experimental forms in order to convey her art. Take a look at her stage shows, they’re equal parts rock concert and fringe theatre piece. Performance and chaotic creativity seems to be in her blood.

Palmer has followed a very non-traditional path when fleshing out her music career. Before breaking into the music biz she worked as a living statue, busking in Harvard Square.

In 2000 she co-founded the Dresden Dolls, along with drummer Brian Viglione, a sort of punk cabaret drums and piano duo. And, in 2008, Palmer split amicably from the Dolls to strike out on a solo career.

Growth is a hallmark of Amanda Palmer. While I’m sure she could craft a laudable career writing songs in the same emotional vein her entire life she doesn’t seem content to rest upon those laurels.

She’s always becoming something else.

It’s always a double edged sword when artists stray to far from the sound that gained them infamy. While fans will respect the musician’s desire to keep learning, they may become less enthusiastic if the artist's sound changes too much in the process. Us fans types generally like growth, we just get squirrelly if we think its at expense of whatever it was that turned us on to the artist in the first place.

Strangely enough, pushing the boundaries of her sound doesn’t seem to trip Palmer up in the slightest. She’s equally at home putting out an album of ukulele covers of Radiohead songs as she is pounding on a piano until it bleeds.

And goddamn, if it doesn’t work.

Given all that, for the casual listener or accidental Dresden Dolls\Amanda Palmer fan there may be a lot of things about AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER you find off-putting.

The album is strangely unwelcoming to new listeners. A curious combination of studio work, live recordings, cover material and new work; the album’s cultural specificity may throw up unintended barriers that prevent it from being universally enjoyed by fans across the world.

Of course, that’s a lot of b.s., good music is good music whether its talking about an Australian sandwich spread or crafting a tongue in cheek new Kiwi anthem. Being Australian might help the album resonate a little stronger with the listener but it shouldn’t stop the rest of us from enjoying the work of a talented songstress.

After all, hailing from Oz didn’t stop people from enjoying Men at Work in the 80’s (though it should).

But its all here, her punk cabaret roots, her piano driven intensity, the theatre showmanship and the ukulele undertones. She effortlessly wraps up these diverse creative elements and creates a strong album that capitalizes on the energy of the live audience.

I have a very peculiar way of breaking in a new album. I’ll listen to the whole thing a couple times before I start hitting repeat on the songs that hit me the hardest, in this case it was Bad Wine and Lemon Cake a dark\mournful duet about the difficulties of a quiet life. Using that tune as a gateway drug I’ll start branching out slowly into other songs tasting them one at a time, sampling their flavour.

And, there’s something for everyone on this album. While it may sport a dearth of catchy radio friendly single’s, that shouldn’t stop you from listening to upbeat and catchy tunage like Map of Tasmania and New Zealand if that happens to be your thing. Traditional Palmerites will want to check out In My Mind and Doctor Oz to get a taste of the soulful chanteuse that is always lurking just beneath the surface of Palmer’s cheerful exterior.

Despite my declarations that good music is universal I’d still consider AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER to be more for serious fans than I would for someone looking for an easy jumping on point for her work.

Now go!

Search out the Dresden Dolls and Palmer's early solo material, before coming back to this album. It’s a beautiful companion piece for a skilled and complex artist.

Musical Madness: Amanda Palmer

Since Iceberg Ink is your one stop shop for all things cool, I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce you to...Amanda Palmer.

If this is a new name to you I'm jealous of all the joy that is about to come into your life.

Amanda Palmer is a singer\performance artists, formerly of the Dresden Dolls but now winging her way through the musical ether as a solo act. I was lucky enough to see her open for Nine Inch Nails six years ago and I walked away from the experience having enjoyed the opening band more than I did the main show.

She is the queen of punk cabaret, a rarefied musical genre with few players in it.

But the term punk cabaret doesn't do enough justice in describing what this talented artist is capable of producing. Her musical stylings alternate between deeply soulful. cheekily irreverent and refreshingly honest. She's a sort of musical bohemian who can't be confined to any one sound or one taste.

Her most recent album, AMANDA PALMER GOES DOWN UNDER, dropped on Friday and I'm still in the early stages of courtship with it. Expect a proper review of the album soon, after I've had more time to digest it. The video above, Map of Tasmania, is the first single from the album, but a very poor example of what she's capable of creating. (I'd be really bad at marketing wouldn't I? Trying to turn people on to an artist by showing off her less powerful creations)

For a definitive AP album, I recommend her first solo endeavour, WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER? It's a powerful, soulful disc that ensnares you with its rich musical melodies, naked lyrics and captivating arrangements.

If you're looking for something that's a little off the beaten path but still refreshing and charismatic, welcome home.

Here's a link to Astronaut, my fave song from her first album.