Biography
During the 2000s Amanda Palmer earned recognition as the frontwoman of the theatrical-punk outfit the Dresden Dolls, having already cultivated an identity as a singer, songwriter, pianist, writer, and performance artist drawn to experimental approaches, before she launched a solo career in 2007. Who Killed Amanda Palmer, her first full-length under her own name, surfaced in 2008 and landed in the upper half of the Billboard 200. Around the same period she assembled the high-concept, cabaret-style project Evelyn Evelyn, which issued its only album in 2010, the year she also unveiled the tribute EP Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. Theatre Is Evil, her biggest solo success to date, appeared independently in 2012 and climbed into the Billboard 200 Top Ten. In 2014 she issued the self-help memoir The Art of Asking, while her third studio album, the introspective yet still theatrical There Will Be No Intermission, arrived in 2019 and returned her to the Billboard 200. Along the way she pursued numerous side endeavors, joining forces at various points with Ben Folds, Jherek Bischoff, Brendan Maclean, her father Jack Palmer, and her husband, writer Neil Gaiman.
Prior to co-founding the “Brecht-ian punk cabaret” duo the Dresden Dolls, Palmer had graduated from Wesleyan University and spent several years working in theater. After completing her studies she established the Shadowbox Collective, whose activities encompassed both staged plays and street performances, including her own appearances as a living-statue busker. She first encountered drummer Brian Viglione in 2000; although she did not read music, the pair formed the Dresden Dolls the following year, with Palmer serving as the group’s primary creative engine. Their initial recording, the EP The Dresden Dolls, emerged in 2001, followed by the live album A Is for Accident in 2003. Later that same year a self-titled studio album appeared and was subsequently reissued by Roadrunner Records in 2004. Palmer continued to branch out, publishing The Dresden Dolls Companion in 2006, a volume that combined original artwork, band history, coverage of their debut album, and a partial autobiography. At the close of that year the Dresden Dolls staged the Palmer-penned musical The Onion Cellar in partnership with the American Repertory Theater.
Concurrently she initiated a project with experimental musician Jason Webley centered on musically gifted conjoined twins; performing as Evelyn Evelyn, the pair released the EP Evelyn Evelyn in 2007, the same year Palmer began headlining sold-out solo concerts on the East Coast. The Dresden Dolls delivered the Top 50 album No, Virginia… in April 2008, and that September Roadrunner Records put out Palmer’s solo debut Who Killed Amanda Palmer, which featured Ben Folds in dual roles as producer and musician and spent one week at number 77 on the Billboard 200. She followed with the Radiohead tribute EP Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele and Evelyn Evelyn’s first full-length album, both in 2010. In January 2011 she and Gaiman were married in a private ceremony held in San Francisco. Just a month later she released the partly live Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, an album rich with references to Australia and New Zealand and written during a tour of those countries. April brought the EP Nighty Night, a collaboration with Gaiman, Folds, and OK Go’s Damian Kulash under the collective name 8in8.
In 2012 Palmer prepared Theater Is Evil, her first solo studio album after parting ways with major labels; the set, credited to her and the Grand Theft Orchestra, was financed through a fan crowdsourcing campaign whose original $100,000 target was surpassed tenfold, ultimately gathering more than a million dollars in pledges. The record earned widespread critical praise and reached number ten on the Billboard 200. November 2014 brought the publication of Palmer’s hybrid memoir and self-help volume The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help through Grand Central Publishing. She returned to music in early 2016 with Strung Out in Heaven: A Bowie String Quartet Tribute, a collaborative EP recorded with Jherek Bischoff. That year she also disclosed an album made with her father Jack Palmer; the project originated from a series of joint live appearances and was released as You Got Me Singing, a collection of covers originally performed by Sinéad O’Connor, Leonard Cohen, and Richard Thompson. In 2017 Palmer partnered with Legendary Pink Dots co-founder Edward Ka-Spel to issue the crowd-funded full-length I Can Spin a Rainbow.
Her next solo effort, There Will Be No Intermission, produced by John Congleton, surfaced in March 2019 after a seven-year gap and debuted at number 169 on the Billboard 200 while also placing inside the Top 15 of the alternative, folk, and independent album charts.
Prior to co-founding the “Brecht-ian punk cabaret” duo the Dresden Dolls, Palmer had graduated from Wesleyan University and spent several years working in theater. After completing her studies she established the Shadowbox Collective, whose activities encompassed both staged plays and street performances, including her own appearances as a living-statue busker. She first encountered drummer Brian Viglione in 2000; although she did not read music, the pair formed the Dresden Dolls the following year, with Palmer serving as the group’s primary creative engine. Their initial recording, the EP The Dresden Dolls, emerged in 2001, followed by the live album A Is for Accident in 2003. Later that same year a self-titled studio album appeared and was subsequently reissued by Roadrunner Records in 2004. Palmer continued to branch out, publishing The Dresden Dolls Companion in 2006, a volume that combined original artwork, band history, coverage of their debut album, and a partial autobiography. At the close of that year the Dresden Dolls staged the Palmer-penned musical The Onion Cellar in partnership with the American Repertory Theater.
Concurrently she initiated a project with experimental musician Jason Webley centered on musically gifted conjoined twins; performing as Evelyn Evelyn, the pair released the EP Evelyn Evelyn in 2007, the same year Palmer began headlining sold-out solo concerts on the East Coast. The Dresden Dolls delivered the Top 50 album No, Virginia… in April 2008, and that September Roadrunner Records put out Palmer’s solo debut Who Killed Amanda Palmer, which featured Ben Folds in dual roles as producer and musician and spent one week at number 77 on the Billboard 200. She followed with the Radiohead tribute EP Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele and Evelyn Evelyn’s first full-length album, both in 2010. In January 2011 she and Gaiman were married in a private ceremony held in San Francisco. Just a month later she released the partly live Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, an album rich with references to Australia and New Zealand and written during a tour of those countries. April brought the EP Nighty Night, a collaboration with Gaiman, Folds, and OK Go’s Damian Kulash under the collective name 8in8.
In 2012 Palmer prepared Theater Is Evil, her first solo studio album after parting ways with major labels; the set, credited to her and the Grand Theft Orchestra, was financed through a fan crowdsourcing campaign whose original $100,000 target was surpassed tenfold, ultimately gathering more than a million dollars in pledges. The record earned widespread critical praise and reached number ten on the Billboard 200. November 2014 brought the publication of Palmer’s hybrid memoir and self-help volume The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help through Grand Central Publishing. She returned to music in early 2016 with Strung Out in Heaven: A Bowie String Quartet Tribute, a collaborative EP recorded with Jherek Bischoff. That year she also disclosed an album made with her father Jack Palmer; the project originated from a series of joint live appearances and was released as You Got Me Singing, a collection of covers originally performed by Sinéad O’Connor, Leonard Cohen, and Richard Thompson. In 2017 Palmer partnered with Legendary Pink Dots co-founder Edward Ka-Spel to issue the crowd-funded full-length I Can Spin a Rainbow.
Her next solo effort, There Will Be No Intermission, produced by John Congleton, surfaced in March 2019 after a seven-year gap and debuted at number 169 on the Billboard 200 while also placing inside the Top 15 of the alternative, folk, and independent album charts.
Albums
Amanda Palmer & Friends Present Forty-Five Degrees: Bushfire Charity Flash Record
2020
Who Killed Amanda Palmer
2008
Singles
