What does an art-punk extrovert do after launching a cabaret-goth duo and crafting a solo album based on Twin Peaks ‘ doomed prom queen?
If she’s Amanda Palmer, she joins the sonic circus as half of a freak show musical act, then marries Neil Gaiman while giving Kevin Smith the gas face on Twitter.
LISTEN: “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?” by Evelyn Evelyn
The latest charming project for the musically gifted singer/songwriter, who’s played with drummer Brian Viglione since 2000 as The Dresden Dolls, is Evelyn Evelyn (pictured above), the name of Palmer and freaky folkie Jason Webley‘s fictional conjoined twin pop stars.
Evelyn Evelyn’s self-titled debut, out Tuesday from Eleven Records, is puffy with postmodern show tunes mashing jazz and indie rock into a deranged musical experiment that might have Freaks director Tod Browning jealously spinning in his grave. The duo’s “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?” (listenable at left) is a ragtime laugher, and even the ukulele cover of Joy Division’s morose anthem “Love Will Tear Us Apart” does not fail to impress.
A tour begins April 12 in Palmer’s Boston stomping ground and features Evelyn Evelyn in all its — their? — bizarro glory.
“The show actually features the twins themselves, who are conjoined at the side and share three legs,” the always-good-natured Palmer told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “They also share a liver. They also really like Twix bars. As live musicians, they’re insanely talented: They play accordion, piano, ukulele, guitar and drums, all with one on right-hand duties and one on the left.”
Palmer is no stranger to brainy theatrics. She’s busked as a living statue, founded the drama troupe Shadowbox Collective and collaborated with the American Repertory Theatre and Boston Pops. That’s the way it should be, especially in times of irony overload like ours where rock and pop are arguably losing their theatrical edge.
“Rock needs theater, rock is theater,” Palmer said. “We just go through different eras of guilty admission about this. Having risen with The Dresden Dolls in the heyday of The Strokes and The White Stripes, everyone was looking at us as completely misfit theater dorks. But it’s really encouraging to see a more theater-dork wave of bands like The Scissor Sisters, Antony & The Johnsons, CocoRosie, Patrick Wolf and even Arcade Fire and Decembrists becoming popular. The dress-up freaks are coming back, and it’s wonderful to watch.”
What’s also wonderful, especially for dorks like us, is Palmer’s recent engagement to lit and comics legend Neil Gaiman. The writer shows up, along with Andrew W.K. and “Weird Al” Yankovic, to belt out some vocals on Evelyn Evelyn. Sorta.
“They all sing the same single line on the song ‘My Space’ and it passes by in an eyeblink,” Palmer explained. “It was more like calling in a favor to all these fancy-pants people to endorse the record itself by attaching their name to it. Honestly, it’s so left-field and hard to explain that it needs all the help it can get.”
Since announcing her engagement, Palmer has been fielding romantic endorsements from director Kevin Smith. The cult favorite relentlessly counter-courted Palmer on Twitter, trying in vain to publicly cuckold Gaiman. And while Palmer may be a Doll, she’s no dummy.
Freak out! Evelyn Evelyn's self-titled debut arrives March 30.
Images courtesy Eleven Records
“I really like Neil a whole, whole, whole lot,” Palmer said. “And I really do not want to marry Kevin Smith, even a little.” But one half of a fictional conjoined-twin art star can still dream, especially of a fictional war between factions carrying banners for two geek gods.
“Do you remember the Trojan War, dude? I’m just saying,” Palmer said. “Can you imagine what a world war between a Neil Gaiman army and a Kevin Smith army would actually look like? Their fans are serious. I predict there would be lots of very high-fallutin’, toilet-based name-calling, confusing many. And possibly foam swords swinging at hockey sticks.”
Really?
“Actually, that’s bullshit,” she said. “There’s no way anybody would leave their Twitter feeds for long enough to pull out a foam sword or a hockey stick. Maybe it’ll be the world’s first full-on digital war and people will just head over to Second Life to duke it out. I hope Neil’s army wins.”
Kevin Smith Rains F-Bombs on Mac Nerds[#iframe: https://more-deals.info/images_blogs/underwire/2010/03/04-have-you-seen-my-sister-evelyn_.mp3?_=1]
