Amanda Palmer Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under

• Makin’ Whoopee
• Vegemite (The Black Death)
• Australia
• Map of Tasmania (Feat. The Young Punx)
• In My Mind (Feat. Brian Viglione)
• Bad Wine and Lemon Cake
• New Zealand
• On an Unknown Beach
• We’re Happy Little Vegemites
• Doctor Oz
• A Formidable Marinade
• The Ship Song

Amanda Palmer had been doing Amanda Palmer for well over a decade when the thirtysomething performance artist, musician and busker began to look back. Although technically her second full-length album (and follow up to her 2010 Radiohead covers EP), Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under had the theme of a mid-career artist: paying tribute to one's past. The album was not just cheeky double entendre from the often outrageous Palmer, but a meat-pie-and-potatoes tribute to Australia and New Zealand. According to Palmer, "I have a special relationship with the Australian people. It was the first continent where Dresden Dolls landed and it was Beatlemania." Musical collaborators included her Dresden Dolls bandmate Brian Viglione and "electronic music collective" the Young Punx, and the 12 tracks includes covers of Aussie Nick Cave and Kiwi Peter Jefferies. Like her previous multimedia efforts, the album was accompanied by a photographic storybook with work by Ben Folds and writer (and then freshly minted husband) Neil Gaiman.

Abstract by Dan Nishimoto