Sat. Dec. 29

 Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione - the Dresden Dolls - are back in town at the Orpheum Theatre, Saturday Dec. 29. The show starts at 7:30. We asked the lovely Ms. Palmer what to expect: "We've got two AMAZING openers: Luminescent Orchestrii who are a klezmer/punk/gypsy freak out extravaganza, never fail to get a crowd dancing and yelling....and Meow Meow, who recently performed with me at the ART and is a world-class twisted cabaret bombshell. Plus surprises, of course.....all the acts doing songs together and it should be great..'' As to her "solo" album, done with Ben Folds in Nashville, she says, "I'm at the finish line, mastering. It's been an amazing process. What started out as a solo piano record now doesn't have a SINGLE solo piano song on it. It's a full-on bizarre and beautiful rock record. Ben really went to town on the production and I also schlepped a hanfdul of songs over to Paul Buckmaster in LA, who did all the string arranging for Elton John and other heros. He went to town. Everybody went to town. There are also some incredible guest performers...Zoe Keating, Annie Clark from St. Vincent, East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys, it's a wild album. I'm insanely proud of it. ... The Dolls are going strong and we're thrilled about this upcoming tour. We miss playing with each other, but duty elsewhere calls. We have plans to record record #3 as soon as my solo album cycle is over." 

This summer, we had (yet another) long and lovely chat with Palmer. It was for Playgirl magazine – yes, our first time in that mag. (Amanda loved the placement.)    We thought we’d give JSInk readers a version of the Playgirl interview, realizing not all of you will have seen that – and there was more to the interview than was in the magazine. Entertainment/provocation value: High. Attitude: Saucy.

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     Palmer, who grew up in Lexington, Mass. and graduated from Wesleyan College, formed the Dresden Dolls seven years ago with drummer-guitarist Brian Viglione. For her senior project, she splayed herself out naked, dead, covered in fake blood on the campus, while hidden photographers clicked away. Palmer says most people went “Ho-hum. Senior project.” Early in the Dolls life, she and a female friend made a short porno called “Voodoo Dykes.” She’s posed nude for photographers and sculptors. No regrets about any of it.

JSInk: The solo record: How’s it coming and how is it not like a Dresden Dolls record?
AP: It’s become a much more patchwork record than I thought it was going to be. There’s not a ton of piano. It’s still pretty minimal, but there’s some percussion, I recorded one song on a Wurlitzer and that sounds beautiful. There’s some random studio ridiculousness. We started adding sound effects from the gyroscope I was using to exercise my wrist and we started taking audio off the Internet. You get nuts after a while. But it sounds really beautiful. There’s cello and strings, all sorts of good stuff. Like a Dresden Dolls record, there’s a wide range of songwriting, but not just stylistically. It also ranges in timeline. Some of these songs are from my early 20s and are songs Brian and I never got around to arranging or finishing or Brian wasn’t really interested in them or they just didn’t call for drums. It’s actually turning into another collection of songs, really not that different from a Dresden Dolls record except instead of sitting down with Brian as a partner and arranging them in a very limited way with piano and drums. I’m letting my imagination take over.
JSInk: This record doesn’t threaten the Dresden Dolls existence does it?
AP: No. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I think Brian and I were long overdue for a break. It’s like we’ve barely had lives outside for seven years. Constant touring, recording – neither of us have been in any substantial relationships. It’s really been giving every ounce of energy to the band. I think it hit the point of unhealthy a couple of years ago, but we kept going because we were riding on a wave.

JSInk: Your relationship with Brian seems highly charged. Is it sexual?
AP: It’s really intense and very difficult. Brian and I have had incredible musical and sexual chemistry from the day we met. It’s been like a hot potato for seven years. We have been lovers – bit we haven’t slept together in a long time. When we first met, we were both dating other people and the minute, literally, we were both out of the relationships, the first thing we did was (make love) . And every time we were playing music with each other it was like a courtship. And it still feels that way to a certain extent. But I was a lot younger and careless and you really have to weigh the emotional impact of sleeping with someone, and it can be devastating and lasting.. Brian and I have really tried to work through and around it, but it’s like any other relationship. It’s non-sensical desires on one side, and on the other side you’ve got intelligent, practical, pragmatic. I was always trying to be more skeptical of the possibility of us having a friend-plus relationship because I knew from the beginning it was going to complicate things with the band. But I also threw caution to the wind. It’s such an ongoing challenge. At its best it’s good creative tension and at its worst it’s two brats slapping at each other.
JSInk: Do you want a relationship?
AP: You mean a monogamous boyfriend-girlfriend thing?
JSInk: However you want to define it.
AP: The interesting thing about being on the road and living the abnormal gypsy lifestyle is you are forced to reckon with relationships in a way most people aren’t. For starters, I was never the sort of person who wanted to put all of my relationships into a very tight box – this is best friend, this is my boyfriend, this is my ex-boyfriend. What I’ve realized in general about relationships is they need a certain level of care and feeding you can’t neglect when you’re on the road. So, I have my hands full of intimates who I make sure I connect with on a really consistent basis whether I’m in Boston, L.A. or Japan. Listening to the material, one could be intimidated by you or or the character in the songs.
JSInk:Listening to your songs, one could assume you might be a somewhat intimidating, even frightening, lover.
AP: You know what’s sort of ironic about that is, I used to be. I used to be really aggressive. I was the girl in bed who would go absolutely mad and bite you all over. With very little consideration, I may add. Sex and pain were all sort of wrapped up in this mysterious package. I’ve actually become incredibly tender in a way that I think just shocks people. And I don’t know if that’s because I’m getting old or I’m actually becoming more considerate. Not that I never had tenderness in my relationships, but I’ve really come to understand something them – like the power of silence in music, the space between the notes. It’s not very exciting to be a scratching, biting, moaning, traumatic relationship in bed. It’s actually rather boring. Although those moments do have their place.
JSInk: Sexuality is integral to how you perform and write, too. How do you look at it?
AP: I feel like every woman has to deal with this overwhelmingly confusing question in a way that men just don’t seem to be confronted with. It goes back to the whole virgin/whore complex, and it’s very difficult. If you’re a woman, you’re either taking advantage of your sexuality – or you’re deliberately not, in which case you’re going to get negative attention. Everyone is desperately trying to find that balance where they’re feminine and yet empowered, and it seems so impossible. If you say, “I’m simply going to do what I want” and if it means wearing army pants and combat boots when I feel like it, not shaving and wandering around looking like a big old dyke, people can think what they want. I do it every day. The most amazing thing is it really (messes) with people’s paradigm.
JSInk: You are, of course, famous for not shaving your armpits.
AP: I cannot tell you the amount of (negativity) I get for not shaving my armpits. We just did an interview on a red carpet in Vegas for some TV clip and the clip was posted up to the web. Here we are giving an interview about the Human Rights tour and the causes, and I’m wearing a really sexy dress, and every time I raised my arm, the television show super-imposed a red arrow and a 'ding ding ding' sound. It was a total Perez Hilton thing. It’s such a little thing, but people make such a big deal out of it. Of all the women I know, even if their instinct is “I don’t want to shave my armpits, it’s a pain in the ass” it’s less of a pain in the ass to not have to deal with people’s reactions. You shave because not because you’re dis-empowered or you’re weak, but you don’t want to deal with people’s comments.
JSInk: Good thing while you were on the carpet, you didn’t lift your dress and show your vagina.
AP: Oh my God, they would have loved it! It’s become an increasingly a more shaved planet. I remember in the ‘80s, it wasn’t de rigeur for girls to shave their vagina – it was actually somewhat racy and exotic. Now, you’re not supposed to have hair. To be frank - and as a woman who’s bisexual and does deal with vaginas occasionally - I don’t think it’s sexy. I think it’s kind of gross and slimy. Especially when the hair is growing back in, it’s stubbly. It freaks me out to be talking to these teenage girls and they really assume they have to shave their (pubic) hair the way they have to shave their leg hair. It’s really totally scary.

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