Firewater - Fell Off the Face of the Earth

 

#Firewater #ex-Cop Shoot Cop #gypsy punk #world punk #dark cabaret #alternative rock #eclectic #indie rock

New York-based band Firewater incorporated a global range of musical influences into their highly dynamic sound. A loosely knit ensemble centered around the lead vocals of ex-Cop Shoot Cop bass player Tod A. (born: Tod Ashley), Firewater tied together such influences as Klezmer, Indian wedding music, art-punk, and Tom Waits-style cabaret poetry to create their heady, often quite danceable sound. Coupled with Tod A.'s acerbic, post-apocalyptic, and death-obsessed lyrics, Firewater was a band to be reckoned with almost from the beginning. Shortly after forming in 1995, Firewater released its debut, Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire. Both it and 1998's The Ponzi Scheme featured guitarist Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard, drummer Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing, and saxophone and accordion player Kurt Hofmann of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The sultry vocals of Elysian Fields' Jennifer Charles also drifted through both albums. Charles returned for 2001's more pop-oriented Psychopharmacology; other contributions came from saxophonist Ori Kaplan and sitar player Oren Bloedow. In 2003, Tod A. and his "wedding band gone wrong" returned with a stripped-down, razor-wire-wrapped effort for Jet Set entitled The Man on the Burning Tightrope. The covers album Songs We Should Have Written appeared early the following year. Tod A. then went on an extended trek through Thailand, India, Pakistan, Turkey ,and Indonesia, which he chronicled on his blog Postcards from the Other Side of the World. A. also recorded music on his travels, collaborating with producer Tamir Muskat and local musicians along the way. The results were The Golden Hour, which Bloodshot Records released in spring 2008. After touring in support of that album, A. settled in Istanbul, and recorded there and in Tel Aviv during 2011's Arab Spring, reuniting with Muskat as a collaborator. International Orange arrived in September 2012.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/firewater-mn0000143617#biography

Emilie Autumn - Opheliac

 #Emilie Autumn #dark cabaret #electronica #industrial #classical #gothic folk rock #singer-songwriter

Emilie Autumn Liddell is a Gothic poet, singer / songwriter, violinist, harpsichordist, performance artist, feminist, and author. She's self described as that she sounds "like the best cup of English Breakfast spiked with cyanide and smashed on your antique wallpaper." Of Emilie's life, very little is known at the moment. What we do know is that she started playing violin at the age of four, a talent that she has continued to this day, and that she voluntarily stayed away from most of the mainstream music communities (both classical and commercial) due to bad experiences and clashes within them: In fact, most of her albums were self published by her own company. Her first album was On a Day - a classical album released in 2000, when she was 20 or 21. The following year she put out the Chambermaid and By the Sword EPs. In 2003 her first full vocal album was released: Enchant, an album filled with a number of songs inspired by fairy tales. Also contained in this CD was the Enchant Puzzle, which no one has ever solved. This was the Enchant era, when Emilie was a faerie.
After going through an extremely awful period in her life that resulted in a suicide attempt and hospitalisation, she was inspired to move in a different artistic direction. This began with the Opheliac EP, followed by the full album Opheliac. This album was far Darker and Edgier than Enchant, and a reflection of Emilie's mental state, as this album was released as an agreement with herself that she'd make the album instead of killing herself. The songs are mostly about madness and suicide, particularly in water. Much of the album is influenced by William Shakespeare, as is made obvious by the title. Many of the songs are not written from the perspective of Emilie, but from Ophelia herself, the Lady of Shalott, and others. Later in 2007, she re-released Enchant along with A Bit o' This & That, which was a collection of previously unheard songs, re-mixes, and tracks from older EPs. Also released that year was Laced / Unlaced. Laced was a re-release of On a Day... while Unlaced was an all-new collection of instrumental songs done in her newer style. In 2009 she was able to release her autobiography, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. She has also released The Opheliac Companion, which provides information and background about the songs on Opheliac. The Opheliac era is what Emilie is most well known for. And from gaining more muffins (fans), she was able to make more and more theatrical tours which gained more and more theatrics tour by tour. Joining her on stage in the Asylum are her Bloody Crumpets, a group of lovely mad girls.
In 2012 she released another album, Fight Like a Girl, which had been lingering in Development Hell for several years. Despite her initial promises that it was going to be "more metal" than Opheliac was, it ended up being a theatrical concept album based around the fictionalised Victorian story that appeared in The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. According to Emilie, she intends to use the album as part of the soundtrack to the play she's currently writing about the book. The album has created a Broken Base in the fandom because of its differences from the highly popular Opheliac and because the violin plays a much less significant role it in than it had in her previous music. Her current look and shows are generally referred to as the FLAG era by fans. She played the Painted Doll in The Devil's Carnival and its sequel Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival, musical films by the creators of Repo! The Genetic Opera, alongside two of her Crumpets, Captain Maggots and Contessa.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/EmilieAutumn

Tardigrade Inferno - The Worst of Me

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #Russian #music video

Tardigrade Inferno is a young band, but already established in its niche. The team itself positions itself as a "metal big top" and focuses not only on music and funny lyrics, but also on appearance. While the band is on its first Russian tour, we got in touch with the musicians to get a little more information about their plans for the near future, new albums and personal philosophy.

Let's talk about personal branding. Do you have a personal brand, do you feel responsible for being a public figure? How do you position yourself to the public?

Yes, there is something similar. There is an image of some kind of leading circus or a teller of scary stories to children, and there is just us as people, and we maneuver somewhere in the middle so that there is both theatricality and sincerity. That is, on the one hand, we have an image with a certain amount of mystery that we protect, on the other hand, we are open to communication with fans.

Do you have some kind of self-censorship, so to speak?

No. That is, we discuss what and how to post and what to write, but this is more editing than self-censorship. We do not have some terrible undercover secrets that we hush up, there are no taboo topics that we really want to say something about but we are afraid that they will not understand us. There were no places in the songs that we would cut so as not to fall under someone's knife.

Do you get compared to other popular bands with female vocals? Do these comparisons offend you?

Of course they compare. We can't remember anything bad. If it was, then it is most likely a matter of taste. The very fact of comparison is not offensive.

Due to the fact that you don’t have a frontman, but a frontwoman, so to speak, there were no such stories when people told you “here is a woman’s place in the kitchen, where you climbed onto the stage”, “a girl should be cute, how can you be in such kind of speaking." Have you come across any stereotypes?

It slips in personal conversations, but very rarely, only if the person is not involved in this. It's a matter of life choice when it comes to a woman's career as a metal vocalist. There are career women; they are condemned by those people for whom such a lifestyle is unacceptable. Our circle of contacts is such that such questions and claims do not arise. Such reasoning is probably characteristic of the people who do not come into contact with such types of art, so our contacts end at the stage of “what kind of freaks are these anyway?” Although recently in VK Sasha was asked to explain a hairstyle.

Are you generally offended by comparisons with Western colleagues?

Offended - never. We may be perplexed when they say about us “you just took a bandname and licked everything like a carbon paper”, but it’s strange to be offended by this, and indeed to react in any way. And when they just compare, there is no negative at all. Even within the band we don't fully agree on who our music is more like.

Is it possible to say that you are trying to convey the serious through a joke in your work?

Partly. The song must first of all work on an emotional level, and if the lyrics are just 100 percent humorous jokes, then it will not be as effective as adding tragic notes or some idea. That is, all this is not based on the desire to say something important, but on the desire to write a good song. And if there is nothing in the song except the surface layer, then it is felt. And it turns out that "to convey something serious" is not an end in itself, but a practical necessity. Of course, not all of our songs are about something other than the immediate plot of the text (at least consciously), but without a periodic feeling that there is something behind the song, it seems to me that listening to music gets boring.

Do you have any strange fans or stories associated with them? Your colleagues often tell stories about fans who stalk them, give strange gifts, and compulsively write comments and letters on social networks.

You know, we have quite a lot of "weird" fans in a good way, which is quite logical, since we ourselves are strange, like our music. Often people come to our concerts in cool strange costumes. We haven't accumulated any stories yet, but now we are skating our first tour, getting to know the fans. There are guys who go to our concerts in different cities. They give us gifts. We were presented with drawings, paintings, last year one artist presented a large painting of Dasha. We still have not found a place on the repbaza where to hang it, but we will definitely hang it, we really like it. Once, guys from Tula came to our concert, brought a gingerbread, but the guards took it away and ate it. In social networks, some fans quite often write to Dasha, but so far there has not been any obsessive persecution.

Isn't it scary to be a musician in Russia?

It's scary to be in Russia. Being a musician in Russia is just as scary as being a musician in another country. Show business will chew you up and spit you out if you don't try, like any other business.

Translated from: http://metalkings.org/interviews/257

Amanda Palmer - Want It Back

 #Amanda Palmer #ex-The Dresden Dolls #alternative rock #dark cabaret #dark folk #punk cabaret #singer-songwriter #music video

Last month it was announced that self-styled "punk cabaret" performer Amanda Palmer had managed to raise $1.2 million through crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter, with nearly 25,000 fans donating money to fund her forthcoming album Theatre Is Evil. To celebrate, she performed in a car park in Brooklyn wearing a dress made out of balloons, encouraging any of her fans with pins to come forward and slowly burst each balloon until she was left completely naked.
There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere relating to the open relationship Palmer has with her fans, but it also displays her willingness to bare all for her art. This feeling of being comfortable in her own skin can be seen in the stop-motion video for the excellent Want It Back, in which the lyrics to the song are scrawled on her body (bed sheets, walls and iPad). Talking about the making of the video, Palmer says: "I'm so comfortable being naked at this point that I almost forget. I’m also proud that that video has nudity, but it isn't sexual or erotic. it's using the body as a raw canvas, which I love."
Filmed by Australian director Jim Batt, it's a brilliantly intimate and anarchic representation of the song, the line "it doesn't matter if you want it back, you've given it away" made even more open and honest. Mind you, it could also refer to her no-refunds policy for fans who donated money.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/jul/09/amanda-palmer-want-it-back-video

This Friday, Amanda Palmer — the boob-showing, armpit-hair-wearing, theatre-loving cabaret-rock misfit who might be reinventing the music industry one tweet at a time — is coming to play a show in San Francisco. It's sold-the-fuck-out, of course (you can catch her again Sept. 26 at the Fillmore) but that shouldn't at all diminish your enjoyment of her excellent (and, coincidentally, NSFW) new video for “Want it Back.”
Here again we get Amanda in the nude, but not to especially erotic ends. Rather, her skin becomes a canvas for the beautifully scrawled lyrics of the song, which race over her chest, around her body, then down her leg and off to the walls of the room, someone's iPad, and a bunch of other places before returning to from whence they came, as Amanda herself turns black with ink. The concept is simple but totally arresting, with the type of the writing (and even some words) changing throughout, and the he whole thing working in a kind of bewildering stop-motion courtesy of editor/producer/director Jim Batt. Musically, Palmer's band, the Grand Theft Orchestra, is in full-on piano-rock mode, with a meaty arrangement of agile, ear-friendly pop. Palmer's voice is always a bit more growly than we remember; she's distinctive and evocative and powerful, although not sweet. All in all this is top-notch stuff — definitely worth that million-dollar Kickstarter campaign.  From: https://www.sfweekly.com/music/amanda-palmers-nsfw-want-it-back-video-the-naked-truth-is-not-necessarily-sexy/article_e89b909a-6068-5e4a-bbd3-2945de572db7.html

Birdeatsbaby - Tenterhooks

 #Birdeatsbaby #alternative rock #progressive rock #alternative metal #dark cabaret #gothic pop #music video

Birdeatsbaby is a genre indefinable quartet formed in 2008 and based in Brighton. The dark and twisted quality of their music videos has gained them some degree of fame. Just like that other dark cabaret band, The Dresden Dolls, they present a lot of piano-led pop tunes, supplemented with drums, guitar, and violin. Singer and pianist Mishkin Fitzgerald has also released a solo album, and works in electro-math-rock band Cat Fire Radio.

This band contains examples of:
Cover Version: Birdeatsbaby has released covers of songs by Muse, Tool, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Hole, and PJ Harvey to name a few.
Genre Shift: The bombastic cabaret theme of the early videos has been somewhat withdrawn from their latest videos, giving place to more desaturated colors à la Nolan, and more melancholic songs.
Genre Throwback: The "Feast of Hammers" music video evokes Hammer Horror movies.
Gothic Horror: "The Bullet Within" borrows from this genre, particularly the song "Hands of Orlac" which is named after a gothic horror film.
Harsh Vocals: Mishkin alternates between this and more gentle vocalizations.
Haunted Heroine: The subject of "Ghosts".
Murder Ballad: "Love Will Bring You Nothing."
Obligatory Bondage Song: A variation: "Miserable" is about a woman who is into BDSM, but the narrator of the song seems to disapprove of her lifestyle.
Riot Grrrl: The movement seems to have at least influenced the band, though it is unknown if Birdeatsbaby identifies itself as a part of it.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Mishkin trains in kickboxing in real life. She is shown training and fighting in the "Present Company" video from her first solo single.
Sanity Slippage Song: "Incitatus"
Take That!: "Gone", "Jim", and "The Replacement". All quite vicious and open. "Part of Me" may be the band's most scathing song to date.
Teenage Death Songs: "Seventeen".
Uncommon Time: The verses of "Tenterhooks" are effectively in 22/8 time, and sections of "The Bullet" are in phrases of 5.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In "Feast of Hammers", when Mishkin sees the masked men in action.
Whole-Plot Reference: The entire "I Always Hang Myself With The Same Rope" video is one to Alfred Hitchcock movies.
Word Salad Lyrics: Most of the album "Here She Comes-a-Tumblin'" was the result of a teenage Mishkin's insomnia-induced hallucinations and nightmares, resulting in some particularly strange and terrifying imagery on more than one occasion.

From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Birdeatsbaby

Birdeatsbaby is a Brighton, UK chamber rock/prog-punk/dark cabaret four-piece, of Mishkin Fitzgerald (lead vocals, piano), Hana Maria (violin, vocals), Garry Mitchell (bass, guitar) and Anna Mylee (drums). The band was formed in November 2007, followed by début album Here She Comes-a-Tumblin' (2009, self-released). Their albums include Feast Of Hammers (2012), The Bullet Within (2014), Tanta Furia (2016) and The World Conspires (2019). Not fitting current musical trends, Birdeatsbaby's sound is fast-paced with complex drums, and piano/bass/violin generally combined for dramatic/catchy choruses. Like a more hyper-active Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds meets a slightly depressed Freddie Mercury. Descriptions of the band have included: 'an unhinged burlesque brand of freak-pop' and 'Twin Peaks on snuff.'  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Birdeatsbaby/+wiki

Tardigrade Inferno - Hypnotherapy For Beginners (Hypnosis)

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #Russian #music video

Tardigrade Inferno’s Mastermind is one odd duck. Put one way, this album is literally my personality written into a metal record. Put another way, it’s a circus-tent nightmare from clown hell, and Frontierer happened to play there once and left their chunky guitar tone there by accident. What sets Tardigrade Inferno apart from the only other act on the planet that I know of who sounds remotely like these Ruskies — Stolen Babies — is that their concoction of dark cabaret and metal is more straightforward and therefore way more fun. Cheesy? Hell-fucking-yeah. Yet, every microsecond of Mastermind claws deeper and deeper into my brain with every single riff or chorus or synth lead, of which there are multitudes.
Take the opening track, “All Tardigrades Go to Hell,” as the template for the album as a whole. Darya Pavlovich hosts The Greatest Show Under a Microscope with her sometimes sneering, sometimes quasi-operatic ringmastery. Maxim Belekhov and Alexander Pavlovich follow right behind with an elephantine riff that will stomp your skull flat. Keyboardist Viktor Posokhin further ensnares my imagination with eerie calliopes and buzzing synths, and drummer Andrew “Drew” [lat name redacted] provides a dynamic, albeit not at all technical, rhythmic backbone to support this colorful cannon of confetti and carnage.
Things get silly very quickly after that. “Hypnosis,” “Dreadful Song,” and “Alabama Song” maximize on Witchyworld-ready whimsy, but once again the riffs use the upbeat instrumentation as leverage to smash your face in with a Fist-in-a-Box. Instrumental “Precourse” comes next, smartly bisecting Tardigrade Inferno’s debut into two segments. In this second half, songs like “Church Asylum,” “All Pigs are the Same,” and Song o’ the Year Finalist “Mastermind” feel more story-driven and tinged with villainy, but in a playful way. Plus, you get not one but two fantastic covers: System of a Down’s “Marmalade” and “We Are Number One” from Lazy Town. Both of them are as faithful as they are absolutely ridonkulous.
Mastermind is certainly not perfect. As consistently insane as it is, it’s definitely also an acquired taste for many. At the same time, Tardigrade Inferno offer something truly rarefied in my world. I normally hate cabaret music, with very few exceptions (almost all of them found in videogames). And yet, here I am, spewing nonsense about a cabaret metal album that everyone else here will probably hate, but which I love with the burning passion of a million firecrackers. What a time to be alive!  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tardigrade-inferno-mastermind-things-you-might-have-missed-2019/

Tardigrade Inferno - How Nightmares Die

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #dark circus music #Russian #animated music video

Coming from the musically rich city of St Petersburg, Russia is the extraordinarily zany and creative band Tardigrade Inferno which formed somewhere around 2016 and released one self-titled EP and has been somewhat quiet for a few years. The year 2019 has barely had time to warm up and the band finally unleash the very first debut full-length MASTERMIND which displays the band’s unique mix of alternative metal with dark cabaret circus music. Add in sprinklings of death metal, thrash and power metal and you have one of early 2019’s most promising new acts.
The word “Tardigrade” can refer to either a variety of slow-moving microscopic invertebrates or it can simply be an adjective that means slow-moving or slow in action. I have no friggin’ idea how this applies to this band since this is high energy metal and there is relatively little info about this band on the net as i can’t even find any sort of biography whatsoever, however i can say that this band has found a unique sound right off the bat. However if i had to compare Tardigrade Inferno to any other band it would definitely be Diablo Swing Orchestra as it has the same cartoonish feel and the singing style of lead vocalist Darya Pavlovich sounds a lot like both AnnLouice Lögdlund and Kristin Evegård of DSO.
Musically though, this band doesn’t break out the jazz instrumentation or even circus accordions but rather delivers a metal music heft piled on top of dark cabaret and circus melodies alongside the bouncy festive rhythms that are associated with the greatest show on Earth. The metal bombast is mostly carried out by the power chord slapping staccato style accompanied by circusy keyboard runs but different metal variations come into play however mostly in an alternative metal down-tuned power chord rampage. While Darya Pavlovich’s vocal range stays more in clean vocal cabaret mode, she occasionally screams in metal style reminding me of Arch Enemy for short stints but unfortunately not nearly enough! The circus bounces are always under the surface despite heavy metal thunder stomping fast numbers or slower subdued moments.
While i’m constantly reminded of Diablo Swing Orchestra, Tardigrade Inferno isn’t nearly as daring and out there and is rather restrained in comparison. While the music is definitely quirky and playful it doesn’t change the sound up nearly often enough although there are moments such as on the title track where death growls and guitar solos enter the picture, otherwise Darya is pretty much on cutesy Gwen Stefani mode and reminds me a bit of the 90s band No Doubt only with more metal bombast. While a band to look out for as the members become more comfortable with this stylistic fusion approach, this debut is a great start with elements of ska, gypsy swing and the dominant dark cabaret sounds keeping the album infectiously catchy and light-hearted without skimping on the metallic angst.  From: https://www.metalmusicarchives.com/artist/tardigrade-inferno

Firewater - Psychopharmacology

 #Firewater #gypsy punk #world punk #dark cabaret #alternative rock #indie rock #eclectic

New York-based band Firewater incorporated a global range of musical influences into their highly dynamic sound. A loosely knit ensemble centered around the lead vocals of ex-Cop Shoot Cop bass player Tod A. (born: Tod Ashley), Firewater tied together such influences as Klezmer, Indian wedding music, art-punk, and Tom Waits-style cabaret poetry to create their heady, often quite danceable sound. Coupled with Tod A.'s acerbic, post-apocalyptic, and death-obsessed lyrics, Firewater was a band to be reckoned with almost from the beginning.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0F5fXdlx1bKwYFZ70bfuZ9

You ever found yourself looking for something at the bottom of a cupboard and come out with something else covered in dust, long forgotten? Psychopharmacology is covered in lint, dust and shed pubes from the very same cupboard. Full of afterthoughts you'd have if you spent a month of late nights in the company of cheap red wine, even cheaper cigarettes and spiteful company. All this imagery and the sound and songs to back it up. But, I must say, this album is the closest to as "approachable" a Firewater album as the first time listener will probably get. For my money anyway. If you haven't heard of these lot yet and are taking a gamble, this is the place to start. Don't take my word for it, I've been listening since CopShootCop and won't knock too much anything creative Tod A. & co. put out - mainly because this is original music, slightly familiar but in a "can't place the artist," kind of way. You can bandy about Tom Waits for a comparison point, but you'd have to throw in the 'Stones, Beatles and a heady mix of dark, seedy and downright evil turns of carnival/burlesque/gypsy fare. Simply put, it's an intriguing spectacle to behold. Get yourself a nice big ashtray, a half a dozen warm beers and a bearded wench in an over-tight corset to accompany the journey. Highly Recommended. Bearded Wenches & Firewater, of course.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Psychopharmacology-Firewater/product-reviews/B00005BC94/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews 

Amanda Palmer - Leeds United

 #Amanda Palmer #ex-The Dresden Dolls #alternative rock #dark cabaret #dark folk #punk cabaret #singer-songwriter 

According to Palmer, this song was inspired by a real-life incident. “I had been dating this guy from Leeds, Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs, and we had a totally brief flash-in-the-pan fling. We had a really great time together. I really liked him, and I went up to his house in Leeds for a week. He gave me this great Leeds United jersey, which I prized. And then when I got back on tour a couple of days later I wore it on stage. I had a bra underneath, so I took off the jersey and finished the encore all sweaty and stuff. I went back to look for it, the stage was being cleaned, and it was like, ‘Fuck! Where’s my shirt!?’ I had that shirt for all of about 5 days. I’d already gotten all excited and sentimental about it, and then it vanished.”  From: https://genius.com/Amanda-palmer-leeds-united-lyrics

Tone Deaf:  You had your new album come out last year — how has the response been since it’s came out? You also had 15,000 supporters for it. It must have been amazing to have so many people put their faith, their money, and their trust in you for a record.

AP: It’s been amazing. It’s actually less hectic than having major label. You know, with your creativity and your soul and time and own vice-grip, I think it’s a lot easier, but then again I’ve played on both sides of that field and it’s a cost benefit in both departments. Being crowd funded by 15,000 people has its own set of tasks, responsibilities, drawbacks, but I would choose every single one of them one hundred times over the drawbacks of being at the mercy of profit driven major labels.

Tone Deaf: When you do release an album in that sense, is it hard to gauge how successful it’s been?

AP: That’s a really good and complicated question. What I have found is that it’s hard to gauge success, period. Even in the heyday of the Dresden Dolls, success was so slippery and impossible to define. The label defined it one way, we defined it a completely different way. If 20 years of releasing music and touring has taught me anything, it’s that I have to creatively manufacture my own definition of success. It’s definitely not streaming number. It’s definitely not money. It definitely isn’t whether or not magazine X gave me a five-star review, because all of those things have and haven’t been true in certain parts of my career, and have actually no bearing on whether or not a project was successful. I have to say that my ultimate definition of success has a lot more to do with the concrete emotional impact I can see the work having on people when I tour it and when I put it out than it does with whether or not the media weighs in or whether or not something is in the charts.

Tone Deaf: If you look at chart positions, there’s so many variations between so many artists. But then when you see you play live, your fans are so dedicated, and clearly that’s a good gauge of success if it resonates with the people, and you see that they’re enjoying it.

AP: Well that in itself is a slippery slope, because how many people need to be in that room for you to be able to call it successful? I mean, I have gotten to the point as an artist where I think I’ve fine-tuned my ability to the point to where I could bust out that ukulele, and I could play a song for you that would move you, and that’s the only thing I did this year, and I could still call it a successful endeavour, because I connected with, and affected somebody. I think we’ve just been fed the Kool-Aid for so long that scale is everything and blockbuster hits are everything, and success is upsized that we forget as artists that our role doesn’t have to do with size and scale. And we need to start flushing that Kool-Aid out of our system.

From: https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/amanda-palmer-interview-2020/list/check-out-amanda-palmers-do-it-with-a-rockstar/

Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer (also known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, born April 30, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, storyteller, writer and ukulele player. She's most famous for her work as part of the Brechtian punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, along with drummer Brian Viglione. They released three studio albums and toured as openers for Panic! at the Disco, until they went on hiatus in 2008. Although Viglione and her have done shows together since then, the band has officially broken up, even though Palmer has announced plans for them to produce music again.
In 2012, Palmer famously released an album with her at-the-time band The Grand Theft Orchestra called Theatre is Evil, which was funded entirely over Kickstarter - a groundbreaking artistic decision at the time, which was worth it, as the Kickstarter far overpassed its goal. She released the album for free through her website, and then debuted on the Billboard top 100 Album list at number 10 due to the immense number of Kickstarter pre-orders.
Her songs vary wildly in style and topics, with many featuring dark humor and subject material. She's fond of recontextualizing children's songs in a more mature, adult way, and of making puns. Amanda's also known for performing covers of whatever she feels like, ranging from an entire EP of Radiohead covers on the ukulele, to classic musicals, to Black Sabbath, to Britney Spears, to a reimagining of Rebecca Black's song "Friday" from the perspective of a truck-stop prostitute.
In 2019, seven years after her last studio record, Palmer released There Will Be No Intermission, a far more serious, stripped-down album mostly just featuring her on a piano. It tackles subjects like abortion, death, depression, loss, and the climate crisis, and was released to massive critical acclaim. The world tour accompanying it featured only her at a piano, telling the most intimate and human stories of her life. Concerts often went for up to four hours.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/AmandaPalmer