Singer, songwriter, piano-slayer, and blogger Amanda Palmer is preparing to release her first studio album in four years, Theatre Is Evil, on September 10th. This is the first release with her new band The Grand Theft Orchestra. The album release will be preceded by the single Want it Back on September 3rd, and followed by a tour in Autumn.
Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra unleashed the new Want It Back music video on the Guardian website today, offering another taste from the new album, Theatre is Evil. The video is a stop-motion animated video created with Australian director Jim Batt, and shot in Melbourne when Palmer and her band were recording the new album this past spring. The video continues a strong visual art theme, incorporating her naked body as a canvas for hand-painted lyrics to unfold across the screen.
Body politics, and body pride, have always been a strong theme for Amanda: “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.”
“I’ve never made a video with such a small, concentrated art-crew, and it was magic,” she notes. “For three days straight it was just me, Jim, the tattoo-graffiti artist Curran James, and a painstaking process as we created the video, shot by shot by shot.” Jim Batt explains, “”Hand crafting a film frame-by-frame is always an intense experience, even more so when you’re using someone’s body as a canvas, but there’s something magical about stopmotion that you can’t capture any other way. I’m still impressed that we managed to get Amanda to sit still for that long, she was a champion!”
“Jim Batt is a visionary film artist, and I hope this video shines some light on the art-talent that’s hiding out in Melbourne,” says Palmer. “That city is harbouring some of the best creative minds in the world.”
Following their sold out rock show at London’s Village Underground in June, Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra will embark on a full European tour this autumn, which will kick off with three shows in the UK. Tickets for this tour (as well as US dates starting on Sept 10th) go on general sale on Friday July 13th at 9am priced at £14 & £16.50 (subject to booking fee) and are available from www.livenation.co.uk or www.ticketmaster.co.uk.
Date City Venue ticket prices/website
October
Tue 23 London, UK Koko £16.50 / www.livenation.co.uk
October
Tue 23 London, UK Koko £16.50 / www.livenation.co.uk
Wed 24 Manchester, UK Cathedral £16.50 / www.livenation.co.uk
Thu 25 Glasgow, UK Oran Mor £14.00 / www.gigsinscotland.com
Sat 27 Amsterdam, NL Melkweg
Sun 28 Berlin, Germany Festsaal Kreuzberg
Mon 29 Prague, Czech Rep Palac Akropolis
Tue 30 Zurich, Switzerland Abart
November
Thu 01 Antwerp, Belgium Trix Club
Fri 02 Paris, France La Maroquinerie
Mon 05 Vienna, Austria Arena
