Oh fine. I’ve had a #musicmonday column for all of one week, and already it’s time to write about Amanda Palmer. Because of this:
@amandapalmer RT! @amandapalmer unveils “idioteque” from her upcoming radiohead ukulele covers album http://bit.ly/AFPidio #MusicMonday
Twitter stops counting at 100 retweets. More than 100 people retweeted this on Monday, trust.
If you don’t already know who Amanda Palmer is, I’m not going to tell you because I’m bound to get something wrong and her rabid fanbase will obliterate me, burlesque-style, and possibly by beating me about the head with ukuleles. That actually sounds hilarious and I’d like to know more, but I bruise easily, so just look her up yourself, why dontcha? You can start with Dresden Dolls, and Evelyn and Evelyn, and look into some of the more contentious moments of her solo career, like when she got into a fight with her record label or walked the Oscar red carpet practically naked.
Here are some things I have to say about Amanda Palmer:
- Whenever I hear her name, I get thirsty for some refreshing lemonade mixed with iced tea. Then I decide that, if my name were so similar to that of an iconic professional golfer with a signature non-alcoholic drink, I would at least change it to sound more fizzy. And then I realize that she’s also called Amanda Fucking Palmer, which I guess makes everything ok. (That is entirely too many thoughts for just one bullet point.)
- She’s engaged to Neil Gaiman. Even more than her fanbase, I don’t want to make him mad. He could come after me with beautifully whimsical stories—one never knows.
- I like (liked?) the Dresden Dolls. For a few years in college, her angsty vocals really spoke to me. It’s been a while, though. (I know, yawn, sorry.)
- Ukuleles? Really?
I guess I should say something about the song, huh? Eh. Let me direct you to my last bullet point. I really like the piano part of this cover. The ukulele sounds plingy and oddly metallic, and on first listen I thought that, other than the plings, it sounded too much like the original. Then I listened to the original and, yeah, it doesn’t. But I still don’t like the way the uke sounds. STAND DOWN, AFP FANS.
I’m not a music critic. “Plingy” is not a technical term. Amanda Palmer is enough of an Internet force that her appearance on #musicmonday dominated the Twitterverse, and she’s a fascinating person to write silly things about. The end.
Role #mmodel: This is the second-best tweet I’ve seen all day. It’s the first-best that does not involve vuvezelas. And it somehow got into the #musicmonday transcript without having the actual #musicmonday hashtag. Hearts! “LeatherNight: RT @TW1TT3Rart: @KarlDetkenProDJ #DJ #MUSIC #TwitterArt ??????????? ???????????????? ???????????????? ????”
My #musicmonday pick: Cover music edition! The Detroit Cobras are forever great to wake up to on a Monday (or Tuesday) morning. Check out Hey Sailor.