MUSIC . Music Picks

Amanda Palmer

Sat., Nov. 22, 9 p.m., $20, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011, livenation.com.


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Published: Nov 19, 2008

rock/pop

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For Amanda Palmer, there's no such thing as too much information. Mere months after releasing No, Virginia..., a collection of Dresden Dolls ephemera, she's striking out on her own with Who Killed Amanda Palmer? Not just a CD, the project encompasses multiple Web sites, a series of music videos and a literary collaboration with Neil Gaiman. The real question isn't who killed Amanda Palmer, but how. After all, victim and aggressor are one and the same. Lest you think Palmer racks up numbers only on her multimedia checklist, check out the body count. Death takes many forms in her songs: drugs, roadkill, global warming, school shootings, shuttle explosions and war. (Domestic violence looms, too, if you count the Rodgers and Hammerstein number.) Without Dresden Dolls drummer Brian Viglione, Palmer does soft and seething as well as bitter and banging. Most tracks pile on the strings, and the best feature producer Ben Folds on percussion or synths. Palmer's biting, breathless delivery makes "Runs in the Family" a memorable descent into madness, while "Oasis" is a fabulously upbeat pop tune about one woman's experiences with rape, abortion, betrayal and Britpop. Even in death, there's no limit to Palmer's flair for the dramatic.

Sat., Nov. 22, 9 p.m., $20, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011, livenation.com.