Amanda Palmer – New single release and tour announcement

Musician, best-selling author, TED speaker, and community leader Amanda Palmer today releases “The Ballad of the New York Times”, her second single from her upcoming EP, and a 12” vinyl “Two Songs from The Land Of The Long White Cloud”.

LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE “BALLAD OF THE NEW YORK TIMES”

On “Ballad of the New York Times” Palmer says “It’s a tune about hopelessness, Covid, and doom scrolling. It was recorded at a tiny town-hall show I did on Waiheke Island in-between the two New Zealand lockdowns. The crowd is beautiful, funny…and then silent.

This track will hopefully speak to anyone who lost their shit during Covid. Which is many people I know, whether or not you have young children or a divorce to deal with (those people get extra shit-losing hugs and empathy from me).

It’s hard to play this one without crying.

Why is it a live recording? Well…it was recorded at Morra Hall in July 2021, and the plan was to then go into a recording studio the following week to make a studio recording. And then New Zealand went into a second lockdown. I never did it.

It felt kinda poetic that the studio recording got scuppered by lockdown, so we just went forth with this live version. It feels aptly messy, like the seriously scuppered life described in the song itself.”

The limited-edition 12”, made of eco-recycled vinyl, comes in a range of colours with a marble effect and features a faux-New York Times issue insert Palmer penned about the songs.

Side A includes the latest single out today, “The Ballad of the New York Times”, and Side B includes another upcoming song from the EP, out January 12, “The Man Who Ate Too Much”.

Palmer is paying homage to New Zealand with a very special new EP and tour heading to Queenstown, Auckland, and Wellington in 2024. Palmer, who spent over two years waylaid in Aotearoa, New Zealand with her young son during the pandemic, will honor her time as an accidental Kiwi with New Zealand Survival Songs, a brand-new five-song EP collecting material written and recorded during that life-changing experience.

The already released first single is a deeply personal duet with legendary Kiwi musician Julia Deans of Fur Patrol, “Little Island” heralding the arrival of New Zealand Survival Songs. The EP – which was fully financed by the over 17,000 patrons who support Palmer’s extraordinary crowd-funded career as a touring songwriter and recording artist – will be available Friday 12 January 2024. The track is joined by an official music video on YouTube.

“‘Little Island’ is a complicated and heartfelt love letter to New Zealand and to the people who held and took care of me,” says Palmer. “It’s also a reflection on our collectively difficult relationships with the past, and what ‘home’ really means.”

What’s more, Palmer will return to Aotearoa for “Amanda Palmer Comes Down For a Quick Catch-up: Old Songs, New Songs, New Zealand Survival Songs,” an intimate run of concerts in New Zealand. This short tour will see Palmer engaging her devoted fans as only she can, telling stories, revealing the inspiration behind the survival songs, and of course, playing material from her ever-evolving body of work as both solo artist and one-half of The Dresden Dolls, including new songs from the iconic punk cabaret duo’s upcoming new album arranged especially for solo piano.

Tickets are on sale now.