Theatre Is Evil
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''Theatre Is Evil'' is the second studio album by Amanda Palmer, and first with her band The Grand Theft Orchestra. It was released on September 7, 2012 in Australia, on September 10, 2012 in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
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, and September 11, 2012 in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
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. The album has been released by Palmer's own record label, 8 Ft. Records, with distribution handled by Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Europe, and
Alliance Entertainment Alliance Films (formerly Alliance Entertainment, Alliance Communications, Alliance Atlantis Releasing Ltd, Motion Picture Distribution LP and also known as Alliance Vivafilm in Quebec and also known simply as Alliance) was a Canadian motion pictur ...
in the US. The album debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with 24,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, much of which can be attributed to her Kickstarter campaign. The album was written over the four years since her solo debut album, ''
Who Killed Amanda Palmer ''Who Killed Amanda Palmer'' is the first solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer. The album was largely recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, with collaborator Ben Folds and was released on Roadrunner Records (also home to T ...
'', in 2008. The recording and release process was funded by a Kickstarter project that raised a total of over $1.2 million. An art book, filled with images inspired by the content of this album commissioned to artists Amanda knows, has been released.


About the Grand Theft Orchestra

The Grand Theft Orchestra is composed of Amanda Palmer,
Michael McQuilken Michael McQuilken is an American, New York-based theater and opera director, filmmaker, and musician. Early life Born and raised in Beaverton, Oregon, McQuilken moved to Seattle, Washington in 1997. He began creating fringe theatre while earning a ...
on drums, guitarist Chad Raines, and
Jherek Bischoff Jherek Brandon Bischoff (born September 11, 1979) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumental performer. He has released over a dozen studio albums as a solo artist and band member and has credits as a musician, arranger, p ...
on bass.
Thor Harris Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...
replaced McQuilken for the second half of the live tour of this album. The band regularly switches instruments during their live performance, including in their version of
The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer (lead vocals and piano; additional: keyboards, harmonica, ukulele) and Brian Viglione (drums and backing vocals; addi ...
's song "Missed Me".Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra – at The Fillmore Auditorium – San Francisco, CA, The Big Wheel Magazine of 26 September 2012, retrieved January 6, 2013 "Palmer and her band switched gears and sauntered into a roaring, mind blowing performance of the Dresden Dolls' song "Missed Me", which saw all four members of the Grand Theft Orchestra switching their instruments for each verse and throwing each other about in their haste to do so."
/ref>


Title

After posting the album name to her
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account, there was a debate amongst fans about whether the album should be spelled "Theater Is Evil" or "Theatre Is Evil". Palmer took a vote and "Theatre Is Evil" eventually won, causing some of the CDs to have to be reprinted.


Kickstarter

The album was
crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
by $1,192,793.00 pledged via Kickstarter. Backers could choose from a number of bundles offered for different investment amounts. At the time it closed, this was the most successful Kickstarter campaign by any musician.


Promotion

The song "Do It With a Rockstar" was released on a limited basis to promote the album in June 2012, followed by "Trout Heart Replica", "Want It Back" and "The Killing Type". In September 2015, in promotion of the album, an EP called ''Selections from Theatre is Evil'' was released. On December 19, 2015, a piano demo of "Grown Man Cry" recorded in 2007 was released. On December 23, 2015, a demo of the song "Bottomfeeder," under the name "Raggin' On The Man", was released.


Music videos

The first music video released for this album was a stop-motion video for the song "Want It Back" and features Amanda Palmer prominently nude on a bed with the rest of the bandmates, clothed, as the lyrics to the song crawl across their bodies. It was "filmed on and around Brunswick Street in Melbourne, Australia in March 2012" and was produced, edited, and directed by Jim Batt. The second music video was for "The Killing Type," directed by
Tim Pope Timothy Michael Pope (born 12 February 1956) is a film director most known for his music videos, for having directed feature films, and for a brief pop career. Early life and career Pope grew up in the north London suburb of Enfield. Both h ...
, who had previously directed many videos for
The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...
. It features scenes from the band playing in an all-white room, dressed in all-white clothes, playing all-white instruments and another scene where Amanda seems to contemplate killing her lover while in bed with him. A music video for "The Bed Song" was also shot as part of the band's residency at
Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...
in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, which was the first residency in a new program led by
Gideon Lester Gideon Lester (born 1972) is a Tony Award-winning artistic director, dramaturg, curator, and creative producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Senior Curator of the OSUN C ...
, to have artists do their work with student assistance on campus. The video was released February 14, 2013. Amanda Palmer has also released lyric videos for every song on the main disc of ''Theatre Is Evil'' on her
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channel. Through
Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a com ...
donations, a retroactive music video was produced for "Grown Man Cry" and released on July 27, 2017.


Tour

Palmer planned an extensive tour schedule in support of the album. In June 2012, Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra began with a short six-date stint of small club shows throughout Europe and the US, beginning in Berlin and ending in Boston. A full-scale tour began on September 10, 2012, this time reaching 33 cities throughout North America and Europe. According to Palmer's husband, she planned to spend approximately 14 months on the road in support of ''Theatre Is Evil''.


Controversy

A controversy arose at the start of the full-scale tour, when Palmer crowdsourced volunteer horn and string players among her fans to back the Grand Theft Orchestra onstage for a few songs in each city. She was criticized, most notably by
Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal ...
, who questioned her for asking for further indulgences from her audience. Palmer had explained that most of the Kickstarter money was actually spent on covering the cost of creating the album, producing and shipping the rewards, and setting up the tour. Albini called the breakdown "absurdly inefficient". On September 14, 2012, following an article in the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Palmer wrote on her blog that she considered the issue to be about artists' choice more than anything else. On September 19, 2012, Palmer announced that she had decided to pay the volunteer musicians. This included retroactive payment to volunteers at the start of the tour.


Critical reception

On July 11, 2012, Ben Folds, fellow friend, producer and musician, posted the very first review of ''Theatre Is Evil'' on his Facebook page, stating that he was "listening to 'Theatre is Evil' everyday, more than once. It's good. It's really good," and in summary that, "This record is as good as it gets. You're going to shit when you hear it. It's going to be around for ages. Otherwise, it's total crap." Kate Mossman of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote: "Theatre Is Evil feels like sitting on the bed of your tattooed, far cooler cousin 30 years ago, while she tells you 'all you need to know' about music." Adam Rathe of '' Spin'' said: "If Theatre Is Evil does anything, it should make clear that
manda Manda may refer to: Places * Kafr Manda, Arab town in the Lower Galilee * Manda Upazila, an upazila in the Division of Rajshahi, Bangladesh * Manda, Kale, a village in Burma * Manda, Guinea, a town in the Labé Region * Manda, Jammu, India, ...
Palmer's not just a fundraiser par excellence but someone who's energized enough people with her work to be able to create exactly the kind of record that makes people love music in the first place."


Track listing


Selections from Theatre Is Evil

Before the release of the album, Palmer sent a free 3-track digital download EP to fans through her newsletter, titled "Selection from Theatre Is Evil" featuring three promotional singles.


Piano Is Evil

On July 27, 2017, Palmer released an acoustic remix album titled ''Piano Is Evil.'' It is a track-by-track cover of ''Theatre Is Evil'' (excluding the Intro and Intermission) performed solely by Palmer on piano.


Personnel


Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra

* Amanda Palmer – vocals, piano, synthesizers *Jherek Bischoff – vocals, upright bass, guitar *Michael McQuilken – vocals, drums, percussion, programming (
Thor Harris Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...
replaced McQuilken for the second half of the live tour of this album.) *Chad Raines – vocals, guitar, trumpet, keyboards, programming


Guest musicians

*Meow Meow featured on "Meow Meow Introduces The Grand Theft Orchestra" *"Trout Heart Replica": Paris Hurley - violin 1 & 2, Alex Guy - viola, Maria Scherer Wilson - cello, Paul Kikuchi - concert bass drum, orchestra arrangement by Jherek Bischoff *"A Grand Theft Intermission": Paris Hurley - violin 1 & 2, Alex Guy - viola, Maria Scherer Wilson - cello, Horns: Mick Fraser, Benjamin Gillespie, Eamon McNelis, Phil Noy, and Paul Willy, orchestral arrangement by Jherek Bischoff *"Melody Dean" features David J on bass *"Massachusetts Avenue", "Berlin", and "Olly Olly Oxen Free": Horns by Mick Fraser, Benjamin Gillespie, Eamon McNelis, Phil Noy, and Paul Willy. Horn arrangements by Chad Raines


Production

*Produced by
John Congleton John Congleton is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, engineer, mixer, writer and musician. In addition to his production work, Congleton has fronted the alternative rock band the Paper Chase, and writes music for a newer project e ...
at Sing Sing Studios (Melbourne, Australia) *Assistant Engineer: Adam Dobos *Mixed by
John Congleton John Congleton is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, engineer, mixer, writer and musician. In addition to his production work, Congleton has fronted the alternative rock band the Paper Chase, and writes music for a newer project e ...
at Elmwood Studios (Dallas, Texas) *Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound (New York, New York)


Charts


References

{{Authority control Amanda Palmer albums 2012 albums Kickstarter-funded albums