Massachusetts is a U.S. state in New England. The music of Massachusetts has developed actively since it was first colonized by Britain. The city of Boston is an especially large part of the state's present music scene, which includes several genres of rock, as well as classical, folk, and hip hop music.
Edward Sharp, better known by his stage name Edward Ka-Spel, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, born in London on 23 January 1954, to a family with East Anglia connections. He is best known for his work with the band The Legendary Pink Dots, which he co-founded. He is also known for his work on The Tear Garden with Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key. In 2017, he collaborated with Amanda Palmer on the album I Can Spin a Rainbow.
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and performance artist who is the lead vocalist, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She performs as a solo artist and was also a member of the duo Evelyn Evelyn, and the lead singer and songwriter of Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. She has gained a cult fanbase throughout her career, and was one of the first musical artists to popularise the use of crowdfunding websites.
Brian Viglione is an American drummer best known for his work with The Dresden Dolls and Violent Femmes. He was also a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra The World/Inferno Friendship Society.
Café Pamplona was located at 12 Bow St. beside the intersection of Bow and Arrow Streets near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. When it opened in 1959 it was the first café in the Square. The owner, Josefina Yanguas, claimed the café had the first espresso-maker in the city. Down a short flight of exterior stairs, past a patio with tables, customers entered the café's subterranean interior. The once austere decor included bright yellow lights which made the thickly-plastered walls glow under low ceilings, and a black and white checked floor. The café survived the changes that had taken place since the mid-1980s.
Yes, Virginia... is the second studio album by American dark cabaret band the Dresden Dolls, released on April 18, 2006, by Roadrunner Records. The album was recorded in September 2005, with some extra vocal work and the mixing done the following November.
"Good Day" is the debut single by The Dresden Dolls duo, taken from the self-titled debut album The Dresden Dolls. It was originally released by Important Records in December 2003 in an edition of 500 on white vinyl. The set also included a photograph signed by Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione. The 7" was later reissued in October 2005 on Palmer's own 8 Ft. Records during the band's Fall 2005 North American tour. The cover of the reissue depicted a painting by Barnaby Whitfield that recreated the photo from the original release.
Aberdeen City was a Boston-based indie/alternative rock band. The members of the band were: Ryan Heller (guitar), Chris McLaughlin, Rob McCaffrey (drums), and Brad Parker. They formed at Boston College, though McCaffrey, Heller and Parker all grew up in the same Chicago neighborhood.
Michael Somervell Pope is an American filmmaker, known for the independent feature film Neovoxer (2004).
The Onion Cellar is a play that premiered at the American Repertory Theater's venue, the Zero Arrow Theater, in Cambridge, Massachusetts from December 9, 2006 to January 13, 2007. It is a cross between a musical, cabaret show, rock concert and drama. It was the brain child of Amanda Palmer who based the title of the production on a chapter from Günter Grass's The Tin Drum. In the novel, The Onion Cellar is a bar in post-war Germany where people go to share painful memories and cry. While drinking and talking, the clients peel onions, both to make crying easier and to lessen the shame for those afraid to express their feelings openly.
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. The name of the album is a reference to the series Twin Peaks, which revolves around events surrounding the death of Laura Palmer.
No, Virginia... is the first compilation album by American dark cabaret band The Dresden Dolls. It was released in Europe on May 19, 2008 and North America on May 20, 2008. A special edition was released in the US via the iTunes Store and Amazon.com's MP3 service on June 10, 2008. The compilation is a companion piece to the band's second studio album, 2006's Yes, Virginia..., and contains tracks left over from recording sessions dating back to 2003, along with B-sides and tracks released on compilations. Singer Amanda Palmer has emphasized that the unreleased tracks from Yes, Virginia... were left off the album due to issues with the flow of the album, and not with the tracks themselves. Five tracks from No, Virginia... were recorded with Sean Slade in January 2008 at Mad Oak Studios. The songs themselves were written years ago but had not been recorded until the session with Slade. One song from the album, "The Kill", has been made available for streaming on the band's MySpace profile.
The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione. The two describe their style as "Brechtian punk cabaret", a phrase invented by Palmer because she was "terrified" that the press would invent a name that "would involve the word gothic". The Dresden Dolls are part of an underground dark cabaret movement that started gaining momentum in the early 2000s.
Mad Oak Studios is a recording studio located in Allston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Boston, United States. It was established in the year 2000 by Craig Riggs and Frank Pagliughi, who were later joined by PK Pandey and long-time head engineer Benny Grotto as co-owners.
Gene Dante and The Future Starlets is an American glam-rock band based out of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Shea Rose is a singer-songwriter, performing artist, and music curator based in Boston, Massachusetts. She explores soul, rock, and hip hop while congruently inspiring her community to use the power of music for social change.
Speedy Ortiz is an American indie rock band from Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. Originally a solo project for founder Sadie Dupuis, from 2011 a full band incarnation has released three EPs and three LPs mostly on Carpark Records.
Stephen Goss, known professionally as Cousin Stizz, is an American rapper and songwriter. He is from Dorchester, Massachusetts and signed to RCA Records.
I Can Spin a Rainbow is a collaborative studio album by American singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer and English singer-songwriter Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots. In a blog post on her official website, Palmer explained the backstory of how she was obsessed with the Pink Dots as a teenager, and even wrote and directed an experimental dialogue-free play inspired by their album Asylum when she was seventeen. When she was nineteen, the band needed a place to stay while on tour in Boston, Massachusetts and Palmer offered up her house. The Legendary Pink Dots also served as an opening act for Palmer's band the Dresden Dolls in the early 2000s. The two of them spent years trying to find a time to record an album together, but due to struggles in Palmer's personal life, plans always fell through. Most of the album was recorded in the house of English musician Imogen Heap.
