Is Two Better Than One? A CD Review of "Evelyn Evelyn"

Having been a fan of Amanda Palmer since the first time I heard her sing "Coin-Operated Boy" as one-half of the punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, naturally I began to follow her various social media sites. Amanda is quite the controversial artist, with constant storms of discussion swirling around her Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, message board and webcam site. She has done everything from pose as a seven-foot-bride busking for cash on street corners to serenading Stormtroopers with her ukelele at San Diego Comic Con, but recent antics such as stripping completely naked on webcam, changing clothes in the middle of the red carpet at the Golden Globes (and consequently upstaging her nominee fiancé, graphic novelist Neil Gaiman), and soliciting over $10,000 in donations from fans and then bragging about her 'haul' on various blogs around the Internet has her audiences raising their eyebrows.

The latest scandal to involve Ms. Palmer is one that is a hotbed of discussion on many forums, debating the morals and merits of her newest project, Evelyn Evelyn. Quite awhile ago, Amanda announced that she and longtime friend and fellow musician Jason Webley had discovered a pair of conjoined twin sisters who were also musically skilled. The sisters, Amanda said, went by the single name Evelyn and had the nasty habit of finishing each other's sentences. They were strange beyond comprehension, refusing to do interviews, afraid of people with facial hair, and terrified of planes; therefore, Amanda said, she thought travel or touring would be impossible for them. But via her blogs and Twitters, she swore that the twins were terrific musicians, had to be heard to be believed, and that she and Jason both felt that it was very important to get their message out to the world. The twins, she said, had been sold to a circus when they were young and had been sexually molested for their entire childhoods, resulting in their fractured and fragmented minds. They were either madly in love with each other or fighting like cats and dogs, depending on the moment, and they were very difficult to get on the phone so that Jason and Amanda could coordinate their studio time.

As time stretched on, the fans began to grow more and more interested in the project, and Amanda's answers became more and more elusive and mysterious. Jason, always the more tacit of the two, remained mostly mum on the situation. Eventually, however, the word got out--- Evelyn was a scam, a product of Amanda and Jason's crazed collaboration, a strange artistic role they were playing for an upcoming project. A designer made dresses that both of them could fit into, to make them appear as conjoined twins; Jason shaved his long-standing facial hair and wore makeup for the single press photograph that the pair leaked.

Some fans were outraged, feeling duped and deceived; they felt that they had come to care about the sisters, the intricate tale of their complex and fascinating lives. They had felt sympathy for the two victims of sexual abuse, social ostracism and workplace exploitation; they had been eager to support these twins in their rise to stardom and their escape from their terrible pasts. Now that they knew that it was just a marketing scheme by Amanda and Jason, a new way to stir up controversy and attention from the notorious talking-point Amanda more specifically, they were angry.

Others were infuriated because they felt it was ableist, completely exploiting the plight of real conjoined twins and disabled individuals as well as those who had suffered sexual abuse or discrimination in order to sell records. "Glorified cripdrag", several feminist and disabled-activist blogs called it snidely, enraged that Amanda and Jason would have the balls to actually pretend to be conjoined. It was a gimmick, nothing more than an attempt to garnish attention to their collaborative side project.

Still others argued adamantly that this was what art was about; it was controversial, it was painful, it made you think. Obviously Amanda and Jason had been successful to some degree because people had been duped for a very long time in regards to the project; its sneaky execution and clever subterfuge meant that there were people completely taken into the illusion, the smoke and mirrors doing their jobs perfectly. Amanda and Jason were creating a buzzworthy project, something that made people argue and debate; that was the entire point of true art, not just putting out records but putting out something meaningful. Was this album really any different than, say, David Bowie taking on any of his personas, Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke, coming out onstage in the costume and mannerisms, singing autobiographical songs about a man who never existed? Was there a difference between this Evelyn Evelyn project and The Who's Tommy? It was just a concept album, about a fictional pair of conjoined twin sisters. If the music was good, who cared if it was actually performed by sisters from Walla Walla, Washington?

When the album dropped at the very end of March (very nearly timed to be an April Fool's joke, actually), I picked it up via iTunes out of curiousity. My chagrin over some of Amanda's more recent publicity stunts aside, I still love her music, and I've seen her play live four different times; seeing the girl whale on a piano or strum a ukelele while she sings her heart out is truly something to behold. And honestly, I'd never heard of Jason Webley prior to Amanda's constantly touting him in her blog; he's got a big underground following, but he wasn't anyone on my radar until the last year or so. So I gave Evelyn Evelyn a try.

Honestly, the first advice I can give you is that if you're a fan of either musician independently, chuck your preconceived notions of how they sound out the window. Amanda's voice is softer, less abrasive than any of her work has showcased to date, and Jason's is feminine and feathery. Their music is strange, definitely capturing the old-fashioned circus vibe of the twins' backstory, but at the same time the tracks with narration, such as "The Tragic Events of September", are genuinely haunting and eerie.

The opening track, "A Campaign of Shock and Awe", depicts several vocalists taking turns as barkers and ringleaders, touting the freakshow that is the sisters. Meanwhile, the sisters harmonize the line "Isn't it nice that they're being so nice to us? / If I'm not mistaken I think they might like us / Aren't we lucky to be here? Stop moving, they're taking a picture! Smile for the camera, Evelyn!", alternating who sings which line each reprise. This is our introduction to the Evelyn twins; they are depicted as freaks of nature, God's blunder, and we hear people arguing over how much to charge for their novelty. From there, we are taken on a whirlwind of oddities. The song "Chicken Man", about the chicken farmer who raised the girls and kept them in a cage, fed like his fowl for years before his demise, is creepy and unsettling, discordant and odd. There is a lot of accordion in this song, as well as strange Danny Elfman-style vocal work. When listening to "The Tragic Events Part II", we are told the story of how the chicken farmer died while the girls were locked in the cage, and no one knew to come and let them out; they were there for days, starving, before they finally broke free and stumbled into the open air. The song "Chicken Man" consists entirely of the two title words being repeated, first in normal singing voices, growing increasingly desperate to get the man's attention before degenerating into howling horror as they realize he isn't coming and they're going to starve. I've never before heard a song that incorporates only two words and somehow still tells a story with them.

The eery unsettling feeling brought on by this song is complimented nicely by "Evelyn Evelyn", the title song where the two sisters sing gently to each other. Amanda plays the more optimistic of the sisters, while Jason's takes a more literal and maternal approach. He is the more mature sister, the one who comforts Amanda's sister in several of the songs. Jason's twin is also the more promiscuous of the two it would seem, singing lines such as "Do you think I should marry him?" while Amanda counters "You just met him yesterday!" The song has a very soft feel of loneliness, and for a moment we the audience are transported into this strange bisected world, sympathetic to what it would be like to wonder if you could be an astronaut or a fireman, if your entire life revolved around your sister and you had never been your own person for even a moment of your life.

Some of the songs, such as "Elephant Elephant" and "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?" are firmly tongue-in-cheek and playful, jaunty tunes that will get in your head and refuse to come out without a fight. "My Space" is a joking dedication to finding love on the Internet, pointing to the fictional way that Amanda and Jason 'discovered' the Evelyn sisters (they claimed that someone anonymously sent them a link to the Evelyn sisters' Myspace and that was where the friendship began). The song has a soaring 80s sound to it musically, complete with amusingly epic vocal work and a strange back-echo on Jason's vocals in particular, but I feel that it's a weaker point on the album and doesn't jive with the rest of the sound. On the other hand, if the album is meant to be as confusing, inconsistent and schizophrenic as the sisters themselves, it's a roaring triumph.

The album is rounded out with a gorgeous cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", featuring melancholy ukelele strumming and absolutely beautiful, soft voice work; in this rendition Amanda is heartbreaking, her voice cracking on the highest notes, and Jason is hauntingly melodic. The two of them sound like they are singing each other a lullaby that is startling in its intimacy, the plinking piano work accompanying it adding to the surreal ephemeral quality.

In short, without delving into my feelings about the controversy surrounding its origin, Evelyn Evelyn is a provocative effort. I believe that it set out to do what it meant to do; it created an outlet for the two musicians to collaborate without being Amanda Palmer or Jason Webley. Amanda was no longer the sassy and shameless redhead who is ever-vocal about her sex life, her discontent with her record label, and it's impossible to picture the beard-sporting street performer Jason toting an accordion and a slouchy hat when listening to this music. No, we are transported into a striped circus tent where for ten bucks a head (the cost of the album on iTunes, incidentally) one can catch a glimpse with the exotic Evelyn Sisters, and that is exactly what was intended in the creation of this album.

At least ONE Film that's worth the title 'to Die For'... "Dread"

I can still remember the brilliant ad campaign for the original run of the After Dark Horrorfest '8 Films to Die For'. I remember the shrieking, haunted soundtrack, tantalizing snippets of gore-soaked victims and maniacal killers and angry spirits, and the tagline about every year some films were too extreme for theaters. And I remember the raging gorewhore inside me arching its eyebrows and going "Well now, that does indeed seem to be something we should look into."

I also recall buying tickets for the film "Wicked Little Things", because in my hometown they weren't showing the full cinema-run of all eight films. I went with a few friends who were also horror fans, in the mindset that 'Oh, this film involves creepy, possibly-possessed children'. As any horror fan will tell you, creepy kids rank up there with mongoloids and unmarked shortcuts on the Thrill-O-Meter; if they're in the film, you're in for at least a mediocre good time.

Usually.

I remember that film being a complete waste of time, a total piece of schlock, and I walked out of the cinema not even angry, just... disappointed. I felt misled. That film wasn't 'too extreme' for theaters, it was too crap and was unable to find a distributor willing to shell out the bucks to promote it. Still, I remained optimistic and rented the rest of the run of those first films... And every single one fell short of its promise. The second run was better, but still a long way from good, and the third... well, it included a direct-to-DVD sequel to The Butterfly Effect, if that gives you any inclination.

However, despite my inherent and oft-vocalized dislike for the Twilight phenomenon, I am indeed a firm Jackson Rathbone fan. If the Twilight films included a single five-minute shot of Jackson sitting there playing with a straw wrapper, I'd go see every one of them in theaters, probably twice. It isn't just his good looks, which are considerable, or his acting chops, which ironically outshine everyone else in the lackluster cast; there is a charisma about this young man that calls to mind a male equivalent of someone like Thora Birch. Jackson sticks to independent films with controversial subject matter, and he can command a shot and eat up scenery like nobody's business. So when I found out that he was the star of the film Dread coming out in this latest batch of '8 Films to Die For', I decided to give it a go on my Netflix queue.

What can I say about Dread without turning into a rabid fanatic?

...it's everything a horror film SHOULD be.

And it may easily be the best psychological film I've seen in years.

Part of this can be accredited to the concept, which comes from the second volume of Books of Blood by Clive Barker. Yes, Clive Barker, the sick fuck who brought us such delights as Hellraiser, Candyman, Lord of Illusions, The Midnight Meat Train, Nightbreed, and a whole slew of other brilliantly-conceptualized stories that've been adapted into films. Dread is no different; it has the same sly, cunning wit that is trademark to Clive's work, yet is brutal enough to make even the most steel-hearted audience member cringe. The terror is not merely a freak with a hacksaw or a businessman who slays hookers by night; this is more carnal, more primitive, getting to the root of mortal fear by addressing the actual cause of the sensation 'dread'.

Still, I've seen films with brilliant scripts that were hard to sit through. So then let's discuss the director, Anthony DiBlasi. Checking out his IMDB won't do you much good; everything else he's done is tied up in post-production, and every single project, interestingly enough, links back to Clive Barker. The two have formed a very tight partnership, and DiBlasi is also helming the Hellraiser remake as well as an upcoming Tortured Souls project. I will say that before Dread, it would've taken me a lot of resignation to see my beloved Hellraiser remade... but if this man is behind the lens, I'll be there opening night. That should speak volumes to the powerful directing in this film. The movie is shot beautifully, with powerful scenes that are well-lit, with immaculate set design and perfect choices for transitions. You honestly cannot tell that this film was an independent feature; it is lovely, and looks better on a screen than some recent big-budget Hollywood-backed films I've seen in latter days.

Now let's move on to the special effects. One word, or possibly two--- 'cringe-inducing'. In the good way, not the 'we can see the wires' way. The few CGI scenes in the film are very few and far between, and tastefully done; they are blended with a real FX artist's work to make a seamless transition, and you could almost swear they aren't CGI at all. Most of the effects used involve an actual layman with prosthetics, squibs, gallons of blood, and peeling latex; this is a dying art in the technology age and it's beautiful to see. The film isn't especially gory throughout, which is actually a nice change. Most films these days that call themselves 'horror' think that if they throw a few buckets of red corn syrup on someone it's 'scary'. DiBlasi understands that fear is much more than gore, and he uses that to the utmost of its potential. Still, the effects are phenomenal, and completely believable. At no point did I call bullshit, and I'm a sucker for a good makeup job.

 Perhaps the most important part of any film is the cast, so let's discuss. I've already professed my love for Jackson Rathbone, but allow me to expand and be more diplomatic. In this film, Jackson plays a young college filmmaker named Stephen Grace. Stephen is shy, painfully awkward, and yet completely endearing; his Robert Smith hairdo and trendy college goatee make us believe that he is the quintessential odd-man-out who is trying to fit in and find his niche in the social heirarchy of his school. One day in his psychology class, Stephen encounters an intense young man named Quaid who invites him out for drinks to discuss their upcoming class project. Quaid is portrayed beautifully by Shaun Evans, who channels a younger and much more psychotic Jeff Conaway--- I've never seen Shaun in anything else, but he has a rare smoldering ferocity in his delivery that sells you on anything that comes out of his mouth. Rounding out the cast are the females--- the cynical and sexy Cheryl Fromme is played by Hanne Steen, and Laura Donnelly is cast as Abby, the beautiful and sweet girl who is disfigured by a dark birthmark that runs the entire length of her body and causes her daily distress and social problems. This cast delivers in a way that is so RARELY seen in current horror cinema; every single one of them brought their 'A' game to this film with flying colors.

The film follows Stephen, Quaid and Cheryl as they embark on a quest to interview people around their campus to find out what they're most afraid of. It is learned through these interviews that Stephen's older brother died in a drunk driving accident many years before, leaving Stephen afraid of losing control, and Cheryl was molested by her abbatoir-worker father, which caused her to become a hardcore vegetarian who can't even stand the sight or scent of meat. The darkest secret by far belongs to Quaid, who witnessed as a child his entire family slaughtered by an axe murderer who remains at large to this day. As the interviews progress, Quaid becomes obsessed with finding the 'true' nature of fear, getting to the most base instinct that causes people to feel true dread; he calls it 'facing the beast', and he decides to take matters into his own hands and force others to face their fears in an attempt to see how far their psyche will allow them to stretch before it snaps under the terror. This begins a series of impossibly brutal, horrific experiments on the people whose stories impacted him the most, and ends in a breathtaking finale that will leave the audience sitting there with their jaws on the floor.

Honestly, I have no idea how this film didn't get wider buzz, particularly with Rathbone tied in; his Twilight connection alone probably guaranteed this a high number of rentals. However, I'd pay money to be in the room when any number of those sweet sparkly-vampire-loving girls puts in this DVD and is treated to the terrifying twists and turns of this psychological thriller. Dread is everything a horror afficianado can come to expect and hope for from a scary movie, and yet it's not specifically targeted to a demographic the way many films in this genre are. There are no wink-wink-nudge-nudge insider jokes, no recurring tropes, no played-out cliches. The most stereotypical thing in the entire film is Quaid's fear of the rogue axe murderer, and the subsequent hallucinations he sometimes suffers; beyond that, everything in this movie is fresh, original, and put together incredibly well.

All in all, go rent Dread. If you want something that'll make your pulse pound and your stomach twist, this is the film for you. THIS is horror too extreme for theaters; THIS is something not for the faint of heart. Finally, After Dark Horrorfest lived up to their promise.