text: Frances Cobain Lends Her Voice to Song 'My Space' 
   
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   When Frances Cobain agreed to be a guest vocalist on pal Amanda Palmer's new concept album, headlines swirled that the 17-year-old daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love was following in her parents' musical footsteps.Not so fast."She's got a great voice," Palmer says. "But she's a really good visual artist. She's really interested in graphic novels."Cobain was intrigued by Palmer and fellow musician Jason Webley's concept for the album, Evelyn Evelyn, which focuses on twin singer-songwriter duo. Palmer was impressed with Cobain for more than her singing."She's really smart, level-headed, motivated, and incredibly funny," says Palmer, who met Cobain for the first time while with her fiancé, graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, of which Cobain is a fan. "She has her own really strong personal work ethic and she wants to find her own voice and make her own art and she's going to do it by playing by her own rules."Cobain's voice was mixed into a chorus with those of "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tegan and Sara and Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance. "We wanted to have a list of really random people on it as a joke," explains Palmer. The album dropped Tuesday. ||||| 
   
   
   
   Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn 11/8ft 
   
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   Somewhere deep in the untamed wilds of MySpace, producers Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley discovered Evelyn Evelyn Neville—a pair of conjoined twins sharing three legs, two arms, three lungs, two hearts, and a single liver. Isolated in a hotel in Walla Walla Washington, the girls developed their obsession with The Andrews Sisters and Joy Divison into a series of lovingly executed ukulele covers. Or so the story goes. I hate to point fingers, but certainly one of twins (as Webley himself pointed out in a blog entry) "has a conspicuously deep voice for a 24-year-old girl." Shockingly, the other Evelyn sounds like a missing member of another punk cabaret twosome. Chalk it up to serendipity. 
   
   Webley and Palmer, conjoined-Martha Stewarts of the theatrically macabre, frame Evelyn and Evelyn's album through a series of spoken word segments, where the sisters recount their picaresque tale of woe—a tale that includes flying chickens, sexual abuse, societal marginalization, circus freaks, conjoined elephants, and social networking. Despite such obviously campy origins, the sisters' music often manages to rise above mere spectacle, their back-story flavoring oddball tracks such as "Chicken Man" and "Elephant Elephant" with surprising gravity, elevating the songs above mere musical curiosity. 
   
   Of course it doesn't hurt that the girls are fair musicians in their own right. "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn" is a straight-up cabaret gem, and opening track "Evelyn Evelyn" could fit as a bonus cut on 2008's Who Killed Amanda Palmer. The genre-hopping, which the sisters brag about early on, is often jarring—but Palmer and Webley assure their protégées acquit themselves nicely on country-tinged "You Only Want Me 'Cause You Want My Sister" and the '80s cheese of "My Space." Much has been made about the host of cameos—including Frances Bean Cobain, Andrew WK, and Tegan and Sara—but negated to the role of chorus it's impossible to pick out individual voices. However, the additional star power isn't needed. Closing the album with a stripped-down version of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," Evelyn and Evelyn prove that with or without their friends, they've got personality to spare. (www.evelynevelyn.com) 
   
   Author rating: 7/10 ||||| As an admirer of both the work of Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, I've really been looking forward to this project. The premise is a little confusing- Evelyn Evelyn are a fictional set of conjoined twin sisters (Eva and Lyn Neville) played by Palmer and Webley. The record is the story of Eva and Lyn, intermixed with Andrews Sisters style numbers. It is not unlike listening to a Broadway musical soundtrack, with three tracks devoted to the narration of the sisters' tragic life. 
   
   After a few listens, I found myself immersed in the sad and strange world of the Neville sisters. The tale is compelling and the emotion and expression of the songs draws you in, from the show-tune style "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?" to the folky "You Only Want Me 'Cause You Want My Sister," to the power ballad "My Space" (which is indeed about MySpace, which features an impressive guest line up. 
   
   Webley and Palmer are in top form. The vocals are impressive and poignant. One of my favorite parts of the album is the closing track, a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", one of my favorite songs of all time. Evelyn Evelyn's version is stripped down to just Palmer and Webley trading broken down vocals over soft ukulele accompaniment. 
   
   If you haven't already gotten the impression, this album is eccentric. It isn't going to be for everyone, like Webley and Palmer's solo work. However, those who give this project the chance and time will appreciate it immensely. 
   
   
   
   Evelyn Evelyn - Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn? 
   
   Evelyn Evelyn will be released on 11 Records on March 30th.
target: – Frances Bean Cobain made her musical debut yesterday—albeit in cameo form—with the release of Evelyn Evelyn. “She’s got a great voice,” says Amanda Palmer, who put together the concept album with Jason Webley. The 17-year-old is featured on the track “My Space” along with other “really random people,” Palmer says, including Weird Al Yankovic, Tegan and Sara, and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, People reports. The album has “personality to spare,” writes Laura Studarus on Under the Radar, but as for Cobain, the proliferation of cameos on “My Space” means “it's impossible to pick out individual voices.” A blogger on The Ruckus calls the track a “power ballad” and says the album as a whole is “eccentric.” So will Cobain be following in her parents’ footsteps? Palmer isn’t so sure: “She's a really good visual artist. She's really interested in graphic novels.”