AMANDA (82)

Power-child Amanda was recorded between 1986-89 at home in Alabama, between ages 8 and 11, by her older (by 7 or 8 years) brother Joseph (a.k.a. Jody). Joseph and Amanda were a couple of hyperactive kids pretending to be, respectively, a music video director and a child star. Most recordings were captured on cassette, others on video cam, in the lowest of lo-fi. The duo sometimes enlisted friends in the frolics, and often drove their parents crazy (with incidents caught on tape). The most durable performances were titled (e.g., "The Pickle People," "Horrible Hybrid Tulips," "Indian Hoots Echo Baby," "Me Swinging in Cookieland") and compiled on "albums," whose design awkwardly replicated the commercial cassette format. Inserts were pasted up and xeroxed, and collections assigned titles (e.g., Primitive Swagger, Monumental Whopper Turmoil Jam, Empires and 5th Dimension Perspective, and Worship Me). The recordings were not circulated beyond friends. At age 11, Amanda began to chafe at Jody's stage-brother puppeteering; she soon discovered boys, and the recording project was abandoned. The tapes were stored in shoe boxes in Joseph's closet, where they remained for decades as forgotten adolescent artifacts. A longtime fan of WFMU and outré sonics, Joseph began to share recordings with DIY legend R. Stevie Moore. RSM layered electric guitar on one track ("Squaw Hootenanny") and slipped it on one of his self-released (but typically underheard) comps. RSM provided the backstory and compiled for Irwin Chusid two CDs of Amanda madness. He instantly fell under the spell of her playful chaos and, in December 2008, launched the radio portal for Amanda's wider notoriety. Listener reaction was jubilant—Amanda unleashed the arrested adolescent within. Later He connected with Joseph, who provided additional recordings.