The Dresden Dolls — Post-War Trade

In a comment in a previous post I alluded to a new revolution in how new bands, their labels, and their fans are making music, selling said music, as well as interacting regarding individual merchandising. In this regard, The Dresden Dolls have developed a unique relationship with their fan base called Post-War Trade:

…so here it is, the age of over-inter-connectedness and the internet and it’s time to change the world. I want to create an internet exchange forum in which really talented artists and artisans can directly reach out fans instead of posting photos their wares to the internet to get feedback. this is awesome but i would really like to see these artists making MONEY and doing BUSINESS with our fans. so it was that after years and years of discussion, the concept of Post-War Trade was born.

my good friend and fellow artist Katie Kay has agreed to take on the job of trying to organize this conceptual nightmare into a daydream reality, but we obviously can’t do it without YOU. the main idea is to get as many artists and artisans as possible to submit their work, we will pick the stuff we think is amazing enough to be reproduced en masse, and the featured items will be sold on the net with the majority of the profit going back to the artist.

it’s the DEMOCRATIC FUTURE OF MERCHANDISING! how AWESOME!!!!

no artist is too professional or amateur to get involved. ANYTHING GOES.

The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2001, consisting of Amanda Palmer (vocals, piano, harmonica, ukelele) and Brian Viglione (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals). They describe their style as “Brechtian punk cabaret”.

Does their 2004 video, “Coin-Operated Boy” from their self titled debut record remind anyone of a late 1970s FZ song?