amanda green

Best Shocking Performance Best of Miami ® 1999:
Amanda Green
While her drummer Derek Murphy remained in New York working on other (read: well-paying) gigs, and bassist Matthew Sabatella concentrated on his own impressive musical projects, everybody's favorite silly little girl-genius kept a hand in by performing solo. During one such highly charged sho, in April at Power Studios in the Design District, it wasn't just Green who was electrifying. Some sort of glitch caused her microphone to send jolts of current through her each time she and it made contact. Although she admitted later that it was painful and distracting, it didn't short-circuit her scintillating performance.


miaminewtimes.com | originally published: May 13, 1999

- Miami New Times "Best of Miami"

It seems like only yesterday the idiosyncratic, classically trained, and painfully shy songstress reluctantly sat on the stage of Churchill's Hideaway after a Sunday night featuring five or six earlier acts and nervously blew away the remaining crowd of seven or eight people. Green went on to become one of Miami's most celebrated acts with a bolder, more rocking sound and even more creative and original tunes. Then she seemed to disappear after a personal tragedy. With a new look (hardly "classical"), the quirky songbird is flying high again. At recent rehearsals and live shows she and her band rocked so hard the enamel peeled from the walls. It's like watching paint dry for fans eager to see what tomorrow brings
- MIAMI NEW TIMES

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Amanda Green: The Nineteen Hundreds Label: Y&T Music Tracks: 18 + 1 hidden Running Time: 58:28
Genre:
Alternative Rating: yyyy

While there is a lot to be said for mainstream music, a listener sometimes has to look to the small local acts to find truly unique music. Such is the case for Miami-based singer-songwriter, Amanda Green. Her quirky, offbeat sound has never been paralleled by any mainstream act. On her 1999 release, The Nineteen Hundreds, Green pulls the listener away from the humdrum of so called alternative music, and introduces one to her peculiar combination of serene ballads and spirited punk. The album, while representing a very eclectic merger of style, holds the tightly interwoven thread of Ms. Green's self-revelation.

The Nineteen Hundreds offers a strong testament to Green's phenomenal musical skill. In addition to being a dynamic soprano with a sound unlike any other, she is the songwriter behind seventeen of the eighteen tracks on the disc. Throughout the course of the album, she expresses her singing prowess as she bridges the nearly infinite gap separating acoustic rock and punk. Starting with "The Zebra Longwing," Green introduces herself with a progressive acoustic melody, a ballad about the ups and downs of a relationship. Building from that, she artfully blends her soothing ballads with sharp, punklike energy. On the fourth song, she clobbers the listener with her highly punk-motivated track, "People," where her guitar style moves from the smooth chording of "The Zebra Longwing" to a pungent display of power chords. At the same time, her voice undergoes a metamorphosis from her previous calm into a total attack on ones senses that is reminiscent of Courtney Love.

The only negative quality of this entire CD is that Green felt it necessary to fill the silence between several of the tracks with nondescript mumbling. While this technique may seem appropriate when used quite sparingly, she does it on roughly ten of the tracks. It becomes highly annoying when you are presented with the choice of raising the volume of your CD player for three seconds at a time or failing to hear what she presents between the tracks.

In short, Amanda Green's The Nineteen Hundreds is a CD which anyone who claims to be a fan of alternative music should own. Considering that this is only her second album, it shows an extraordinary amount of recording maturity, and is a disc well worth many repeated spins.




- Atlanta Technique

BEST ALTERNATIVE CD

The Nineteen Hundreds by Amanda Green (Y&T Music)

The title’s a reference to last year’s millennial madness, a reminder that the future will get here when it gets here, and the present will become the past much too soon. Green’s second full-length album is abundant with such pragmatic, level-headed thinking. On "Nothing’s Ever Gonna Happen, Is It?" she questions friends who believe anywhere else is better than where they are. On "Me and My Wife," a husband tells his longtime spouse, "Even if I beg you to, never tell me what I mean to you/Because you know that whatever it is, it’s not enough." As perceptive as she is about human nature, Green is also a razor-sharp tune spinner, her songs both edgy and rich and always rooted in good-old-fashioned pop. Playing all the guitars and keyboards, Green comes at you from unexpected directions; angular melodies give way to bright, cheery outbursts while stark piano ballads open up to lovely, life-affirming tones. Her distinct, childlike voice is another asset, endearing her to us even as she’s delving into subjects most of us would rather just avoid. We can’t wait to see where she takes us next. Contact www.amandagreen.com or www.slipstreampresents.com.

- City Link Magazine

Miami artist Amanda Green should be high on your list for favorite indie grrl. Like the big glossy insert in her newest CD package, Green's music runs like snapshots from photo albums; odd, unstaged pictures that require more than passing glances. The band is a three-piece with Matthew Sabatella on bass, Derek Murphy on Drums, and Green playing all sorts of guitars, piano and things like a B-3, vibraphone, etc. The mix pops with energy and Green's tunes jump from phat guitar riff'd frenzies to brittle, introspective piano to other wonderful sounds. This artist has a voice which speaks like a childhood friend out for adventure. Very highly recommended.. - Gajoob

REVIEW: Amanda Green, _Junk And Stuff_ (Y&T)
- Bob Gajarsky
Critics can sometimes get lazy in their reviewing, and ignore
lesser known artists in favor of today's latest, greatest major label
release. But every so often, an artist like Amanda Green comes along
and slaps us in the face, to reminds us *why* such prejudices aren't
completely justified.
On her debut album, _Junk And Stuff_, Green has put together
a stellar collection of fourteen tracks which will call to mind
DiFranco, Tori Amos, Joan Osborne, Kate Bush and the upper
echelon of alternative female performers.
The classically trained pianist puts that talent to use on the
tender ballad "Like I Do" (think Tori's "Silent All These Years" coupled
with Joan Osborne's vocals) and the poignant, inquisitive "Why Do I Have
To Die?", while the Liz Phair-esque guitar rockers "Make It Right" and
"I Stay Home" shine the spotlight on the harder side of this Miami native.
Green's label, Y&T is best known for being the launching ground
for the group For Squirrels. And even though _Junk And Stuff_ was
released in 1996, it stands head and shoulders over many of the better
known alternative albums released this year.
_Junk And Stuff_ is one release that makes a critic
remember that not all the good talent gets claimed by the major labels.
For more information on this release, contact Y&T Music at 1755 NE
149 Street, Miami, FL 33181.
- Review of first album, 1997

There's a new Amanda Green EP out that warrants your attention and dollars: Charley's Girl, a three-songer on Y&T that features roaring covers of the title track (sourced from Lou Reed's shining 1976 album Coney Island Baby) and Devo's "Turnaround" (a B-side from the Freedom of Choice era that was first revived in '92 by Nirvana). Both are fine examples of Green's admirably ham-fisted guitar style and charmingly eccentric vocals, but "Make It Right" is the reason to pick this one up. A chunky rocker in its original incarnation on Green's fine '96 debut Junk and Stuff, the song surfaces here as a lovely vocal meditation accompanied only by Green's own piano playing. Very nice -- an extremely worthwhile elaboration on one of last year's finest discs.

Green, by the way, is touring the U.S. And there was an A&R rep from London Records in Miami a few months back, sniffing around a Green gig at Tobacco Road.

- Miami New Times

Amanda Green, "the Nineteen Hundreds"
Total pretentious b*ll sh*t!!! Artsy, fartsy crap. This Alanis-Fiona wannabe is simply worthless. I think I'm gonna play catch with my dog with this CD. I'm sure not gonna sell it to some used-CD store and possibly subject someone else to its oozingly-cool tracks! What really pisses me off is the extravagance put into the packaging: gatefold, with lots of artsy pictures, poster complete with lyrics on one side. I know of a ton of bands that wish they had this budget (and would put it to better use!). Probably just some debutante that is playing "alternative-artiste" with Daddy's inheritance...


- EARCANDY

Amanda Green
Where has Amanda Green been? After releasing 2002’s “Wicked Witch”, her most mature and representative album yet, she disappeared into the woodwork sporadically showing up at shows in the wee hours of the night. Green has long been a songwriter to be reckoned with, her fearless re-molding of pop a mere natural extension of her eccentric and pixie-like personality. She recently started recording a new album called “World Famous World” in Atlanta, GA, and has just begun showcase them to the world as we know it.
- Street Weekly Magazine 2-2004