June 27, 2006 | Posted by anders at 8:40 PM

Dolls

dresden dolls

The Dresden Dolls - Dirty Business

I mentioned The Dresden Dolls before in a post on the whole "Dark Cabaret" thing, but I figured it was time they got a post of their own.

The cabaret and vaudeville aspects of their performance are what usually catch people's attention. What retains it is the solid songwriting, intelligent sense of humor, and energy. Amanda Palmer's lyrics are often personal and intimate almost to the point of being slightly uncomfortable. After listening to some of the songs on their new album, Yes, Virginia (buy it!), you could imagine that if you ever met her there would be a bit of an awkward silence wherein you both sort of acknowledge that you know way more about the intimate life of this person you're just meeting than is normal. Like, maybe you should just blurt out some sort of deep dark secret to her just to level the playing field a little bit.

Or maybe that's just me.

They're on tour at the moment so you should try to go see them (it looks like a lot of the shows are sold out already though). The tour includes a couple special dates with some sort of film experience:

"A Night of Short Films and Dadaist Vaudeville... This is a program of short films submitted by Dresden Dolls fans that have been selected by long-time Dresden Doll friend / collaborator / indie-film iconoclast Michael Pope and BriAnna Olson"

I don't really quite know what that's about, but it sounds interesting and I'm always happy to see artists trying things out that are a little different from the usual concert.

It's also well worth the bandwidth and time to watch everything on the video page of their website. Particularly the "Halloween Medley".

Comments

there's a small interview by peter blegvad at the streaming audio at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theverb/

Posted by: philT at June 28, 2006 5:35 AM

I love the Dresden Dolls. Amanda's lyrics seem to me what Joni Mitchell would write if she had been born later - dark, reflective, intimate and even self-critical. But then again they are lyrics, and who knows how much is her and how much is a character in a really good really short story.

Posted by: WindReader at June 29, 2006 7:56 AM

Last time they toured, they had a twisted traveling circus with them. So when they mention the film experience, I imagine it something along a similar vein: slightly dark, sweet, and sticky-sick viral video at its best. I remember reading something about the film contest on their website ....

Posted by: Liquid Magazine at July 1, 2006 9:07 PM

I saw them on June 30th. I met them. I HUGGED them, and could think of absolutely nothing intelligent to say. Then I went outside and bounced gleefully in the parking lot. It was great.

Posted by: Laura at July 3, 2006 12:29 PM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type e in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...