The Dresden Dolls.

That's right, I'm doing another music review.

Straight into it.

The Dresden Dolls are a musical duo composed of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione. The name Amanda invented for their genre was "Brechtian punk cabaret", because she said "I was terrified of being branded "Goth"." Um.. But the thing is, most people you ask will call them gothic, anyway. Oh well. Generally they're considered part of the Dark Caberet movement.

These two.. Are really good. I was suprised at them, actually. Their lyrics are incredibly diverse and cover a wide range of topics, kooky, typical and dark. In "Girl Anachronism" Amanda blames her mother for the way she is, as her mother chose an elective c-section a day before the due date because she was superstisious about numbers.. "I was too precarious removed as a caesarian
behold the worlds worst accident
I AM THE GIRL ANACHRONISM".

In "Bad Habit" she addresses her extreme self harm. Not being sorry for it. Just explaining it. A fresh turn on this type of song.

"happiness is just a gash away
when i open a familiar scar
pain goes shooting like a star
comfort hasn't failed to follow so far..."

"but the ugly marks
are worth the momentary gain..."

And the more Typical? Well we have Backstabber, an angry breakup song. Because everybody needs an angry breakup song.

"backstabber! hope grabber!
greedy little fit-haver!
god, I feel for you, fool
you shit lover! off-brusher!
jaded bitter joy crusher!
failure has made you so cruel"

...Yeah.

And then we have Mandy Goes To Med School, which actually disgusts me so much that I cannot listen to it, as it adresses infant birth and abortion.

"How about a nine month long vacation and a two foot coffin?"

But the variety.. I love it.


They're quirky. How many Brechtian Punk Caberet duos are there out there? I also love Amanda's honesty. All of her songs are brutally honest and she's not pretending to be anything. She's happy to prance around practically naked, and she's not saying she's ugly and not saying she's beautiful. There's something special about that.

Brian's lovely too.

They're both very talented, also. Able to write uncannily ironic tunes, and then occasionally pulling out the heartwrencher. They're both decent vocalists and Brian's a treat on the drums.

See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO5APfKnR50