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Dresden Dolls
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Dresden Dolls
Punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls are music and fashion icons, known for dramatic make-up and daring ensembles. Band members Amanda Palmer (vocals, piano, harmonica, ukulele) and Brian Viglione (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals) created the group in Boston in 2001, and Palmer quickly dubbed their style “Brechtian Punk Cabaret” in order to dodge any ties to Goth.
The name of their band is as littered with social and historical references as is their music and style. Known for the terrifying bombings during WWII, Dresden, Germany, is forever ingrained in the mass psyche as a city of catastrophe. In addition, the name also refers to the heyday of cabaret culture in pre-WWI Weimer Germany.
Their sound is a pastiche of the past and present. With references to the piano and songstress combinations of true cabaret to the grit of post-grunge and the soft whispers of childhood nursery rhymes, it is almost impossible to classify their sound to any particular genre.
Always impeccably dressed, Palmer and Viglione blend the DIY aesthetic of punk with the tailoring of cabaret. Their make-up is fit for the stage: deep red lips, heavily blushed cheeks, layers of foundation and darkened, sculpted eyebrows. There is an element of sexual innuendo and taboo that underlies their manner of dress…a hem just slightly too short, a cuff folded back, or a hat sitting askew.
The Dresden Dolls are both musical fashionistas and fashionable musicians whose daring forays into both realms are unlike any other.
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