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Discovered these through my partner about a year ago, and still thoroughly impressed. There's a lot of clever, dark songwriting going on, which avoids twee or whimsy by dint of being incredibly raw in execution. Bootlegs of more or less all DD songs ever are available at Automatic Joy, and it is essential that you listen to the cover of "War Pigs". Because it will shred you into little bits. Yes.
Managed to see the Dolls at the Astoria in May, and was thoroughly impressed as well (once I'd got past the mime artists infesting the place) - if anything, they played tighter than they did on their (overproduced, IMO) second album, and Amanda Palmer was on fine beer-bottle-smshing, foghorn-voiced form. Also, Brian Viglione is able to harmonise, play drums and provide Marcel-Marceau-like mime commentary on songs simultaneously, while thrashing the instruments as if they'd just killed his dog.
The music is emotionally exhausting, often blisteringly fast and fairly harmonically inventive as these things go (The riff to the single "Girl Anachronism" is a repeated diminished 7th at high speed). Lots of blasted-out vocal harmonies. Many references to other songs slotted in where you wouldn't expect them. It is vitally important that you find a recording of "Slide", which has probably the most terrifyingly intense fifteen seconds of music recorded in the last ten years about three-quarters of the way through.
As far as I can tell, it's thoroughly impressive and enjoyable music with a sort of Weimar Punk ethos that just avoids the trap of being self-lacerating teenage bombast. Most of the time. |
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