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The Dresden Dolls
Biography
A variety of noteworthy groups were active on the Boston music scene in the late '90s and early 2000s -- groups ranging from retro-soul/funk band Superhoney to the quirky, '80s-minded synth pop/new wave trio Freezepop to the hard-to-categorize Moonraker (who have since moved to New York City). But the most unique and intriguing group to come out of Boston during that period may very well have been the Dresden Dolls, a highly unorthodox duo consisting of lead singer/pianist Amanda Palmer (who handles the songwriting) and drummer Brian Viglione. Formed in 2001, the Dresden Dolls have favored a most unlikely blend of alternative pop/rock, riot grrrl catharsis, and German cabaret -- especially the German cabaret that flourished when the Weimar Republic was in power in Germany in the '20s and very early '30s (before Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime came to power). The name Dresden Dolls was, in part, inspired by a song from British punk band the Fall, but it also acknowledges Palmer and Viglione's German influences; Dresden, after all, is a German city that was bombed extensively during World War II. However, Palmer doesn't sing or write in German; all of her vocals and lyrics are in English.