Courtesy

One might think limitations would be inherent in a piano-drums duo. But for Boston’s alt/punk/cabaret act The Dresden Dolls, there are no such worries. Their ingredients are potent. Amanda Palmer brings lyrics and vocals that shift from flower-petal delicate to Wagnerian thunder in milliseconds. Her piano-playing is as virtuosic as it is incendiary. And holding the madness together is drummer Brian Viglione, who pounds out a mosh pit call-to-arms as easily as he could sit in for a jam in some smoky jazz club. Together, the two combine into what Palmer smartly calls “rock love.”

The Dolls just have just released a follow-up to 2006’s well-received Yes, Virginia, smartly titled, No, Virginia. Brian Viglione spoke on the phone with 210SA in advance of The Dresden Dolls’ show at Stubbs in Austin.
 

So I’ve listened to No, Virginia several times and double-checked the lyric sheet. You realize there’s not a single F-bomb on this disc (very unlike Yes, Virginia)?

Praise the Lord! Amanda Palmer can write songs with no cursing!

The record company bills this disc as “demos and outtakes from Yes, Virginia and includes new songs to fatten the package.” I think that undersells it more than just a little — this CD stands on it’s own pretty damned well.

Well, when we started out, we thought that’s what it was going to be. But we ended up recording five totally new songs. Back when we did Yes, Virginia, we actually recorded 17 songs but knew they wouldn’t all fit on the one album. So we had several songs in the can, and we were just waiting for the right opportunity to put out. So there’s a range of stuff here — it’s turned out as a perfect companion piece to Yes, Virginia.

Some really good songs, all the way through.

Yeah, I feel very close to all this material. They’re all pretty catchy, poppy, a little more accessible, but still some dark themes and subject matter. I have a good feeling about a lot of these songs because they date back several years, to a different era of the band. Stuff like “The Kill” and “Dear Jenny” — that goes back to 2001 but we’d just never properly recorded it before.

“Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner” musically is certainly catchy, if a little hard to explain. I finally was able to describe it to a friend as a “happy anti-pervert song.”

Ha! That’s a perfect description! It is a fun song musically, but it’s also very real, true subject matter. Amanda’s known a lot of girls who’ve ended up in these kinds of situations.

I had to go all the way back to The Who’s “Fiddling About” from Tommy for another song in this kind of “pervert” genre.

Oh, I know that song! I remember we were on tour a few years ago and Amada was like, “Listen to this — it’s so CREEPY.” Yeah, same kind of subject, but a lot creepier.

“Night Reconnaissance” has all the makings of an angst-y teen anthem. But are you and Amanda prepared to answer for any sudden outbreaks of flamingo and gnome disappearances in Greater American Suburbia?

(Laughs) Yes, well, we may end up having some heavy, heavy questions to answer. It’s funny you mention it because Amanda’s mom just sent her a picture from Lexington (Mass.) (the song’s video was filmed on the front lawn of her mom’s house). There was this poor little garden gnome smashed to pieces in the middle of the street.

Oh, my. It’s begun .....

All’s we can do is pray for the children and teach them to do right (laughs). But it’s not the vandalism; it’s like the song goes, “and we give them good homes, give them love they’ve never known.”

Amanda often makes a point to say amazing and random things about you on the band blog. Can you conjure something profound to say about her? Right now?

Profound? Oooh ..... let’s see. “Whirlwind of ideas ..... constant stoker of the flames ..... provocateur ..... sensualist.”

Dean Lockwood | 210SA contributor