HAPPY 20th, DRESDEN DOLLS, rare photos, a new live film, & rocky horror... (Patreon)

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HOLA COMRADES!

quickie: if you wanna, leave your fave dresden dolls memories below. then i'll pop this post public on our actual birthday (october 31st) in a few days!!!!

i'm really backed up in thing to tell you, show you, share with you. i have ahandful of beautiful photos and stories from the welington weekend - i did FIVE events, including my first kids show - and i have lots of other things to share, about voting, about loneliness, about being here in new zealand, the parties coming up....about...so many things. it's all going faster than i can relate, as usual.

i'm hoping to catch up on some writing next week....and meanwhile, just bear with me.

this week is an emotional one for me.

my band is turning twenty in a few days.

it was twenty years ago when i was throwing a haloween party at my house, the cloud club in boston, and brian came with our mutual friend, shawn setaro, dressed as a severed head. he saw me play a few songs for guests in the top floor of the house, he gave me his phone number, said "we are going to be a band", and a few days later, it all came true. the dresden dolls were born. brian on drums, me on piano, i wrote the songs, brian brought them to life, and we went all over the world for years and years, trying to bring the good word of the punk cabaret to all the little boys and girls we could find.

and now, 20.

TWENTY!!!!

fuck.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, US.

i weep.

we were so little when we met.

(the dolls in south boston, photographed by lisa gordon in 2002, during the shoot that would produce the photo for our debut record cover)

(the dolls next door to photographer kyle cassidy's house, photo'd by kyle, in philidelphia, 2003)

then we began to mature.

in 2007 i drank a lot of beer on the road.

the dresden dolls, my first band, and the punk-cabaret-athena-head from which i sprung, is more than just a band to me. and to a lot of people.

this band was my whole life for seven years. during that time, i lived, breathed, ate, sang, drank, traveled and thought THE DRESDEN DOLLS.

i was barely ever at home from 2000-2007. i was barely in another relationship. 

i didn't need to be in a relationship with a man, or a woman. 

i had my band.

i was in a relationship with the whole world.

and i was in a relationship - a deeply beautiful and complicated musical and life one - with this incredble man: brian viglione.

(brian deep in the drum zone,....photo by Joshua Smelser, Echo Lounge, Atlanta, GA, 2004)

(me, at the same show)

we used to tell the press: we are beyond married. we are a fucking DUO - YEs, JUST TWO OF US, ALWAYS - touring the world together. 

we lived together on a bus, ate every meal together, dealt with each others emotional meltdowns and body odor, shared couches to sleep on, rubbed each other's sore backs, cranked each other's necks, cared for each other in sickness and in health, got on each others nerves mightily, and almost every night, got on a stage somewhere in the world - we've now toured the globe 'round 7 times, i think - and beat the shit out of our instruments, all in the name of the punk cabaret.

when i was 25, and starting, shyly and clumsily, to look for "a band", because i had this batch of weird songs i'd written and i was pretty sure they'd be better fleshed out with "a band", that is, a guitar played, a bassist and a drummer, because that's what "A BAND" is, i could have looked the world over and not found a bandmate more compatible with my musical dreams than brian.

he heard the songs i wrote, my sad, dark, weird, funny, sick, angry songs, songs like "missed me" and "bad habit" and "girl anachronism" and he said YES, I UNDERSTAND THIS. and i was like: "you do?? you understand this?

and he said: "YES, I DO. I UNDERSTAND THIS."

and he did. 

and understanding my SONGS meant he understood ME.

(the dolls in france, photographed by gregory nomoora, 2005)

this was life-changing, and i've said it many times since: i don't think i would be half the artist i am today if it were not for brian viglione's belief in me as an artist. he made me believe in myself.

he came from the same musical world that i did: the cure, swans, the doors, goth, metal, theater, freaks, pain....the world where you make music as if your life depends on it, because maybe....it does.

we were unapologetically colorful, loud, joyful, naked, and made-up in a town that prized plaid, jeans, boys with guitars and looking at the floor when you played a live show. it was the height of post-grunge in boston. 

people, like, HATED our band. HATED.

and we fought back by breaking every rule by loving our audience, talking with our crowd, encouraging dress-up, pretending to be muppets, and making every show into an event, a party, a community hang.

we didn't care.

we'd found our people.

(the dolls at my house, the cloud club, photo'd by J Tlumacki, 2004, for the boston globe)

(the dresden dolls at an art university in boston, i forget which one, with a bunch of students who were allowed to use us like guinea pigs for their photo class...photo by kassi grunder, 2004)

(the dolls in my backyard at the cloud club, photo'd by kelly davidson in 2003)

we were mercilessly made fun of in boston. 

while other bands wore their plaid and looked at the floor, we raged into our audience, listened to their rape and abuse stories after shows. held people, cried with them, for each other, for ourselves, and for humanity.  

9/11 happened one year after the band was born. we were just starting to play shows in new york. we had no idea what was really happening in the world - and on what scale - but we knew people were in pain. everybody was in pain. everybody was scared. everybody wanted to feel less alone. we tried to make a space where we, and our community, could feel less alone, less crazy, more together. 

(the dolls on the set of the coin-operated boy video shoot, in my house/the cloud club...by lisa dragani, 2004) 

i mean....that was the idea behind the punk cabaret. 

that we would find our people.

that was what we meant when we screamed PUNK CABARET IS FREEDOM at our shows, on our email list and over the internet. 

we wanted our music to create a place where people could feel together, and feel free, and feel accepted for ANYTHING they were.

we were shamelessly weird, shamelessly proud of our community, and shamelessly proud to be queer, loud, and emotional.

(the dolls at the grand ballroom, NYC, new years 2008, by scaredsquee)

anyway....this was the world we were living in back in 2004, when we recorded our first live DVD, "the dresden dolls in paradise"., filed live at the paradise rock club o commonwelath avenue in boston, on june 5th, 2005.

we'd just signed with a major label, and we knew that the band's was truest to form when you could SEE us. so we hired our beautiful brother-in-arms, michael pope, (who'd also made the "girl anachronism" and "coin-operated boy" videos AT OUR HOUSE, DID YOU KNOW THAT?) to film an entire live concert - so we could show the whole world what the band DID. we hired out friend, the painter barnaby whitfield, to make a custom painting for the cover...here it is:

the DVD was a huge success - it was back when people bought DVDS - and it turned on a whole load of people to the band. maybe you were one of them.

...........

(amanda @ piano, photo'd by Jon Beckley, Boston, 2017)

(brian photo'd by David Rutherford, London Troxy, 2018)

right now, in october 2020, brian and i were supposed to be ON TOUR for a NEW ALBUM that we were going to be in the MIDDLE OF MAKING.

we thought long and hard about what we could do to make this 20th BANDIVERSARY very special.

and we decided on THIS: to release the golden footage that we'd been hanging onto, since playing BACk at the paradise in 2017 - 12 years after the original show.

we now present to you....

THE DRESDEN DOLLS in RETURN TO PARADISE....a LIVE CONCERT FILM, ON DEMAND on VIMEO.

THIS SHOW IS PEAK FUCKING DRESDEN DOLLS. brian has worked personally for months alongside the film editors to make an incredible cut, from the bands-eye-view.

and ask those who were there, we were on FIRE THAT NIGHT.

it's up for pre-order now for $15. 

a note: patrons **will get the show footage** in their inboxes, for free, and it shall be THUNGED so we can get guaranteed cash in the band's pocket! but please....share the info with other dolls fans! 

spread the tweet about it and faceborg post far and wide!!! SHARE SHARE SHAAAAARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the film gets released at 12am ET (new york) on October 31st.

HERE IS THE TRAILER!!!! it's pretty beautiful:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/returntoparadise

if you buy it on vimeo you can watch it as a stream, or download it.

and....bonus...there's gonna be a lovely little live chat with one of our fave boston journalists, brett milano!!!!! WE LOVE BRETT. 

20 YEARS of the PUNK CABARET: THE DRESDEN DOLLS in CONVERSATION WITH BRETT MILANO, on oct 30/31 (click for your exact time in yer zone!!!) https://www.crowdcast.io/e/dd20

BRIAN AND I HAVEN'T DONE AN INTERVIEW TOGETHER IN AGES.

this is gonna be super awesome, super emotional, and a must-see for dolls fans.

sweaty me and brett, at some dive in boston....

......

AND IF THINGS COULDN'T GET ANY BETTER.....

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW LIVE SCRIPT READING!!!!!!!!

This event is only going to be livestreamed once at 9pm CT on Saturday, October 31st. All paths to the White House go through Wisconsin. Your donation will help defeat Trump.

the dresden dolls are contributing music to a rocky horror table read fundraiser to benefit the wisconsin democrats!!!!

WE OPEN THE SHOW!!!!! yeeeeeeee.

rocky was a huge influence on us as a band.

we were so honored to be invited to do this.

the cast and crew includes: Fall Out Boy, Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, The Dresden Dolls, Miss Peppermint, Frankie Grande, Eiza Gonzalez, Ben Barnes, Jenna Ushkowitz, Rachel Bloom, Garrett Clayton, Karen Olivo, Keala Settle, Marissa Jaret Winkour, Madison Uphoff, Graham Phillips, Kalen Chase, Rumer Willis, & more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

info and tickets here:

https://bit.ly/3jB8Xwl

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY, THIS CAUSE IS IMPORTANT!!!

...............

(the dresden dolls in france naked in bed, by gregory nomoora, 2005)

AND

brian, i love the fuck outta you AND I LOVE OUR BAND.

AND EVERYBODY.....

WE WOULD LIKE NOT TRUMP FOR OUR BIRTHDAY PLEeeeeeASEEEEEE

THANKS

x

afp

p.s thanks a TON to our whole team for helping us put this project together - AND thanks to merch queen alex knight for diggin' a lot of these photos out of the vault!!! one more from the vaults: this is one of the first photos ever taken of the dresden dolls...outside my house/the cloud club in boston, in 2001, by riessen kinghorn

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

IF YOU'RE IN THE USA.....DON'T FORGET TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION. DO NOT BE CONFUSED!!! help is there: you can register to vote, find your local voter registration deadlines, update your voter registration, check that your registration is still on the books, find your polling place and other important election information HERE at http://headcount.org

..........

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