Because the release of their punk rock cabaret live DVD got them exposed to new audiences unfamiliar with the idea that Kurt Weill might still have a place in rock n’ roll (the last band to give him his proper due was The Doors when they covered “Alabama Song”), the pressure must have been on Dresden Dolls to get another record out as fast as possible in order to capitalize on the interest. So appears No, Virginia… – an album that’s part new material with thhe rest filled out by “a collection of unheard treasures from the Vault of The Punk Rock Cabaret taken from the Yes Virginia Sessions.” Skeptical? Don’t be – while collections of this type do admittedly earn the title of ‘Odds and Sods collections’ for a reason, No, Virginia… brims with nervous energy and is held together by constant patterns as well as artistic growth.
Even so, ‘unheard’ might be overstating things a bit. Anyone familiar with the Dolls will recognize many of these songs because they’ve seen play in live sets in a number of cases and those that haven’t will still seem familiar. “Lonesome Organist Rapes Page-Turner” was on the Live At The Roundhouse DVD’s set list of course, but others including “Dear Jenny” and “The Gardener” that make their first appearance here could easily have fit in on the band’s prior releases and show up here fully formed. It’s actually jaw-dropping that songs as good as “Sorry Bunch,” “Night Renaissance” and “The Mouse And The Model” simply didn’t make the cut to appear on the records for which they were originally recorded and, at the same time, they appear here as a testament to the strength of the songs that did.
The Dresden Dolls do find time to grow beyond the cabaret with “The Kill” and “Boston” which both bear hints of new wave and may be a taste of things to come from either singer Amanda Palmer (who it has been announced has a solo record forthcoming) or Dresden Dolls in the future. This record doesn’t feel elegiac though – at no point do the proceedings drag or give the impression that the future pf Dresden Dolls is in question, it just feels like the best play to make when the band has some attention focused on them.
For more information, go to http://www.dresdendolls.com and http://www.myspace.com/dresdendolls
