The Dresden Dolls,the pioneering punk cabaret duo featuring pianist/singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Brian Viglione, are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their second studio album with “Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version)”, a newly re-recorded version of the landmark 2006 LP arriving digitally, on CD, and vinyl on Friday, August 7.

The album is heralded by today’s premiere of a brand new rendition of the fan favourite “Backstabber (Tailor’s Version)”, available everywhere now. In addition, an exclusive new “My Alcoholic Friends (Tailor’s Version)” sound debuts on TikTok and Instagram.

The song’s original version has proven an enduring classic for The Dresden Dolls, amassing more than 250 million worldwide streams and over 70 million YouTube views, and recently earning the band their first-ever RIAA Platinum certification, two decades after its original release.  

“Yes, Virginia… (Tailor’s Version),” the newly fashioned title which, of course, nods to Taylor Swift’s reclamation of her early master recordings, follows the recent conclusion of The Dresden Dolls’ 20-year contract with Roadrunner Records, allowing them the right to re-record the albums originally issued on the label.

Recorded over several weeks in late 2025 at Boston, MA’s Mad Oak Studios, the album was tracked almost entirely live with longtime collaborator Benny Grotto and mixed by Paul Kolderie, co-founder of Boston’s iconic Fort Apache Studios (and sound engineer on the original 2006 “Yes, Virginia…”).

The new recording sees The Dresden Dolls joined by guest vocalists Veronica Swift, who received a French knighthood and worldwide acclaim for her 2021 recording of the album’s Sing and 2x RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon, an ardent supporter of the band who performed the album’s “Me and the Minibar” with a full orchestra at her Carnegie Hall debut in 2025.

The album also includes new front- and back-cover artwork by South African surrealist painter Niki McQueen.

Hailed upon its original release for Viglione’s genre-spanning, emotionally expressive drumming and Palmer’s percussive piano work, jagged vocals and unflinching songwriting, “Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version)” sees The Dresden Dolls exploring sexuality, identity, Holocaust denial, addiction, capitalism and social isolation against a backdrop of defiant joy.

The tracklist remains unchanged, save for a bonus track on the new physical releases, but the performances reflect two decades of Palmer and Viglione’s artistic and personal evolution, adding renewed depth, nuance, and intensity to such treasured songs as ‘My Alcoholic Friends’, ‘Sex Changes’, ‘Backstabber’, ‘Mrs. O, Sing’, ‘Delilah’, and ‘Me and the Minibar’.

Having earned global applause for their blazingly visceral live performances over the past 26 years, Palmer and Viglione approached the material with a deeper musical connection and a more expansive emotional range. Their performances do not attempt to perfectly replicate the original recordings.

Rather, “Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version)”reflects a more mature interplay, subtler, more elastic, and more attuned to space and restraint, while preserving the raw theatricality that defined The Dresden Dolls’ early work.

“It feels like we’re both far more sophisticated and nuanced musicians now,” says Amanda Palmer. “We have more grace as collaborators, we leave more sonic space for one another. We’ve been a live band for twenty-five years and clocked our 10,000 hours on stage; now we can get out of the way of the songs themselves and let them breathe more deeply. Re-recording these songs 20 years later proved to be a really surreal trip down memory lane. 

“The challenge in the studio,” Palmer adds, “was to capture something that’s always moving – these songs have always been played in conversation with an audience. The recording didn’t need to be perfect, quite the contrary: it had to feel alive and urgent. Some of the songs were recorded in a single take, vocal and all. It was almost unsettling how relevant these lyrics still are in 2026, especially the themes of turmoil, powerlessness, the subtle creep of fascism, abortion rights; there’s even a song imagining the corporate takeover of outer space in ‘Modern Moonlight.’ It’s like, wow, look how far we haven’t come.”

Long known as a fiercely passionate live band, The Dresden Dolls will hit the road for a celebratory world tour beginning September 1 at Vienna, Austria’s Arena Wien Open Air and will include two shows in the United Kingdom on September 10th and 11th.

Further US shows will take place across October and December. VIP and Artist Presales begin Wednesday, May 13. Local Presales follow on Thursday, May 14. General On-Sales get underway Friday, May 15. For complete details and ticket information, please visit dresdendolls.com.

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THE DRESDEN DOLLS – EUROPEAN SHOWS SEPTEMBER 2026

1 – Vienna, Austria – Arena Wien Open Air
2 – Warsaw, Poland – Progresja
4 – Prague, Czech Republic – ARCHA+
5 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt
7 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg
8 – Paris, France – Élysée Montmartre
10 – Manchester, UK– Albert Hall
11 – London, UK – British Airways ARC 

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Nicoleta Raicu

Co-Owner at Cultartes Magazine
Still can't tell exactly my origins because of my suspiciously ‘Chinese eyes’.