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Five Important Doll Bands

Posted Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:33pm PST by Rob O'Connor in List Of The Day

Dolls are an essential rite of passage. Girls are supposed to love them. Boys are supposed to stay away from them unless they're army soldiers. Then it's ok in limited doses or until the other kids start to make fun of you and call you names and tell you your dad sucks and your bike is lame and your clothes are stupid and your TV isn't big enough and if you don't give over your lunch money you're going to get beat up after school at "the hill" and...anyhow, Dolls are a sensitive matter and it takes sensitive dudes and dudesses to make a band successful with this much emotional baggage. At least it does around here

Pussycat Dolls - According to the bio I just read, Gwen Stefani, Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears and Kelly Osbourne have all joined the Pussycat Dolls on stage to be part of their incredible lingerie act. Sometimes when you feel as if the world might be ending, you stop and realize, no, that's just Kelly Osbourne singing. Then you hit the muscle relaxants hard and let Calgon take you away.

Dresden Dolls - German cabaret music never goes out of style. Kids the world over clamor for its...uh, cabaret-ness? DD are a duo--man and woman--who wear weird clothes and make you feel as if music is only effective if you have a nervous breakdown while listening to it. Which is better than music that makes you dance like a jackass!

Demolition Doll Rods - They're from Detroit. At least two of the three of them are women, I think (I've never been to their dressing room). They don't wear a lot of clothes. And they play trashy rock n' roll. One of the members left the group to start a family. Will another leave to start a Blimpie franchise? Opportunities abound.

New York Dolls - These guys would've been huge if cable TV had been more en vogue back in the mid-'70s. Make-up, high-heeled boots, tons of hair, a singer that looked like Mick Jagger but not as old--though these days it's like choosing between Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan--and then the requisite two albums that people say could've been better if they'd been produced right. Everyone saw them live back in the day. Which must be news to the living members of the band--and probably the dead ones too! Considering they played some pretty small clubs back in the day!

Goo Goo Dolls - They ruined Paul Westerberg and the Replacements for an entire generation. But the Goo Goos' teen drama rock really strikes chords (musical pun, that one) with young people who watch teen drama shows. Personally, they make me want to stick my head in the oven. To clean it, of course.

 

7 Comments

1. Gina -
Love, love, love the Goo Goo Dolls! Just released a greatest hits cd that is awesome! Because they're not out grabbing headlines with ridiculous temper tantrums and outrageous behavior, sometimes they're overlooked, but these guys have been putting out solid music for years.

2. Yahoo! Music User -
The Goo Goo Dolls ruined Paul Westerberg and the Replacements for an entire generation?

Really!?! What did these Mats fans do? Did they take their copy of Tim to the local used CD store because "Name" suddenly made "Here Comes a Regular" an unbearable listen? Thanks for the pointless statement to show off your music knowledge.

3. Yahoo! Music User -
Ah! The Replacements, love them..I'll Be You and Can't Hardly Wait are my faves. A million kisses to Paul for inspiring the best songwriter/musician on the planet...John Rzeznik. There's no other band like the Goo Goo Dolls and I am no teenager.

4. Yahoo! Music User -
You are so welcome to your own opinion....however, as cool as the "Mats" are, Paul Westerberg got known to a whole new generation by co-writing "We Are The Normal" with John Rzeznik. The Goos have 13 top ten hits under their belts in the Adult Contemporary charts...not exactly the Teen Drama rock...even though they did BH 90210 and Charmed, and The Drew Carey Show....and their songs have been on two Cold Case shows.

Thanks for at least ADDING the Goo Goo Dolls to your list! That's awesome of you.

5. Ashley T -
The Dresden Dolls are quite lovely.

6. Yahoo! Music User -
Rob, you don't seem to like or see anything special about any of these bands. I got zero from reading your blog. All I can think of is that the images you selected are nice. Got to give you credit for including the GGDs, at least you knew to pick a winner to get your blog some hits.

I like the PCDs, but the over the top sex appeal mars Nicole's talent. Glad to see that she's on her own now, but still focusing on her sex appeal rather than her vocals. That image is so not her. She is one of the nicest and most down to earth people you could meet, just listening to the wrong advise.

The other bands I never heard of but after reading what you had to say, I'm not going to look them up unless I hear their music elswhere and it appeals to me. I'm not going to look you up either because you taught me nothing, but thanks anyway.

7. Christina H -
PCD is just a cheap knock-off of the Spice Girls.
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