Twenty years on, the corset is still cinched, the eyeliner is still smudged just so, and The Dresden Dolls are climbing back onto the piano bench for an encore. The pioneering punk cabaret duo of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione have announced Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version), a fully re-recorded edition of their landmark 2006 sophomore LP, arriving digitally, on CD, and on vinyl Friday, August 7. Pre-orders and pre-saves are live now.

The first taste, “Backstabber (Tailor’s Version),” is out today, along with an exclusive “My Alcoholic Friends (Tailor’s Version)” sound debuting on TikTok and Instagram. That latter track is no small footnote: the original recently crossed 250 million worldwide streams, 70 million YouTube views, and earned the band their first-ever RIAA Platinum certification — not bad for a song two decades into its life.

Listen to “Backstabber (Tailor’s Version)” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedresdendolls

The title, of course, tips a top hat to Taylor Swift’s master-recording reclamation project. Following the recent conclusion of their 20-year contract with Roadrunner Records, Palmer and Viglione are free to revisit — and reclaim — the catalog that helped define punk cabaret. The album was tracked almost entirely live in late 2025 at Boston’s Mad Oak Studios with longtime collaborator Benny Grotto, and mixed by Paul Kolderie, the co-founder of Boston’s iconic Fort Apache Studios who engineered the 2006 original.

“It feels like we’re both far more sophisticated and nuanced musicians now,” Palmer says. “We have more grace as collaborators; we leave more sonic space for one another. We’ve been a live band for 25 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.”

The new sessions also welcome two formidable guest vocalists: Veronica Swift, who earned a French knighthood for her 2021 recording of “Sing,” and two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon, who performed “Me and the Minibar” with a full orchestra at her 2025 Carnegie Hall debut. New front- and back-cover artwork comes courtesy of South African surrealist painter Niki McQueen.

The tracklist remains intact — “Sex Changes,” “Modern Moonlight,” “Delilah,” “Mrs. O.,” “Mandy Goes To Med School,” “Sing” — with a bonus track tucked into the physical CD and vinyl editions. Palmer notes how startlingly current the material still feels: “It was almost unsettling how relevant these lyrics still are in 2026 — 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.”

Naturally, a band this theatrical isn’t releasing a record without taking it to the stage. The Dresden Dolls’ world tour launches September 1 at Vienna’s Arena Wien Open Air before sweeping through Europe, the UK, and North America, capped by a two-night homecoming at Boston’s Colonial Theatre on December 4-5 and a tour finale at New York’s Brooklyn Paramount on December 9.

THE DRESDEN DOLLS – 2026 TOUR DATES

September
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 – TivoliVredenburg
8 – Paris, France – Élysée Montmartre
10 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
11 – London, UK – British Airways ARC

October
3 – Los Angeles, CA – The United Theater on Broadway
6 – Sacramento, CA – Channel 24
7 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
9 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
10 – Seattle, WA – 5th Avenue Theatre
27 – St Paul, MN – The Palace Theatre
29 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed
30 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
31 – Montreal, QC – Beanfield Theatre

December
4 – Boston, MA – The Colonial Theatre
5 – Boston, MA – The Colonial Theatre
9 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount

VIP and Artist Presales begin Wednesday, May 13, with Local Presales on May 14 and General On-Sales Friday, May 15. Pre-order Yes, Virginia…(Tailor’s Version), grab your tickets, and brace for the curtain to rise: it’s time, once again, for the Punk Cabaret.