Artist description From Press Kit: "Drawing from influences as diverse as Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Fugazi, and the Smashing Pumpkins, the Paper Dolls’ music is intense, uncompromising, and raw, whether they’re blasting through the punk squall of 'Focus' or gently strumming through the quiet balladry of 'Lengthy Conversation.'"

Music Style Fuzzy, sometimes experimental rock with lots of melody.

Musical Influences Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Buckley, Yo La Tengo, the Poster Children, Hum, Dollface, Lucigen, Mission of Burma...

Similar Artists Radiohead, Fugazi, The Smashing Pumpkins, and we've been compared to Buffalo Tom (?!)

Artist History As told by guitarist Ryan Martin: "It all goes back to 1998. My brother Joe and I (Ryan), sharing basically the same musical interests, decided to form a band. We recorded a demo of 10+ instrumental songs under the name Dissonance. Unfortunately, neither Joe nor I could sing. I tried to solve this problem by taking choral classes at school, but that hardly helped me have the confidence needed for a good lead singer. Enter Brent Cone. Brent was an oddity. He shared the same eclectic tastes as me, despite being heavily involved with scholastic choral activities. He first approached me (having met me once before) with the hope that I would help him devise his own website. I assured him I would, and as I got to know him better I realized that our interests and thought patterns were eerily similar. Taking this into account, I implored him to join my band. At the time Joe and I were in a punk band called Nic Fit, and I simply wanted him to play bass. But when that band broke up on February 10th, 1999, I started listening to the old Dissonance demos and had Brent listen to them too. Brent, Joe, and I came to an agreement that we should continue along the same vein, and form a trio. Almost immediately, Thom Murray of Lucigen asked us if we wanted to play a benefit show for a debilitated local youth pastor. Thinking "free publicity," we conceded and our first show took place on April 10th, 1999. Since that fateful day, we've played numerous more shows and have come into our own as a band. At this point, we're spread throughout the Midwest, but soon enough we will all reconvene to play out some more (probably winter 2001) and record our album... finally."

Group Members Ryan Martin - Guitars, back-up vocals Brent Cone - Bass, vocals Joe Martin - Percussion, most lyrics

Instruments All analog.

Albums Programming the Robot Army, 1999; Demo, 2000

Press Reviews "The Paper Dolls have an innate ability to take relatively bright, fuzzy melodies and turn them into post-punk anthems, complete with buzzing guitars and piercing feedback. However, they are not limited to loud, raucous distorto-rock... when the need arises, they can get their quiet groove on ("Lengthy Conversation") or conjure up massive, elemental atmospherics ("Ruby Tubes"). This is truly alt-rock at its most primal and versatile..." - Lemon Jesus 'zine "The band strikes a comfortable balance between the power-chord fuzz of Hum, the painful longing of Jeff Buckley, and the jangle-pop of Bends-era Radiohead while managing to sound nothing like any of those artists..." - Un Chien Andalusia 'zine

Location Morton, IL - USA

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