THE DONNAS
"Spend
the Night" (Atlantic; 2002)
Reviewed by Jeff Rogers
The Donnas are the girl group who spin the Lazy Susan with such
G-force that it will knock you out of your Lazy Boy. Starting out in the 8th grade
as Ragady Anne, they played cover songs to get noticed. After shedding their punk girl image that
had been labeled as The Ramones meet The Runaways they took on the boys club.
When questioned whether they possessed enough of a "pair" to rock with
the big boys, they answered with rock'n'roll that kicked a few to their knees.
With an aggressive attitude and no desire to bow down to male of the species (with lines such as, “So I’m callin’ all my ladies;
We’re gonna key your Mercedes”) you better believe that these four girls who can take a guy and expose him
for what he really is will surely have a crowd full of estrogen-laden ladies. I must say that these chicks can rock. There is an element of sleaze
here that makes for a great sound, too.
Donna B. has an Ace Frehley guitar sound, but she can rock like Motley Crue also. There are nice little solos for each song and the drums are excellent and the bass thumps,
too. The lyrics are the highlight for me; it would take a page to list all the quips they
pen. I have listened to this disc a lot and I’m impressed with their style of
rock with its punk attitude and its female perspective. "Spend the
Night" stands up strong in my music library.
The best tracks are “It’s On The Rocks,” “Who Invited You,” “You Wanna Get Me High,” and “Take Me To The Backseat.”
The Donnas: Donna A. (Brett Anderson) – vocals; Donna C. (Torry Castellano) – drums; Donna F. (Maya Ford) – bass; Donna R. (Allison Robertson) – guitar.
For more information, check out http://www.thedonnas.com.
Rating Guide:
A classic. This record will kick your ass.
Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.
So-so. You've heard better.
Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.
Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.
Copyright © 2007 by R. Scott Bolton. All rights
reserved.
