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THE DONNAS - "Spend The Night"

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THE DONNAS

“Spend The Night”

Atlantic Records - October 22, 2002

A current band that has been repeatedly showing up on my radar as of late is the all-female, Los Angeles-based punk group,The Linda Lindas, who are fantastic and whom I highly recommend. Of course for me, L.A. founded girl punk bands always begin with the legendary Runaways (anyone unfamiliar is enthusiastically directed to Evelyn McDonnell’s excellent, “Queens of Noise”) but between those pioneers and the current darlings of the genre there was an act of worthy consideration from Northern California. The Donnas, taking a cue from the Ramones with each member taking on the moniker, “Donna” followed by the first initial of their given surname (singer, Brett Anderson: “Donna A.”, drummer, Tory Castellano, “Donna C.”, bassist, Maya Ford, “Donna F.”, and guitarist, Allison Robertson, “Donna R.”) formed as teens in Palo Alto and after earning their props with critically acclaimed releases mostly on Berkeley-based Lookout! Records they made the jump to the majors with their fifth album, “Spend The Night,” a blasting collection of self-confident lyrics and ringing riffs. “Not The One” and “I Don’t Care“ are both sublime takes on the snotty teen art of the kiss off and few do it better than the Donnas. The ferociously driving single, “Take It Off,” is resounding proof that Donna R. has some AC-DC in her record collection (it eventually showed up in the soundtracks to “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” and “The Hangover”) and “Who Invited You” further cements their emerging transition from punk to hard rock. Sadly, her self taught and unconventional drumming style resulted in Donna C. suffering such severe tendonitis in her wrists and shoulder that after unsuccessful surgeries she retired from drumming (ironically she would go on to attend Harvard Law School following in the footsteps of Runaways’ bassist, Jackie Fuchs who matriculated in Cambridge alongside future President, Barak Obama). They soldiered on with a friend playing drums but never again caught the fire of “Spend The Night” and by 2017 Donna A. had discussed the band’s end and no interest in regular reunion offers.

Standouts: “Take It Off,” “Wanna Get Me High,” Too Bad About Your Girl”



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