The Donnas
Spend The Night

THE REVIEW

It is an empirical fact. If you have a precise and determined personality, even if you're a beast, you'll surely stand out, and for better or worse, you'll hit at least one thing in life right, and you can be remembered for it.

After an insane weekend full of shingles, paint, faucets, overalls, beers, and various troublemakers, beach, gentle waves, music, warm days, and cool evenings, I return to my bed for autumn/winter/spring convinced that The Donnas scientifically answer the above, banal consideration. I've been following them since they started (1998) on the recommendation of a direct and crazy cousin who lives in L.A. Well, I've always considered them a 2, at most 3, on their productions, so nothing truly good—a small personal nod to the reviewer of Gold Medal here on DeB: come on, 4 for that album is really too much J. But—however!—I must admit that even though they've never amazed me, they've always known how to accompany crazy house party evenings shut in for three days. And even one live performance that I won't remember as the best live of my life but certainly will remember. Old tracks like Get Rid Of That Girl (from their debut album), Rock N' Roll Machine (from their second bombastic release), 40 Boys In 40 Nights (from the fourth effort?!?) certainly add a bit of hot spice in that place there. Definitely. However—but?—it must also be said that the genre they've always presented, an array of rough and adolescent rock n' roll refined with a bit of silly teen punk, has never fully sweetened my tea cup.

A delightful clue (for my tastes) is their registry and it answers to their origin: Palo Alto, California. In itself, it's enough for me to analyze these four crazies more deeply.

Despite an extremely American party rock often too Yankee to be appreciated by us poor Europeans, the 4 gals who all call themselves Donna (what an idea, huh?) were not indifferent to the noisy music history of the world. It seemed they wanted to search for a Ramones-like style, all simple structures at sustained rhythms. But the contents (and results) were quite different. At this point, after their first self-titled album, they start looking around and gradually find the turning point. In a territory already heavily sown by Motley Crue, the girls begin harvesting the fruit of others' work, hybridizing it with that of other girls (let’s be honest, Girlschool) from which they would have liked to inherit the legacy. So Ramones, Motley Crue, and Girlschool (and naturally, by reflection, Motorhead). It is with the fifth studio effort, this "Spend The Night" of 2002, that the "mistresses" reach their musical peak, managing to bring out the Palo Alto and producing a masterful (or mistressful) album.

Although it doesn't contain anything genius, the basic fun they've always managed to guarantee is this time accompanied by a really perfect production (signed Carmer and Shimp) that properly polishes the instruments' bodywork, cleans, and makes the vocals silky and very pleasant (distancing it from the whining of the American girl wandering drunk around the house with everything hanging out and wide eyes), sharpens all the tracks, containing them like a bandolier of machine gun bullets in modular 2/3 minutes duration, going as far as the 4 of the final "5 O’ Clock In The Morning".

Therefore, Donna A. is the protagonist of an excellent vocal performance, playing on deep tones of a slightly more mature (but still cheeky) attractive woman compared to the teenage voice out at parties seeking virginity loss that she offered in the past. Donna R.F. and C. are the stick and carrot that speeds the album along furiously, in an incessant succession of tracks that instantly make you want to send the parents to grandparents for the weekend and organize the destruction of your own house by inviting friends and others (the "others" would be the worst bullies in the neighborhood, of which you'd then proudly tell around). There is a significant, viral, contagious energy that subliminally acts on the minds of the younger ones, inserting that single thought "organize this party, organize this party, organize this party…" which, at a slightly more serious level of analysis, refers back to the concept expressed in the opening. The mindset stayed the same, the songs talk about what Trainspotting’s Spud would call fun, the personality is well-defined and remains fixed in 1998. But the rhythms change and mature, the compositions, the technique. The unhealthy desire to wreak havoc, like in the film Road Trip, transitions from high school to university level. In short, the girls have grown up, and they demonstrate it by coming up with riffs worthy of the Sunset Strip scene (try partying with old classmates and tell me if you don’t manage to hook up with the one you've always dreamed of while listening to All Messed Up or I Don’t Care So There).

Look, they're nothing special, but this is an album worth listening to in situations where you flush seriousness and reflections away. Who Invited You, they’ll violently and rock n' roll ask. You tell them it was me. Especially those who listen to Green Day. Yes, you specifically could give some meaning to your ears if you lend them to these four brats who, if squeezed, ooze discount alcohol.