The Donnas

All Music Guide:

Aspiring to nothing more than a good old-fashioned rock & roll party, the Donnas won a cult following and considerable media attention in the late '90s after scoring a record deal right out of high school. Early on, they were invariably described as "the Ramones meet the Runaways," with a definite emphasis on the former (they'd even adopted identical first names as a tribute). But their bratty high-school-delinquent image was clearly indebted to the latter, as their songs concerned themselves mostly with boys, booze, drugs, and hated classmates. As the Donnas grew up and polished their technical abilities, their music evolved into a distinctly female take on cock-rock metal, drawing more from AC/DC, Kiss, and Mötley Crüe than from punk. Some critics praised their cheerfully crude adoption of male sexual bravado; others complained that the band's music never transcended its vintage influences, and remained suspicious that their naughty-girl packaging was a bigger part of their appeal.

The Donnas were originally formed in May 1993, when all four members (all born in 1979) were still in the eighth grade together in Palo Alto, CA. Calling themselves Ragady Anne at first, they played covers of groups like R.E.M., L7, the Muffs, and Shonen Knife, and entered a junior-high battle of the bands just one month after forming. During high school, they kept practicing virtually every afternoon, and soon moved into riot grrrl territory with inspiration from bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile (though it was more musical than political). In early 1995, Ragady Anne released a 7" EP on the local Radio Trash label, but soon changed their name to the Electrocutes and adopted a trashy jailbait image and a loud-fast-rules aesthetic. They gigged around the Bay Area that year and were spotted by Darin Raffaelli, a onetime member of trash-punkers Supercharger and head of the small Radio X label. Raffaelli had written a cache of Ramones-style songs for a hypothetical girl band, and approached the Electrocutes about recording them.

Deciding that the songs didn't fit the Electrocutes' metal-queen style, the girls created Ramones-worshipping alter egos known as the Donnas, even going so far as to mock them in Electrocutes interviews as though they were different people. Thus, vocalist Brett Anderson, guitarist Allison Robertson, bassist Maya Ford, and drummer Torry Castellano became Donna A., Donna R., Donna F., and Donna C. Before 1995 was out, they played their first gig as the Donnas, and released their first single under that name on Radio X. Two more followed in 1996, the last one on Raffaelli's new imprint, Super*teem. Meanwhile, they hadn't yet abandoned their identity as the Electrocutes, and in fact recorded an album called Steal Yer Lunch Money during 1996; however, it wasn't released until three years later, when Sympathy for the Record Industry acquired the rights in the wake of the Donnas' eventual success.

In 1997, the Donnas recorded a self-titled debut album for Super*teem, using songs ghostwritten by Raffaelli. Critics charged that Raffaelli was acting as the band's Svengali, likening their relationship to that of Kim Fowley and the Runaways; both sides vehemently denied that was the case, and eventually severed their professional relationship to avoid fueling more speculation. Following the release of The Donnas, the group took a week off from its senior year of high school to tour Japan. After graduation, they postponed plans for college and accepted an offer to sign with Bay Area indie Lookout, the original home of Green Day. Their label debut, American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine, was released in early 1998, and did feature some uncredited songwriting input from Raffaelli. The Donnas quickly became underground punk favorites, and even landed some attention from mainstream media like MTV.

The Donnas' third album, Get Skintight, appeared in 1999 and marked the first time the band composed its material with no outside assistance. A distinct hard rock influence began to creep into their compositions, underlined by their cover of Mötley Crüe's "Too Fast for Love"; they even opened a show for Cinderella. That year, they also appeared in the teen comedies Jawbreaker and Drive Me Crazy, the latter as the Electrocutes. In early 2001, the band issued The Donnas Turn 21, which continued their move away from punk and toward the hard rock mainstream of 15-20 years previous (this time the cover was Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight"). The album received some of their weakest reviews to date, generally from critics who felt that their party-hardy subject matter was starting to feel forced.

Nonetheless, the Donnas caught the attention of major label Atlantic, who signed them up in late 2001. Launched with a new wave of publicity, the Donnas' label debut, Spend the Night, arrived in 2002 and became their first album to break into the Top 100 of the pop charts. It also earned them their biggest radio hit to date in the single "Take It Off," whose video also got some MTV airplay. In the summer of 2003, the Donnas played the main stage on the revived Lollapalooza tour. That September, after a full year and a half of touring and promoting, the girls took a break to rest up.

When the foursome reunited in 2004, they made a conscious decision to shake the Ramones comparisons by making a record that drew from their various other influences. They entered the studio with Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne, Injected) and created the highly polished and semi-poppy Gold Medal album, released in October that year. The following album found the group embracing their hair metal influences, resulting in a record heavier than their last, but cleaner than their early punk efforts. With the help of producer Jay Ruston (the Polyphonic Spree, Meat Loaf), they released Bitchin' on their own independent label, Purple Feather, in September 2007.

Wikipedia:

The Donnas are an American all-female rock band from Palo Alto, California. They consist of Brett Anderson (lead vocals, guitar), Allison Robertson (guitar, backing vocals), Maya Ford (bass, backing vocals) and drummer/percussionist Amy Cesari (Cesari replaced Torry Castellano, who left in 2009 due to tendonitis). They draw inspiration from Ramones, The Runaways, AC/DC, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Kiss. Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage". MTV has stated that the band offers "a good old-fashioned rock & roll party". After gathering a cult following in the punk scene since their 1993 debut, the band achieved major label commercial success in the early 2000s and afterward.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Contents

History[edit]

Origins and early years: 1993–2001[edit]

All the founding band members were born in 1979; Brett Anderson on May 30 (vocals), Allison Robertson on August 26 (guitar, vocals), Maya Ford on January 8 (bass guitar, vocals), and Torry Castellano on January 8 (drums, percussion, vocals). They all became friends by eighth grade and formed as a band in May 1993 to play for their school's "Day on the Green." One of two girl bands in their town Palo Alto, California, they were relatively unknown until they were out of high school. They are all self-taught musicians and practiced in Castellano's garage nearly every day during high school. They called themselves "Ragady Anne" in their early days and shortly thereafter changed their name to "The Electrocutes"

Towards the end of their high school days, while they were still known as "The Electrocutes," they decided to create another band (with the same members) that would play softer tunes without distorting the metal queen image of The Electrocutes. To help their fans distinguish between the two bands, they all took matching "Donna" monikers, where all of their names were Donna and their last names were the first initial of their last name (Brett Anderson became Donna A, etc.), which they used only when performing as "The Donnas."

They worked with producer Darin Raffaelli for their first two albums, the first of which, simply called The Donnas, was released on Raffaelli's Superteem! record label. (It was later released again on Lookout! Records.) They took a week off their senior year of high school to tour Japan as The Donnas, and was promoted and organized by Pinky Aoki a.k.a. The Phantomgift. Afterwards, they signed with Lookout! Records. As the band grew, they were urged to sign with a major label company. In 2001, they signed with Atlantic Records.

Atlantic Records: 2002–2005[edit]

In 2002, The Donnas released Spend the Night as their Atlantic debut. The album represented their first attempt at mainstream success. With their single "Take it Off" they were booked for appearances on Total Request Live, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the Late Show with David Letterman. In the summer of 2003, they played the main stage at Lollapalooza. In 2004, they released their sixth album Gold Medal. In February 2005, they toured Australia with the Big Day Out music festival, playing from Sydney to Perth. While in Aust. they performed Take It Off Live on National Prime time show "Rove Live" with Rove McManus.

Atlantic repeatedly placed the Donnas' music in video game soundtracks. "You've Got A Crush On Me" can be heard in the PlayStation 2 game, Splashdown. "Who Invited You" can be found on soundtrack for True Crime: Streets of LA and MVP Baseball 2003 as well as Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild. "I Don't Want to Know" is in the Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack also and a cover of the song was also used for Donkey Konga 2 for the Nintendo GameCube. "I Don't Want to Know" was also used as the theme song for the first season of The-N's hit series, "South of Nowhere". A cover of "Take it Off" is featured in Guitar Hero and added as a downloadable track in Guitar Hero 2 on the Xbox 360 (released in 2006) and Downhill Domination (released in 2004). Rock Band 2 (for the PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii), released by Harmonix in 2008, features the track "New Kid In School" which was released exclusively on Apples iTunes service. "Fall Behind Me" was also used in a national television commercial advertising the Nissan Xterra while Take It Off was used in a Budweiser commercial.

Atlantic also energetically marketed the Donnas through placements in numerous film soundtracks. The band appeared in the movie Drive Me Crazy in 1999 (as The Electrocutes), and later on the TV show Charmed performing the single "Fall Behind Me" at P3. They also appeared in the 1999 teen comedy Jawbreaker as the prom band, contributing two songs to the soundtrack ("Rock 'N' Roll Machine" and "Checkin' It Out"). A cover of "Roll On Down The Highway" was used in a Disney commercial. The Donnas can also be heard on Mean Girls during the end credits playing a cover of the Billy Idol song "Dancing With Myself", and they also contributed to the soundtrack of the movie Grind. The video "Too Bad About Your Girl" also features the cast of that film. The song "Take It Off" features in the movie Dodgeball. The song "Take Me To The Backseat" can be heard in the movie D.E.B.S. (2004 film). A cover version of the Kiss song "Strutter" was used in the soundtrack to the 1999 movie Detroit Rock City (film). Then Guitar Hero used "Take It Off" for 2009 Guitar Hero Smash Hits. "Take It Off" was also used in the 2009 hit movie The Hangover. "Play My Game" was featured in a Season 1 episode of What's New, Scooby Doo?. "Who Invited You" is featured on the soundtrack of the 2003 movie What a Girl Wants.

New label and line-up change: 2006–present[edit]

On May 19, 2006 The Donnas announced on their public message board that they had "parted ways with Atlantic Records," claiming "[t]he decision was entirely mutual and completely amicable and will not impact the band, nor will it impact upon the writing, recording or touring for the next Donnas album." Within a year of being dropped by their label, in March 2007, the Donnas released a single, "Don't Wait Up For Me," and had a new band logo designed.

The Donnas independently released their 7th studio album titled Bitchin' on September 18, 2007 Purple Feather Records label. Bitchin' was produced by Jay Ruston and The Donnas and contained the single "Don't Wait Up For Me".

In 2008 The Donnas toured with the Melbourne-based, Australian band Kisschasy as part of their Skin and Bones tour. They also toured the U.S. and Canada with The Hives.

In July 2009, the band released a retrospective collection entitled Greatest Hits Volume 16 to celebrate the bands 16th year together. The album contains new songs, re-recorded older songs as well as some unreleased material. The band toured that summer with Pat Benatar and Blondie on the two's joint Call Me Invincible Tour. Drummer Torry Castellano was unable to play on any of these tour dates as she was suffering from tendonitis of the shoulder. Long-time friend Amy Cesari of the band The Demonics has been chosen to fill in for Torry.

On July 9, 2010, Torry announced via the band's website that due to her continued shoulder problems she would have to retire from drumming and performing with The Donnas and is currently a student at Stanford University.

As of August 2012, the band is currently recording their eighth studio album and also premiered a new song called "Tramp" at a recent private show.

As of October 2013 there is no news on the status of a new album. To date, the bands last show was in Sioux City, IA on June 15, 2012.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Fan club[edit]

The Donnas have had a very dedicated fan base almost from the beginning of their touring career. The band has a fan-only community called ‘The Donnaholics’. Every year these fans are sent a special membership package. Membership sometimes includes concert pre-sales, meet-and-greets and member-only message boards. The band has played two ‘Donnaholic’-only concerts, first in 2005 and the second in 2008. These concerts were named ‘Desert Moon’ and were both held at Pappy & Harriets in Pioneertown, California.