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The Donnas
Switchblade sisters
by Tom Lanham
CATCH LOOKOUT RECORDS' NEW KITTENS-WITH-A-WHIP THE DONNAS at one of their frequent Bay area pogo-fests, and you might be surprised by their choice of encores--Sweet's campy "Wig Wam Bam." But Santa Cruz-based frontvixen Donna A. swears she has more in common with the classic glam group than catchy powerchorded songs. After getting his throat kicked in a barroom brawl, late Sweet singer Brian Connolly was told by doctors that he'd never sing again; he proved 'em wrong. "Which is sorta like what happened to me," confides the prime Donna, whose bitchy sneer kick-starts the group's Runaways-ish American Teenage Rock 'N' Roll Machine. "When I was little, I used to just scream all the time, until they finally sent me to a speech therapist in first grade. I had a chronically hoarse voice, and I kinda still do, you can tell."
Why a microphone career? Blame it on guitarist Donna R., giggles A. (other acronymed lasses: drummer Donna C., bassist Donna F.). The pair met five years ago in eighth-grade social studies class, as she tells it, and "just kept on talking until finally she said "Let's start a band, and you can be the singer!' And I was, like, "No way!' And for a week I didn't wanna do it until finally I went, like, "God! This sounds really fun!'" Which nicely nutshells Rock 'N' Roll Machine; the record roars with adolescent bravado, kitschy AC/DC riffs, and cheeseball guitar leads that make Ace Frehley sound like Jimmy Page. The lyrics sing the praises of drugs, greasy boyfriends and the joy of beating up any girls who ain't down with the Donnas. How much truth is in there? Donna A. cryptically chuckles. "That's kinda the fun of it -- figuring out what's real, what's not."