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Smoking in the Girls Room:
The Donnas Revive Teen Punk Rock
by Anne Fornecker and Nancy Fisler
Meet The Donnas. A female foursome from Palo Alto, California, who, at the ripe age of 18, have already released two full-length records and taken their teen punk act on a 42-show tour. We caught up with them at Coney Island High, an NYC rock club, halfway through their first major U.S. tour.
In our minds we had already been smoking cheebah, getting in boys's pants and generally living the seedier side of 17 along with the Donna's since their first album was released in 1996. So it seemed only natural to lock ourselves in their dressing room and burn one up. But when voices on the other side of the door began to cry, "what are you girls doing in there?" paranoia kicked in and we headed to the van.
Passing bowls and having girltalk in the confines of their tiny tour van enabled us to really get to know the girls behind the letters. Donna R is an Ace Frehley fanatic who likes to huff air freshener. Donna F is looking for a boy who shares her passion for the Scorpions. Donna A's drink of choice is the screwdriver, although on her night in New York City, she was looking for a new poison. (We said bourbon, baby!) Donna C is an aspiring actress and hopes to attend New York University. But, all of the girls' college plans are temporarily on hold while they ride the wave of Donnas mania.
It wasn't a lack of rock n' roll know-how or talent, but a nagging curfew and the pesky constraints of a high school schedule that kept them at home until now. Like most suburban teens, before the tour, they spent their days and nights watching bad television, guarding their smoking paraphernalia from their parents and prowling around in Donna F's Honda for fast food and faster boys.
The girls have been playing together since the eighth grade. Their first band, a metal influenced quartet called The Electrocutes, got the attention of ex-Supercharger member and owner of Super Teem records, Darin Raffaelli. He took the girls under his wing, masterminded their look, wrote all their songs and renamed each "Donna."
But their first album turned out too bubblegum for their taste. And the girls still craved the hot metal licks of their idols KISS and The Runaways. So they took the controls and merged catchy pop with their vision of tight leather and tough riffs. Their second album, "American Teenage Rock n‚ Roll Machine," released on Lookout! Records, contains songs the girls wrote while they were still The Electrocutes.
Unlike their publicity photos, which portray the girls as bobbysock baddasses, the Donnas are very sweet. And faced with throngs of hormone-charged boys at their shows and the prospect of mega stardom, the girls seem a bit under-whelmed. They were more phased by the possibility of getting caught smoking pot by the valet parking attendant than they were by a club packed with screaming fans.
Although their tour is surely a dream come true, the weeks spent on the road have left the girls a bit homesick for friends and new episodes of 90210. Their priorities are still in line, however. Rather than schmooze with the A&R reps and scenesters in NYC, they cut to the chase: "Does this town have a Taco Bell or what?"