The Story of The Donnas
Still having to deal with the ordeals of final exams, dumb jocks and other typical high school melodramas was when the Donnas first got together. While everybody else in their grade was more concerned about whom they should take to the prom, vocalist Donna A., guitarist Donna R. bassist Donna F. and drummer Donna C. were all about rock 'n roll and flipping the bird to everyone they couldn't stand in their class. After releasing a handful of singles and a self-titled LP on the small Superteem label, Lookout! Records released American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine in 1998. Upon graduating from high school, the Donnas released the Speedin' Back to My Baby EP along with the re-issue of their first full-length, followed by a tour of the United States and Japan, all while under the label support of Lookout! Records. After a split EP with New York's the Toilet Boys, the group released the full-length Get Skintight in 1999. The Donnas Turn 21 followed in 2001. The next year, the lovely ladies inked a deal with Atlantic and hit the road with Jimmy Eat World and Superdrag. They were all grown up, too; Spend the Night, which appeared in October 2002, marked the Donnas' sassy rock maturation.
It all started with Jordan Middle School's "Day on the Green", an
opportunity for Middle-School-aged Palo Alto bands to play 15 minute sets
in front of their peers during lunch. Which seemed like a really great
idea, except for one thing - there were never any girls up there playing. So it was decided over lunch, best friends Allison Robertson and
Maya Ford vowed to show those boys that girls could rock. There was only
one problem, both Allison and Maya had only a few months worth of
experience each playing the guitar and the bass, oh, and they didn't have
a singer or a drummer either. Not that that stopped them! They enlisted
the help of Allison's friend Torry Castellano and a girl they met in 8th
grade Social Studies class, Brett Anderson (two girls with absolutely no
experience drumming or singing) and bam! Raggedy Anne was born.
Fueled on a common interest in bands like, R.E.M., L7, the Muffs,
Bikini Kill, and Shonen Knife, the girls practiced after school in Torry's
garage (which I hear they still practice in today, under a different band
name, of course) and a month later were up on stage playing covers of L7,
Muffs, and Shonen Knife during lunch. They liked it so much, they decided
to stick with it, and started practicing every day after school. The
Electrocutes weren't always the most popular girls. But who cares when
you've got a good band and talent the boys don't?
Robertson, Ford, Castellano and Anderson played their first show
at a Palo Alto Community Center, they performed all original songs and
were a lot better than peers in other bands had thought. Instead of
helping them, this just caused peers to spurn them more. Either way, the
result was a Raggedy Ann 7" that is now highly collectable
Eventually the girls changed their name to the Electrocutes.
Around this time, record label owner Dan Raffeli approached the
band with an idea for them to play and record his songs under the name The
Donnas. Resulting in a few 7"s and a full length LP on his label Radio X,
which became Super*Teem! Records. The Electrocutes first and only CD,
"Steal Yer Lunch Money" came out in 1996, their junior year.
The Donnas were signed to the Berkeley, California based Lookout!
Records in 1998, put out American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine, and
the media deluge began. The Donnas began getting press from all sorts of
music magazines and stations, from Rolling Stone to MTV to zines; oh, and
web pages too. They are even in two movies, "Jawbreaker" and "Drive Me Crazy"
- so the Electrocutes were really put on the back burner.
However, in the movie "Drive Me Crazy" they are featured as the
Electrocutes, but playing a Donnas song.
Then the really bad press started. The Donnas were accused of not
writing their own songs, which was true, the first album was written by
Dan Rafelli, and they collaborated with him on "Rock 'n' Roll Machines."
Backlash as bizarre as an "Anti-Donnas" club started by snobby girls in
the dorm which Allison and Maya lived at UC-Santa Cruz. But, the Donnas as
a band have been around for a long time, almost 6 years! And had been
writing their Electrocutes material together. So they parted ways amicably
with Rafelli and wrote the album Get Skin Tight (LK225) on
their own. Which has some songs on it that were originally Electrocutes songs!
In 2001 the girls released Turn 21, which featured the same hard driving
music with a more polished sound. The girls showed their maturity by writing
more upbeat material and I dare anybody to listen to 40 Boys in 40 Nights
and not loving it. This album truly rocks.
