The Donnas

More saucy glam-tinged punk rock from the Brittany Spears’ of the punk world is what you get with the Donnas’ third album, Get Skintight, produced by Redd Kross’s McDonald Brothers. All the material oozes with that pure Donnas mall-girl-gone-bad spirit. From the title track, an ode to the power of tight pants, which bears a sonic similarity to Blondie’s “Detroit 442,” through to the Donnas version of Mötley Crüe’s “Too Fast For Love,” this record is a non-stop ode to being young, bored and “on the prowl.” Donna A points out that “There’s more stuff you can sing along to, the songs are all a little longer and this record has group back-up vocals, which we never had it together to do before. Just more stuff in general,” compared to their last one, American Rock’n’Roll Machine. “[The McDonalds] had this vocal effect that made us sound like Ethel Merman that they would use on us when we were bugging them. That was their main weapon.” While the production is a little slicker on this record, their overall sound and songwriting style was kept pretty much intact. As for the proliferation of other hard rock inspired bands nowadays who choose not to exploit more conventional hooks, Donna A wants no part of it. “We’re totally into singing along to stuff in the car, so all our songs have to have that catchy quality.” Even though their influences have expanded since their inception to include stadium rockers like Kiss (whose “Strutter” they’ll cover on the upcoming Detroit Rock City soundtrack), the Donnas stay true to their Ramones roots on the love-gone-wrong track “You Don’t Wanna Call Me No More.” Imagine a place where it’s always Saturday night, the leather is always tight, and somebody is yelling “Party!” out the window of a Camaro.