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The Donnas

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The Donnas

The Donnas are an American all-female hard rock band from Palo Alto, California.[1] They draw inspiration from The Ramones, AC/DC, and Kiss.[1][2] Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage".[1] MTV has stated that the band offers "nothing more than 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.[2]

Origin and early years

All 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). As best friends, they formed in the eighth grade to play for their school's "Day on the Green." The only girl band 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.

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 entirely written by Raffaelli and released on his own Superteem! record label.[3] (It was later released again on Lookout! Records.) They took a week off of their senior year of high school to tour Japan as The Electrocutes. 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.

Mainstream popularity

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.

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. "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 Exterra.

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).

"Donna" pseudonym

They decided to drop the stage names before the release of Gold Medal to present an image appropriate for the more mature sound that they had adopted on the new album.

Current

On May 19, 2006 The Donnas posted an announcement on their public message board (which required free registration for viewing) 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."[4] Within a year of being dropped by their label, in March 2007 the Donnas released a first song (titled "Don't Wait Up For Me") from their forthcoming new independently recorded and financed album, along with a new logo.

The Donnas released their 7th studio album titled Bitchin' on September 18, 2007 on their own Purple Feather Records label. The band released three songs from Bitchin' on their official MySpace.[5] Bitchin' was produced by Jay Ruston and The Donnas.[6]

In the year of 2008 The Donnas toured with Melbourne, Australian band "Kisschasy" as part of their "Skin and Bones" tour.

In the year 2008 The Donnas toured Canada & the U.S. with The Hives.

The Donnas are currently in the studio working on their latest project, a detailed Retrospective album set for release in July 2009. The project is in early stages but will be released on Purple Feather Records. The package is set to contain newly recorded older songs, as well as B-sides, never before released material and some new songs.

Maya Ford (Donna F) attended NAMM, where she signed autographs on January, 17th 2009 at the Ampeg Booth.

Allison Robertson launched a side-project in early 2009 with a new all-female cover band called Chelsea Girls. They plan to make a live debut at The Roxy in Los Angeles in February.

Discography

As Ragady Anne

  • Ragady Anne [7" EP] (1996) (Radio Trash Records)

As The Electrocutes

As The Donnas

Studio albums

  1. The Donnas – 1997 – Super*Teem! / reissue July 28, 1998 – Lookout! Records
  2. American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine – January 27, 1998 – Lookout! Records
  3. Get Skintight – June 8, 1999 – Lookout! Records
  4. The Donnas Turn 21 – January 23, 2001 – Lookout! Records
  5. Spend the Night – October 22, 2002 – Atlantic Records – US #62, UK #111
  6. Gold Medal – October 26, 2004 – Atlantic Records – US #76
  7. Bitchin' – September 18, 2007 – Purple Feather Records- US #89
  8. TBA retrospective album - Purple Feather Records

Singles

  • 1995: "High School Yum Yum" 7" b/w "A Boy Like You" and "Let's Rab" (Radio X Records #9)
  • 1996: "Let's Go Mano" 7" b/w "Last Chance Dance" and "I Wanna be a Unabomber" (Radio X Records #10)
  • 1996: "Da Doo Ron Ron" 7" bw/ "I Don't Wanna go to School" and "I Don't Wanna Rock'n'roll Tonight" (Super*Teem Records #2)
  • 1998: "Wig-Wam Bam" THE DONNAS b/w "Funny Funny" Groovie Ghoulies (split with The Groovie Ghoulies)
  • 1998: "Rock 'N' Roll Machine"/"Speeding Back to My Baby"
  • 1999: "Strutter" THE DONNAS b/w "Detroit Rock City" Kiss clear vinyl 7" (Lookout Records)
  • 1999: "Get you Alone" (7") (split with The Toilet Boys)
  • 2002: "40 Boys in 40 Nights"/"Wig Wam Bam"/"School's Out"
  • 2003: "Take it Off"/"Hyperactive"/"Rock & Roll Machine" #17 US Modern Rock [1], #38 UK
  • 2003: "Who Invited You"/"Mama's Boy"/"Backstage" #61 UK
  • 2003: "Too Bad About Your Girl"
  • 2004: "Fall Behind Me" #29 US Modern Rock, #55 UK[2]
  • 2005: "I Don't Want to Know (If You Don't Want Me)"/"Done with you" #55 UK
  • 2007: "Don't Wait Up For Me" digital download only

Songs on soundtracks and compilations

Television appearances

References

  1. ^ a b c The Donnas: Biography : Rolling Stone
  2. ^ a b The Donnas | Music Artist | Videos, News, Photos & Ringtones | MTV
  3. ^ "The Donnas". MTV. Retrieved 2008-10-23. {{cite web}}: Text "MTV" ignored (help); Text "Music Artist" ignored (help); Text "Videos, News, Photos & Ringtones" ignored (help)
  4. ^ "The Donnas have "parted ways" with Atlantic Records". brooklynvegan. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  5. ^ MySpace.com - The Donnas - Los Angeles, California - Rock / Classic Rock / Alternative - www.myspace.com/thedonnas
  6. ^ "The Donnas Take The Itch Out Of Bitchin". StrangeGlue. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
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