Young'uns who rock

Today I'm going to post about an entire band instead of just the one musician because these girls have been together in a band since junior high school--The Donnas. I wasn't going to mention them so early on, but apparently there is a misconception going around. Or maybe there is. I was wearing a band T-shirt of theirs last night when I went to the corner store and the cashier asked me how long it's been since they "quit singing". I decided she meant they had broken up and I said no, that they were still together and she looked at me funny and just said she wished they were still singing.

When I got home and told that story to my boyfriend, he was as confused as me and suggested that the cashier had mixed them up with someone else, possibly a 60's-style girl group. "Their name does remind me of something like The Shirelles or The Ronettes," he said, earning massive bonus points for remembering names of 60's pop groups I like. I pointed out that would be funny if that was her mistake, since they named themselves The Donnas in homage to The Ramones who draw on girl groups for inspiration themselves. *ohm*

The Donnas were Ramones-style pop punk when they started out, but since then they've wrested creative control away from management types and have really come into their own sound, which is way more straightforward rock. Their latest album is pure L.A. rocking out type music, and that means their fan base has just blown up in size. The first few shows of theirs I saw were crowded but not outrageous. The last time we went to see them, it was so crowded that someone opened up a Zippo behind me and somehow managed to put a tear in my leather jacket. Vintage suede jacket, argh. (I know that I shouldn't be so vain, but if you can't wear your badass cool vintage finds to rock shows, then where, pray tell?)

But in all honestly, I do have to say their latest album Spend the Night is their best, and it's great that they are getting more success as they come into their own as musicians instead of just falling apart as a lot of young groups do as life catches up with them. Their professionalism is really just astounding for such young women, especially in a field like rock music where professionalism is a complete joke.