Spend the Night

European vinyl edition of the punk-pop quartet's 2002 album includes the Europe/Japan bonus track, 'Big Rig'. Lookout!

In 1999 the Donnas reached the age where they could Get Skintight. Then the racy foursome went on to Turn 21 in 2001. And for 2002, theirs is either an invitation or an offer to Spend the Night. And it'll be a whopper of a night. "It's on the Rocks" opens the evening on an anthemic note. The stoner paean "Pass It Around" appears just past midpoint, and "5 O'Clock in the Morning" closes the event. What's in between? Straight-ahead drumbeats, snarling guitars, and sassy vocals are the band's calling cards, and they're all very much in evidence here. Songs like "Take It Off" and "Please Don't Tease" are built upon bouncing melodies that are revved by choppy pop-punk guitar and simple rhymes ("tease" and "knees," for example). The Donnas' party--"Take Me to the Backseat" included--doesn't rage so much as it embraces a kind of postpunk free love that swaggers like the Ramones circa "Rockaway Beach." --Andrew Bartlett