American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine

by

The Donnas

Edit

I am not a teenage fan boy, nor am I an aging rock fan who thinks rock and roll ended with the Ramones. I'm simply a music lover who read about this group, and picked it up out of curiosity. I'm not in love with any of the band members.

The Donnas are a terrific reminder of just how much fun it can be to pump your fist in the air and yell along with your favorite sleazy lyrics. These girls are young, but they are serious, and attack their music with a ferocity often lost in today's pop/hip hop culture. Donna A's gritty vocals come across as half sneer, half smile, and the musicians, led by Donna R's impressive guitar crunching, give the sound a raw, youthful edge.

Is it original? Maybe not particularly. But it does seem fresh and new against the backdrop of today's mainstream radio. It's loud, unpolished, unapologetic...and a helluva lot of fun to listen to.

Bottom line: if you love smarmy teen idol pop, overproduced rap with metal overtones, or machine driven hip hop, then rejoice, for the world is still yours. For we chosen few who like our rock loud, fast, angry and dirty, I'll happily take The Donnas.

The Donnas are one of my favorite bands today, (American Teenage Rock N' Roll Machine) along with other early albums such as (Skintight, Turn 21) have never been favorites of mine vocally and musically. SpendTheNight and anything after it is what I consider the bands most reasonable and pleasant work. Albums such as the ones I just mentioned all sound like tacky demo tapes done by an 11 year old kid, However, I've never noticed the potential in these songs until Desert Moon ll and Vol.16.

The band has performed lots of songs from their 90's albums throughout the course of their Post-Turn21 careers, and they sound exceptional and outrageously fun & charged up with lots of bass, better vocals and sound quality. As far as I'm concerned they should re-record this entire album and give all of these songs an extra boost. (Rock N Roll Machine, Checkin' It Out, Gimmie My Radio, & Speed Demon) were the four choices from this album that were performed at DM2 in 2008. "You Make Me Hot" was the only one from (American Teenage Rock N Roll Machine) that was re-recorded as a studio version and chosen for the tracklist on Vol.16. but not performed at DM2. There's only 5 other songs left on the album that have not been re-done, It's a very short album considering how short the songs are and a 10 track listing. I say they should just go ahead and re-record it, They might aswell, considering how often they improve these songs with each passing year in current live shows. The band chooses great songs from the early releases to re-do but they pass on others that some fans personally enjoy. For instance "Outta My Mind" "Hot Pants" & "Midnight Snack" are all some of my favorites that don't even get touched when they perform most of their old songs today and it sucks.

They also did a fantastic job on other songs from other early albums such as songs from (Skintight) like (Hyperactive, Get You Alone, Zero, I Didn't Like You Anyway, & Hook It Up) but (Get Outta My Room, Party Action, & Hot Boxin') hasn't gotten any attention. The least they could do is create medleys for these songs as opposed to re-doing them all one by one. They improve too many of their older songs to leave only "Some" out of the equation, Therefore, The Donnas should consider a full length Double Disc of ALL the upbeat songs from their albums. I realize that re-recording everything they've ever done prior to Spend The Night would be a lengthy and unrealistic process, So to create a synthesis and cut down on the time consumption they should go back and complete their "Upbeat" tracks throughout their vintage catalog, Or atleast all the songs that share the same tempo, sound, Vibe and those that are closest in lyrical content. Which would leave them with about 2 to 3 songs per album prior to Spend the night that they haven't shed light on. You can't re-record all these Upbeat songs from (Skintight) and leave "Party Action" out on a limb, It doesn't make sense- It's an extension of the other songs that were chosen. Same goes for (Turn 21), You can't re-do (40 Boys In 40 Nights, Do You Wanna Hit It?, Are You Gonna Move It For Me) and on occasion have done (Midnight Snack) but never touch (Hot Pants, Gimme A Ride & Police Blitz). We all know AlL these songs can't be performed at once, But they can be rotated and have turns in seperate shows, Or as I mentioned before they should consider doing more medleys to cut down on time. Fans get improved songs, The Donnas make more money, everybodie's happy. I really believe they should consider this process.

Now as for this album in it's original state, It's too weak for me. I have more respect for it considering the potential these songs have to be improved, Which takes away from how dull it actually is. This is all from a 2011 perspective... In the 90's This album was so uglyin comparison to what other stuff was out back then. With the current overkill of Pop/Rock, Hyper Pop Punk sound (or whatever you call it) American Teenage Rock N Roll Machine fits in beautifully and could potentionally be one of the best of it's kind in todays market, ONLY! If the tracks are done with a new spin, Otherwise it can only be what it's always been... "the Bottom of The Barrel"

-Pocha Dot