Brat On The Beat

What you gonna do?
Where you gonna go?
I ain't in to going steady
Don't do this, don't do that
I'll grow up when I'm ready!

Teenage kicks are still hard to beat even at the age of 51, maybe I need to grow up but I don’t think I’ll ever go willingly*. My own arrested development aside, let’s all bask in 24 minutes of wonderfully uncomplicated tuneful good times via the Donnas American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine.

I bloody love the Donnas, right from their scrappy punky beginnings through to their awesome rock prime, they never let you down. Predictably like every female rock band out there they never quite got the winnings they deserved.

American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine is their second LP, recorded in 1998 when they were all 18^ and is several sonic steps up from their debut. It cleaves tight to their patent potent collision of the Runaways, Suzie Quatro and the Ramones with added California sun.

As befits fans of the riot grrrl scene though the Donnas were doing it for themselves, no shadowy creepy Svengalis, or external song writers allowed. Which is another reason I love them unreservedly. They weren’t playing the sexy schoolgirls for anyone’s delectation, take them as you find them, goofy Donnas tee-shirts and all; worth remembering that 1998 was also the year Britney hit us one more time.

The Donnas were way cooler.

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American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine is a gas gas gas right from the get-go. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine’ is a great opener, the girls don’t care about you, rules or getting laid, they just want to party and grow up when they choose to, maybe never. Donna R lays down a good guitar solo and about three bits of the tune remind me of Ramones ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio’, in a good way.

The slower ‘You Make Me Hot’ chucks in some cheeky quoted licks from ‘Too Fast For Love’ and the great line ‘Standin’ over there, waggin’ your hair’, which was obviously written for me, with the benefit of time travel.

My fave tune on American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine is ‘Gimmie My Radio’, partly because it namechecks Nikki Corvette, partly because it is hilariously bratty^^ and mostly because it just ROCKS.

The tunes flash by; the Donnas play it tough (‘Looking For Blood’), give it some sexy (‘Leather On Leather’) and do substances (‘Wanna Get Some Stuff Tonight’). In the best possible way it all sounds like harmless fun in their hands, like they’re trying on attitudes and situations to see how they sound; like teens do.

The Donnas generally just party like there’s nothing else to worry about and as long as that brat beat keeps on Ramonesing, the guitar growls fuzzily, Donna F is relentless and Donna A sneers it just right, there really isn’t anything else to worry about.

Which is just enough contemplation of American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine, far more than these speed demons need. This LP is transport. Just slip it on the turntable and you too can be a sneery teenager from Palo Alto, hitting all the most frantic cool parties on the kind of perfect Saturday night that doesn’t exist away from the silver screen. There’s real value in that credo of good times all the time. Fun.

Excellent fun though American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine is, the Donnas were about to get meaner, get rockier and … Get Skintight; but that’s another story.

Out to kill, baby, I'm a ready to go
I'm a speed demon looking for a one-night show
Don't try to stop me, I'm a reckless heart
Get outta my way, 'cause I'll rip you apart (Speed Demon)

1178 Down.

PS: It’s from later, but I was also groovin’ to this:

*my theory** being that rock, punk, testosterone and guitars knocked me so thoroughly out of my orbit in my mid-teens that I’m still hunting down and looking to replicate those 1988-esque kicks to this day.

**I done got me one of them there fancy book-learning psychology degrees so I don’t not know what I’m talking about here.

^they were all born in ’79, so 18 or 19 depending on birthdays, but that doesn’t make for as elegant a sentence.

^^‘I don’t wanna eat these vegetables/I don’t wanna read this book no more’, yeah take that grown-ups!