Chris Lee
, the lead singer of a '70s-minded,
AC/DC
-influenced
hard rock
/
metal
band called
Supagroup
, had an excellent point when he asserted that even though there has been plenty of "
rock
music" in the '90s and 2000s, there hasn't been nearly as much
rock & roll
-- that party music (a big part of the '60s, '70s, and '80s) often takes a back seat to introspection in the post-
Nevermind
climate of
alternative rock
. In the '90s and 2000s,
the Donnas
have (like
) done their part to fill that void by providing trashy, decadent, punky, sex-crazed
with a strong late-'70s/early-'80s influence -- and they've done it without the slightest trace of irony.
American Teenage Rock & Roll Machine
, the band's second full-length album, is far from groundbreaking; in fact, this 1998 release is consistently mindful of the
that
the Runaways
were providing 22 years earlier (before
were even born). And while
were quite revolutionary for their time,
are merely derivative. But they're enjoyably derivative, and hedonistic tunes like
"Speed Demon"
and
"Leather on Leather"
offer something that wasn't terribly easy to find in 1998 -- dirty, beer-soaked, hooky
party music. There is nothing even remotely introspective about
, who thrive on the old-school sex/drugs/
cliches of their parents' generation and sound like they're totally oblivious to
post-grunge
or
emo
. Although generally decent, this isn't their best release; on 2002's
Spend the Night
,
sound sharper, crisper, and more focused. Nonetheless,
has more ups than downs -- and again, the CD helped fill a void by demonstrating that in 1998, there was still a place for wild, reckless fun in the
world. ~ Alex Henderson