I Donner Party si formarono a San Francisco a meta` degli anni '80 con il programma di costituire una liaison ideale fra gli anni '60 degli hippie e gli anni '80 dei punk. Melanie Clarin alla batteria (anche alla fisarmonica), Samuel Coomes alla chitarra (anche al violino e al banjo) e Rejnhold Johnson al basso furono titolari di due soli (omonimi) album, ma entrambi notevolissimi.

Donner Party (Cryptovision, 1987) e' il manifesto del loro folk-rock, animato da infinite citazioni (Animals, Dylan, Tom Rapp, Fugs, musichall, ragtime, bluegrass) e dappertutto dalle armonie vocali del country. Fra meditazioni surreali (la classica When You Die Your Eyes Pop Out), fiabe metafisiche (Spiders), vignette nostalgiche (Oh Esmeralda) e serenate distratte (Jeez Louise), il loro sardonico messaggio e' di non prendere nulla sul serio perche' la morte s'avvicina. Odi jingle-jangle (Before Too Long, The Ghost), filastrocche country & western (Halo) e persino strumentali di hard-rock trascinante alla Devo (Surfin To The Moon) fanno man bassa dello spirito folle degli ultimi hippie.

L'anno successivo il gruppo doppio` l'opera d'esordio con un'altra raccolta self-titled (per la Picth-A-Tent) di simili ballate ancora baricentrate fra folkrock e beat (Unfriendly e Sickness le piu` orecchiabili) e pregne di spirito rurale (Up And Down, Mrs Miserack). Ma altrettanto importante e` la sua "cornice" di spunti arcaici, dal vaudeville di Would You Like To Have Something To Eat alla "singalong" a passo di valzer di Try To Imagine, dalla fiaba per organetto di strada When I Was A Baby all'elegia dolente Boxfull Of Bones. La carriera del gruppo culmino` forse nel fantasmagorico boogie psichedelico di Treepig.

Complete Recordings (Innerstate, 1999) e` un'antologia della carriera.

Sam Coomes formera` poi i Quasi.

The Donner Party was one of the most important, if underappreciated, bands of the Californian folk revival of the 1980s.

The band formed in San Francisco in the mid 1980s, looking to build a bridge between the hippie credo of the 1960s and the punk credo of the 1980s. With Melanie Clarin on drums (and accordion), Samuel Coomes on guitar (and violin and banjo) and Reinhold Johnson on bass, the band released only two (self-titled) albums, but both were thoroughly remarkable.

Donner Party (Cryptovision, 1987) is the manifesto of their particular brand of folk rock, enlivened by innumerable references (to the Animals, Dylan, Tom Rapp, the Fugs, music hall, ragtime, and bluegrass) and inflected throughout by country vocal harmonies. From surreal meditations (the classic When You Die Your Eyes Pop Out), to metaphysical fables (Spiders), to nostalgic vignettes (Oh Esmeralda) to ambling serenades (Jeez Louise), their sardonic message is not to take anything seriously because death is getting closer every day. Jingle-jangle odes (Before Too Long and The Ghost), country and western nursery rhymes (Halo) and even heavy, hard-rock Devo-esque instrumentals (Surfin to the Moon) plunder the madcap spirit of the hippies.

The next year the group followed up with another batch of similar ballads (on Pitch-a-Tent), poised between folk rock and beat (Unfriendly and Sickness being the catchiest) and full of down-home spirit (Up and Down and Mrs Miserack). But just as important is its framework of retro reference points, from the vaudeville of Would You Like to Have Something to Eat?, to the waltz-step "sing-along" of Try to Imagine, to the hurdy-gurdy fable of When I Was a Baby to the mournful elegy of Boxfull of Bones. The group's career culminates perhaps in the hallucinatory psychedelic boogie of Treepig.

Sam Coomes would go on to form Quasi.