Initially, the Donnas were a novelty act: four teenage girls from Palo Alto (all named Donna) who played tight punk-rock with a strong Ramones influence. The quartet (real names Brett Anderson on vocals, Allison Robertson on guitar, Maya Ford on bass, Torry Castellano on drums) was in actuality the invention of a Darin Raffarelli (in the role of the Beatles' George Martin, of the Runaways' Kim Fowley, of the Sex Pistols' Malcom McLaren) who discovered these 14-15 year old girls and launched them with a string of bubblegum melodies (A Boy Like You, Let's Rab, Let's Go Mano). They graduated from high school in june 1996 and the album The Donnas (Super*teem, 1996 - Lookout, 1998) established them as professional musicians. The material was still written or chosen by Raffarelli and still focused on their "punkette" image.

American Teenage Rock 'N' Roll Machine (Lookout, 1998) is hardly a full-length album, since it lasts only 25 minutes, but the ten tracks overflow with raw energy and anthemic refrains. They provide a somewhat sarcastic portrait of their generation. Rock'n'Roll Machine and Wanna Get Some Stuff is rock and roll in the tradition of the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers, the Ramones would be proud of the cretin-esque Gimmie My Radio. The rest of the repertory raids rhythm and blues (You Make Me Hot), heavy-metal (Checkin' It Out) and especially garage-rock (Looking For Blood and Speed Demon).

The Donnas wrote their own material on Get Skintight (Lookout, 1999), but the format did not change much. The Ramones' influence still looms large as the girls intone Skintight and Zero. Elsewhere they come out as a girlish imitation of Sleater-Kinney with an heavy-metal fixation (Doin' Donuts, I Didn't Like You Anyway, Hot Boxin'). That fixation works only in the slower, heavier but even catchier You Don't Wanna Call. Nonetheless, they are no L7. Best are probably the breathless rock'n'roll numbers Hyperactive, Hook It Up, Party Action and Get Outta My Room, that recycle forever the old New York Dolls routine.

Turn 21 (Epitaph, 2000) proves that their true voice could be somewhere else: the songs fare best when they take on glam-metal (40 Boys in 40 Nights) or the Rolling Stones (Don't Get Me Busted).

Spend The Night (Atlantic, 2002) is only pop-metal of the 1980s, but it is the worst of its kind, and, thus, becomes pure art. In that contradictory sense, this is their best album so far.

One can repeat the same joke only so many times. Forced to change something, the Donnas show their musical limits on Gold Metal (Atlantic, 2004). The best songs are the ones that stick to their formula (Fall Behind Me, I Don't Want to Know), but that, inevitably, don't sound as exciting as they used to, whereas the new stylitic directions fall flat. As they try to mature, they may run into a contradiction: the whole point "was" to be immature.

Bitchin' (Purple Feather, 2007) was the Donnas' heavy-metal album, focusing on hard riffs without losing their knack for anthemic refrains (Tonight's Alright, Smoke You Out, Don't Wait Up for Me). But the L7 had already done this and much better. Not to mention the mother of them all, Joan Jett.