Just kids!
I popped Rush’s Feedback CD into the box right after this twenty-some minute blast. The source material is from a different era, but I can hear the two sets as though in conversation with each other. Rush was playing a set of cover songs from their youth: The Donnas wear their influences so much on their sleeves that you can spot many quotes, even though the record is a set of ten originals. I hear the Ramones here, of course, from the power-chord guitar, to the band naming themselves in a Ramones-like way, to the chant of “Rock! Rock! Rock ‘n’ Roll!” halfway through the very first track. I hear a very strong Joey Ramone influence in Donna A.’s singing, as well.
The whole record is infused with holler-backs to the Ramones, the Runaways, and even the New York Dolls. There are so many nods to other bands that it caused me to seek out Feedback, because at first blush, that’s the level of nostalgia this album exudes.
But this record is made by kids in their fledgling moment, a second album and possibly their first foray into a “real” studio, looking forward more than they are backward in time. That they’re stiff and a little awkward is testament to their youth, that they’re going at it full-force is testament to their ambition.
I have to admit, though, that it is a little bit jarring to hear a band so committed to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream™ at the very late date in which this album came into being. They seem sincere, though, not weighed down with post-modern irony. And the subject matter isn’t flights of fancy about them becoming huge stars, it’s about their daily — or rather nightly — existence. It’s about partying and playing music right where they are.
These kids’ honesty and immediacy is the saving grace of the project. Where Rush is escaping into a more innocent era, The Donnas are in their moment, living, not reliving, even as they hark back to their influences.
[ED]
Broadcast From the Brain Radio 
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