WOWEE ZOWEE (29)
By:
July 18, 2018
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the subject of our favorite albums of the Nineties (1994–2003). A new installment in this series will appear each Wednesday during 2018.
GET SKINTIGHT | THE DONNAS | 1999
During 1976, while I was 13 years old, I heard in short order the following ’70s teen LP masterpieces: The Sweet’s Desolation Boulevard, Kiss’s Destroyer and Kiss: Alive!, and The Runaways’ The Runaways. In many respects, I was precisely the audience for whom said albums were intended. The loud crunching guitars, shrilly expressive vocals, and thunderous drums they all deployed felt utterly perfect for that stage of life!
23 years later, an all-female Bay Area Rock foursome called The Donnas delivered The Great Teenage Rampage Rock ‘n’ Roll Classic I’d dreamt of since ’76 but had by then assumed would never arrive!
On first hearing, The Donnas Get Skintight evinced more crunch-ola, rampant “bad gurl” ’tude, and drolly-delivered teen ennui than I’d imagined possible. I was 36 by the time it was unleashed on a barely suspecting world — hardly amongst its targeted demographic — but had been publishing music criticism since age 16, so perhaps I was precisely the listener/interlocutor to whom it sounded best.
Skintight’s fourteen flawless, deceptively slight, indelibly rousing anthems of teen Dissolution provided a perfect envoi to an American Century run amok, with three of them (the comically carnal opener “Skintight”; the brutally sarcastic “I Didn’t Like You Anyway”; and the giddily paranoid weed lark, “Hot Boxin’”) such definitive slices of bored/horny/hilarious Punk-Metal sociology that the girls in the band deserved Associate Degrees in withering, power-chorded, offhand insight.
In some ways, the broad smiles each successive song brought forth in 1999 have never left my face, at least while such lines as “I didn’t like you anyway/I was just lookin’ fer fun…uh-huh”, “I knew you were lame/from your wallet chain!”, and “You gotta learn how to talk to The Dude” are echoing in my brain.
If the Ramones of LPs #1-4 were more original, they were never more evocative of the cynical humor to which knowing teenagers can’t help but resort/default, at least while still in thrall to parents, teachers, hapless boytoys, or haggard policemen.
If there were a way to freeze-dry and re-deploy the sub-components of a band in perfect sync — with a fabulous guitar sound, a wonderfully adroit lyricist, and four schoolmates on the same suburban page — I’d do it in a millisecond.
That not being possible, I’ll cling tightly to my beloved Donnas and their devastating deadpan, which have unfailingly made me laugh for nearly a generation, with no end in sight.
WOWEE ZOWEE: Stephanie Burt on UNISEX | Anindita Basu Sempere on UNDER THE PINK | Mark Kingwell on DUMMY | Bill Nericcio on AMOR PROHIBIDO | Sherri Wasserman on HIPS AND MAKERS | Mimi Lipson on THANK YOU | John Overholt on BEN FOLDS FIVE | Jordan Ellenberg on GET LOST | Chelsey Johnson on PERSONAL BEST | Marilyn Snell on MAXINQUAYE | Dan Fox on DIFFERENT CLASS | Devin McKinney on IF YOU’RE FEELING SINISTER | Alice Boone on MTV UNPLUGGED (ALICE IN CHAINS) | Rob Wringham on SPICE | Joe Alterio on BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE | Jason Loeffler on SECOND TOUGHEST IN THE INFANTS | Rick Pinchera on EITHER/OR | Josh Glenn on THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST | Jennifer Krasinski on SUPA DUPA FLY | Sara Ryan on DIG ME OUT | Luc Sante on MEZZANINE | Molly Wright Steenson on I CAN HEAR THE HEART BEATING AS ONE | Franklin Bruno on ENGLAND MADE ME | Michael Campochiaro on IS THIS DESIRE? | Adrienne Crew on CALIFORNICATION | Drew Daniel on I SEE A DARKNESS | Veda Hille on THE SOFT BULLETIN | Vanessa Berry on TEENAGE SNUFF FILM | Tom Kipp on GET SKINTIGHT | David Hirmes on DOPETHRONE | John Hilgart on YORK BLVD. | Deborah Wassertzug on JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT | Adam McGovern on INVINCIBLE SUMMER | Brian Berger on TIRED SOUNDS OF… | Michael Grasso on MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN | Jen Collins on HURRAH | Flourish Klink on THE TEACHES OF PEACHES | Judith Zissman on TALLAHASSEE | Lauren Oliver on SOUND-DUST | Jason Cohen on IS THIS IT | Matthew De Abaitua on THE RAINBOW CHILDREN | Jenny Davidson on TIME (THE REVELATOR) | Crystal Durant on LIVE THROUGH THIS | Gordon Dahlquist on GARBAGE | Erin M. Routson on WASHING MACHINE | Carl Wilson on TEMPTING | Jessamyn West on ALL HAIL WEST TEXAS | Kaleb Horton on STREETCORE | Tom Nealon on BAZOOKA TOOTH | Erik Davis on DOPESMOKER | David Levine on FEVER TO TELL | Deb Chachra on MASS ROMANTIC.
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