The Donnas, "spend The Night"

The Donnas have been throwing the same party since high school, and aren't in any hurry to grow up. So it's no surprise that with "Spend the Night," the group's first effort for a major label, these California chicks continue to provide a soundtrack for breaking bedsprings, skidding the tires on the neighbor's lawn, and keying the rich kid's Mercedes. Like AC/DC and the Ramones before them, what's the point of evolving when there's this much fun to be had with a couple of power-chords?

The Donnas once again salute Kiss with an ultra-ironic homage to the comical misogyny of hard rock, and as the band grows older, only the references change. Gone are the Slurpee runs, as "Spend the Night" may as well be a concept album dedicated to the (mostly) blissful effects of beer. "I just had to tell all the boys that you'd rather have a Mai Tai than a tall glass of Bud Dry," Donna A. says to cut down a wannabe suitor on "On the Rocks." But if those poseurs with their fancy drinks are a drag, it's nothing a few cowbells, handclaps, and shout-along choruses -- all of them ready to be screamed from a mini-mall rooftop -- can't fix. Donna R. has a blast strutting like Keith Richards on "Please Don't Tease," and the muted rhythm that underlines the verses of "Too Bad About Your Girl" is an irresistible teaser for the call-and-response chorus.

Yet album No. 6 sees the suburban house party shtick starting to lose some charm, and when these Joan Jett disciples aren't at their comedic best (the stomping fashionista rant of "Dirty Denim") the album starts to sound uncomfortably like a beer commercial. It's nothing a little trimming couldn't have fixed, and "Spend the Night" provides plenty of riffs ripe for air-guitaring. Still, the group's girlish sass -- they'll crash the chandelier and then apologize for it -- wins in the end.