Donna A., Donna C., Donna F. and Donna R. are four teenage girls who quit high school to start a rock band. They have real names, but real names aren't rock 'n' roll. Instead they're all Donnas. They're all hot and they kick mucho ass.

In a sense, the Donnas are what would have happened if Geri Haliwell and her Spice ilk had been obsessed with the Ramones instead of Madonna in their youth. It's a link the Donnas admit themselves in their tune "Get Outta My Room," as they reveal the idols that adorn their bedroom walls: "Posters of Ratt and Miami Vice/Doin' time with Ginger Spice." But there's far more to it than that; the Donnas don't front with lead vocals while producers and studio hacks pound out the musical ideas, and they're certainly not a manufactured fury. The Donnas are songwriters and bitchin' rock musicians as well as hard rock divas.

On Get Skintight, the Donnas do what they do best; they pound out kickass rock music with equal parts of punk's DIY aesthetic and the posturing of eighties' hard rock hair bands. In fact, one of the record's finest moments is a cover of an early Motley Crue tune, "Too Fast For Love." At the same time, the intense crunch of their guitars on tunes like "Hyperactive" and "Party Action" is pure three-chord bliss.

It's an effective but stunningly unexpected match. After all, if you had told the Ramones or the Sex Pistols twenty years ago that their direct descendants in the genre of balls-busting rock music would wear makeup and indulge in massive, heartless concert tours with no semblance of passion whatsoever, they'd have been right pissed off and kicked your candy ass. That's glam, they would have insisted, right before cracking an electric guitar over your head. That's not punk.

But the hair bands of the eighties learned as much from punk as they did from glam, and the Donnas understand that almost without trying. They'll beat out a three-chord number, then Donna R. will tear into a solo over the bridge that's straight from C.C. DeVille's rock playbook. Their lyrics are all attitude and swagger, with a vicious sense of humor mixed in for fun. "You thought I would be broken hearted/Maybe I would if you weren't so retarded," they sing on "I Didn't Like You Anyway." Their songs are all about partying and making out, effectively thrashing down the bridge between the chauvinistic lyrics of male rock bands and the pining words of such "sensitive" female songwriters as Sarah McLachlan. The Donnas are as horny and restless as any guy with a guitar, and though I can't speak for them entirely, I'd say it's a pretty good bet that they'd beat the shit out of McLachlan if they ever ran into her on the street. They're more real than any twangy woman with an acoustic guitar could ever hope to be.

It's a heady brew the Donnas have mixed together. They're punk and they're glam metal, but they're also heavily influenced by the classic girl pop of the sixties. They can rock as hard as any man, but they also pine for guys in the best teenage vixen tradition. It's a very enticing package, combining so many diverse elements into one wailing quartet of sweet asskicking rock. And it's far more fun and captivating than the Spice Girls ever were.

There's one more big difference between the Donnas and the Spice Girls. When I grow up and have a baby daughter of my own, I'll be playing them Get Skintight and not Spiceworld. The real inspiration for young teen girls should lie not in listening to Spice sweetly crooning lively pop ditties, methinks, but in strapping on a guitar and kicking ass as hard as the boys do. If that isn't Girl Power, I don't know what is.