Donna Dresch is an American punk rock musician, perhaps best known as founder, guitarist and bass guitarist of Team Dresch and the Queen of Grunge.

Dresch has been actively involved in the queercore scene since the 1980s, as the creator of the fanzine, Chainsaw, and contributor to several other seminal zines such as Outpunk and J.D.s, as well as contributing and being featured on the front cover of issue five of Deke Nihilson and Tom Jennings' zine Homocore. Additionally, she was a contributor to Tobi Vail's influential proto-Riot Grrrl fanzine, Jigsaw and Tammy Rae Carland's zine I (heart) Amy Carter. In 1992, she appeared in the cult film The Yo-Yo Gang, by G.B. Jones.

She founded the queercore independent record label Chainsaw Records in the early 1990s. Shortly after, she joined forces with Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson to form Team Dresch. Once drummer Marci Martinez was added to the line-up, the group began recording. The first single was released in 1994 on Kill Rock Stars. Their debut album in 1994, Personal Best and its follow-up, Captain My Captain, were released jointly by Chainsaw Records and Jody Bleyle's label Candy Ass Records. Team Dresch performs live and the members are interviewed in the documentary film She's Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane.

Since its inception, Chainsaw Records has housed many well-known bands such as Tracy and the Plastics and Sleater-Kinney.

In 2004, she founded a new band, Davies vs. Dresch. In 2006, Team Dresch reunited and began touring again.

[edit] Other appearances

Dresch has appeared on many other artists' recordings, including Amy Ray's Prom; Third Sex's Card Carryin' (as producer, engineer and mixer); Phranc's Goofyfoot EP (bassist); Some Velvet Sidewalk's Shipwreck (guitarist and bassist); Hazel's Are You Going to Eat That? (producer); and Fifth Column's 36-C (guitarist). [1] Also, she temporarily replaced Van Conner in the Screaming Trees and had a brief stint as bassist in Dinosaur Jr. Additionally, she has worked with Slim Moon in the '80s Olympia-based garage band Nisqually Delta Podunk Nightmare, played bass in Olympia grunge punk band, Danger Mouse, also, Rastro! (with Jen Smith), The Go Team, Mary Lou Lord, and Lois.

[edit] Publications

• McDonnell, Evelyn; Powers, Ann, editors: Rock She Wrote, Delta, N.Y.C., US, ISBN 0-385-31250-4 (1995)

[edit] See also

• Chainsaw Records
• Davies vs. Dresch
• Team Dresch

[edit] External links

• Chainsaw Records, Dresch's record label
• Interview with Donna Dresch
• The Zines of Donna Dresch