Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 13th 1997)

Sure Of Themselves

Although No Doubt hit the scene during the grunge era, the pop band stayed the course - and it’s paid off

She's this year's Cyndi Lauper. A New Wave Madonna. The girl every girl in the pit wants to be when she grows up (at least just a little).

With tongue planted firmly in cheek on the anthemic chorus of No Doubt's breakthrough single, "Just a Girl," Gwen Stefani has given a new generation of pre-teens its first taste of feminist hip.

When she isn't satirically challenging sexual stereotypes - and this could be the key to the No Doubt release having soared past the 7 million mark - she sings about boys.

Well, one boy, specifically - Tony Kanal, the group's bassist. They spent seven years as an item. Then one day, Kanal told Stefani to go her own way and she fought back with lyrics, including the single that put the band over the top, a heartbreaking ballad called "Don't Speak."

So how did Kanal respond to the payback? He helped write the music to "Spiderwebs," "Sunday Morning" and "Happy Now?" - breakup songs all. On the last one, Stefani (who now dates alternative dreamboat Gavin Rossdale), taunts her ex by cooing, "You're by yourself, all by yourself, no one else," etc.

Hey, it worked for Fleetwood Mac.

Kanal says it doesn't bother him, standing on stage with a bass as she sings about what a big loser he is.

"These are all songs we wrote together," he says. "And though the lyrics may have a lot to do with our personal life, at a certain point they become songs. And you're out there every night performing songs as best you can to entertain the audience. That's what it boils down to at the end of the night, especially for me."

Asked to go into details of why he dumped Stefani, Kanal doesn't speak.

He snaps.

"I'm not even gonna get into it."

This from the guy who inspired Stefani to plead, "Please stop explaining?"

"Don't tell me 'cause it hurts?"

"Don't speak?"

He probably wasn't about to, girl.

Though "Just a Girl" and "Spiderwebs" opened a door on the Modern Rock format, the No Doubt phenomenon really exploded this past December. That's when the "La Isla Bonita"-like single "Don't Speak" pushed the band's latest album to No. 1 after 14 months of climbing the charts. Suddenly, No Doubt, which tomorrow opens the Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre season, was looking a lot like America's latest overnight sensation - and after a decade of playing all-ages shows on the Southern California punk scene.

The first No Doubt record came out at the height of the grunge era, 1992. It was not what you'd call a receptive environment.

Rather than jump on the bandwagon, though, the pop band stayed its course.

As Kanal says, "People want to hear something new. And then that becomes old and they're ready for something else. It's just the way it is."

In the early days, No Doubt was more of a Two-Tone ska band. Since then, the ska has been swallowed up into a sound that combines all the band members' passions, from metal to show tunes.

Yes, show tunes.

Kanal, a Prince fan by nature, explains.

"Gwen came from listening to a lot of soundtracks when she was younger, like `Annie' and `The Sound of Music.' Those were big influences on her life until her brother got her into the whole Two-Tone ska thing back in junior high."

A few years later, Eric Stefani talked his baby sister into joining the band. A cartoonist, he quit in December of 1994 (after writing the music to "Don't Speak") to work on "The Simpsons."

With sales of more than 7 million and legions of little Stefanis-in-waiting baring their tummies at concerts, a Hootie-esque backlash could be just around the next bend for No Doubt.

But Kanal isn't worried.

"It did concern us for a little while," he says. "We're not a punk band but we do believe in the punk ethic and a lot of the do-it-yourself ethic. And the scene that we were involved with for many years is the type of scene that creates a backlash when you attain more success and kind of move away from the scene - you're on the radio, you're on MTV and that kind of thing. But then we just started realizing, you know, the bottom line is the music. If people are enjoying the music and having a good time at the shows, that's really all that matters.

"I think it's a phase people go through. It's a phase we went through. There are bands that we admired a lot and they started becoming big radio bands, and then you're like, (forget) that. I don't like them anymore, 'cause all the other people like them now and it's not so special anymore."

He pauses.

"But then you grow up."