Even if the Donnas have yet to reach a level of success that buys beachfront homes in Malibu, there are invaluable benefits to being in the long-running band. The biggest might be the way that the members of the all-female four-piece have, over a 15-year run, developed a relationship that’s made them closer than family.

“What we have kind of reminds me of—what’s the word?—idioglossia,” says Donnas vocalist Brett Anderson, on the line from her home in Palo Alto, California. “That’s the twin language. A lot of twins have this language that only the two of them understand. We’ve got that, only there’s four of us.”

For a good example of what the 28-year-old frontwoman is talking about, start with purple feather, an in-joke that’s also the name of the record label the Donnas have formed to release their seventh and latest disc, Bitchin’.

“Most ducks have a purple feather hidden under their wing,” Anderson notes. “We were doing a photo shoot at Echo Park Lake, so we’d be like, ”˜Show your purple feather, duck.’ Pretty soon that became a saying, part of our own language that we have—you know, like ”˜Show me what you’ve got.’ I guess that’s what happens when you hang out with the same four people forever. I can imagine that it’s hard for outsiders to figure out what we’re talking about half the time.”

The Donnas definitely show the world what they’ve got on Bitchin’. The album’s cover features a leather-pants-clad ass with, appropriately, a purple feather sticking out of the right pocket. But what’s just as eye-catching is the band’s name emblazoned across the top in a font that’s more retro-metal than Judas Priest during the glory years. That’s advance warning that the album finds the Donnas moving away from their garage-pop roots to lovingly embrace their inner heshers.

“This record is a straightforward representation of what we love,” Anderson says. “What we love is rock ’n’ roll, headbanging, and arena-rock anthems. That’s what we want to play right now.”

The Donnas deliver just that on Bitchin’, bringing the Sunset Strip riffage on “Don’t Wait Up for Me” and unleashing stadium-sized cock-rock on “Tonight’s Alright”. Whether she’s playing it heavier than L7 on the title track or setting her amps for mega-boogie on “Smoke You Out”, guitarist Allison Robertson comes on like she spent her high-school years majoring in heavy-metal parking lot.

Understandably, Anderson loves Bitchin’ enough that she doesn’t mind that the Donnas aren’t at a level where they’re going to steal the crown from AC/DC, hard rock’s reigning kings. Still, when she considers where her friends are these days, she figures there are worse places to be than living out of a tour van.

“If I wasn’t doing this, I think I would be graduated from college with a useless degree and a ton of debt,” she says. “Looking around, that seems like that would be the case, even though I guess I could have been a good militant environmentalist.”

The Donnas open for the Hives at the Commodore on Friday (February 22).