L7

L7 formed amid the streets of Los Angeles in 1985 even though they were routinely grouped with the early-’90s Seattle scene. Their music fused the pounding metal force of Motörhead with the stripped-down punk drive of Ramones and Frightwig, delivering throat-shredding vocals, dense riffs, pounding rhythms, and a raw defiance that left its mark on everyone from Nirvana to the Distillers. Mainstream attention arrived with the 1992 Butch Vig-produced Bricks Are Heavy, which earned critical praise and yielded the Top 10 single “Pretend We’re Dead.” After issuing their sixth album, Slap-Happy, the band withdrew for an extended period before resurfacing with 2019’s Scatter the Rats.

The name L7, drawn from 1950s slang for a “square,” originated when guitarist-singers Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks joined forces in 1985. Bassist Jennifer Finch and drummer Dee Plakas completed the lineup, and the quartet gradually shifted toward a heavier sound while retaining punk’s blunt attack and simplicity. Epitaph signed them in 1988 and released the self-titled debut that year; extensive worldwide touring followed. In 1991 they issued Smell the Magic on Sub Pop and founded the nonprofit Rock for Choice, which organized benefit concerts headlined by Nirvana, Hole, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, and others.

Grunge’s mainstream breakthrough suddenly made groups like L7 viable, leading to a deal with Slash/Reprise and the April 1992 release of Bricks Are Heavy, whose highest-charting single remained “Pretend We’re Dead.” The 1994 follow-up Hungry for Stink did not enlarge their audience, yet the band joined that summer’s Lollapalooza bill and appeared in John Waters’ Serial Mom as the fictitious Camel Lips performing “Gas Chamber.” Finch exited soon afterward and was replaced by former Belly bassist Gail Greenwood. Further releases included 1997’s The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum, 1998’s Live: Omaha to Osaka, and 1999’s Slap-Happy, while ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic directed the 1998 concert film also titled The Beauty Process. A 12-track anthology, Best of L7: The Slash Years, appeared in 2000, though the group had stopped touring and was widely viewed as defunct; the next year they announced an indefinite hiatus on their website.

Sparks later pursued solo projects with Plakas under the name Donita Sparks & the Stellar Moments, while Finch played in the Shocker. In 2014 the original four members—Sparks, Gardner, Finch, and Plakas—declared a reunion. Their first concert in eighteen years occurred at Los Angeles’ Echo on May 23, 2015, followed by an international tour. A crowd-funded documentary, L7: Pretend We’re Dead, premiered in 2016. After two non-album singles, they delivered their seventh album, Scatter the Rats, on Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records in 2019, containing the tracks “Burn Baby” and “Stadium West.”