L7… man, those girls were badass.
I first heard them around ’92 when someone at the record store put on Bricks Are Heavy. The second that “Pretend We’re Dead” came on I was like “okay, who are these women?” Donita Sparks and Dee Plakas just sounded like they were having fun and flipping everyone off at the same time. I bought the album that same day and it barely left my turntable for months.
I saw them one night at the DV8 here in Seattle and it was pretty wild. The place was packed and they played like they didn’t give a shit about anything except having a good time. They were funny, loud, and they didn’t take any crap from the crowd.
They were from Los Angeles, but they fit right in with the Seattle scene. They toured with a lot of the big bands, played all the same clubs, and had that same “we’re just here to play loud music” attitude. Hungry for Stink in ’94 was another really good one. They just kept putting out solid records and never tried to be cute or trendy.
By the late nineties things started slowing down for them. They put out The Beauty Process: Twin Sisters in ’97 and then kind of faded out. I think they officially broke up around 2001. It sucked, but I get it — they’d been doing it for over ten years.
These days in 2002 I still pull out Bricks Are Heavy or Smell the Magic every once in a while. They always put me in a good mood. L7 weren’t trying to be the biggest band in the world. They were just four women who played loud, said what they thought, and had a laugh while doing it. And that’s exactly why a lot of us liked them so much.
They were one of the good ones.