When it comes to thunderous rock ‘n’ roll that makes you think but never takes itself too seriously, L7 are (still) the reigning queens of noise. Though lumped in with the grunge and riot grrl scenes when they first broke through after forming in 1985, the Los Angeles-based band—Suzi Gardner (guitars, vocals), Donita Sparks (vocals, guitars), Jennifer Finch (bass, vocals), and Dee Plakas (drums, vocals)—has stood the test of time, musically and culturally.
Ending a long hiatus after releasing an acclaimed documentary and watching social media re-ignite interest in the band, they returned bolder than ever in 2015 and they’ve been rocking fans old and new ever since. Biting anthems like “Pretend We’re Dead,” “Shit List,” and “One More Thing” (from their Butch Vig-produced classic, Bricks Are Heavy) are more resonant than ever right now, and they’ve inspired a whole new generation of musicians of all genders. In the ‘90s, the group also created Rock For Choice, an epic series of benefit concerts for abortion rights supported by The Feminist Majority and featuring everyone from Nirvana to Rage Against the Machine.
Last year, frontwoman Donita Sparks curated another impactful festival called the Fast and Frightening Takeover at Downtown L.A.’s Belasco Theater, featuring over a dozen young bands (many women-led) and fellow-legends Redd Kross on the bill. This year L7 returns to the venue to celebrate its 40-year anniversary alongside two huge supporting acts: New York’s The Lunachicks and Brazil’s CSS.
MC spoke with Sparks about the milestone bash, the band’s trajectory, and what advice she’d give to up-and-coming rockers.
Celebrating 40 Years
We’ll be taking over the Belasco Theater every year, whether we’re the headliner or not. We might bring it to other cities too. After Fast and Frightening last year, this year we decided to scale it back, because it’s our 40th anniversary. We’ve got two incredibly strong co-headliners: The Lunachicks, our sisters from New York City, and CSS, our sisters from Brazil.
The Lunachicks started just a couple years after us. It’s weird, at that time, it’s like we were echoing off of each other. We were both playing aggressive rock and playing with beauty myths, feminism, wildness and not really giving a fuck. I was trying to remember the last time we played together, and I thought it was 1989 at CBGBs, but it was actually 1991 or ‘92 at a Rock for Choice show at the Palladium in Hollywood.
CSS were on Sub Pop Records for a while. I first became aware of them because they were covering the L7 song called “Pretend We’re Dead.” It was around 2007-2008 and I was at a very low ebb in my life. I felt kind of forgotten about, and here was this really cool band covering us. That really made me happy. All three bands have a sense of humor. All of us have our own style and all of us see the absurdity of life.
Songs Are Heavy
We all have a sense of humor, but we also take our bands dead serious. But I’m not the kind of person that can be like, ‘Okay, I want to write a song about abortion rights.’ It doesn’t work for me. I wrote a song called “Wargasm” because I was upset about the war that was going on, but I also just loved the word. I wrote ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ about apathy, because a lot of my friends back then weren’t voting, and it was just maddening. Now it’s like that song came true. For me, it’s always gotta have a bit of humor in it and cleverness and turning idioms upside down and switching things up. If I were to have a case of ‘the sinceres,’ as I call it, I don’t think it would be very successful.
#Femalerockers
When we started, we were all females out there lugging our own amps and doing it ourselves. There weren’t a lot of us, so we were always lumped in with bands like Babes in Toyland and The Lunachicks, even if we weren’t necessarily musically similar. Being categorized by having a vagina or not, as opposed to our music or our influences… that used to irritate me. But now, if it’s helpful for young people to find us, I get it. #tamponthrower #riotgirl… Hashtag me anything if it helps get us seen by one more person. I believe L7 have transcended that stuff from the past. But I think that there is a need for some people to put us in context, historically.
Rock For Choice
I’m very proud of it. I was raised a feminist and choice has always been an important issue. I’m really happy we pulled that off and that so many bands sacrificed their time and money to play those benefits. And I sure wish someone would pick it up again. That would be great.
L7 Magic
When we went on a hiatus, it was the advent of social media. First there were MySpace fan pages, and then I was seeing old clips on YouTube. Then Facebook came along… Now I’m seeing young gals wearing Smell the Magic shirts, who are in bands, and they’re wearing them on stage. That’s very cool.
Fuel Your Fire
My advice to young bands, as far as political stuff, is absolutely do it if you feel it. But if it’s not your forte, don’t. And don’t feel forced to either. Not every writer is good at every kind of sentiment. Don’t pay attention to trends, because trends come and go. Right now, we’re in a feisty punk rock kind of front person mode, but in two years it’s going to be something else, and it just keeps changing. So do what you want to do, be brave.
More New Things
We’re going to release a couple new songs this year, and we’ll probably release an EP of some of the singles we’ve done since the hiatus ended. So we’re going to combine those and put it out. We may do a bit of touring next year.
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