L7: Bricks Are Heavy 1992 + Hungry For Stink 1994

 

L7 is an American all-female rock band founded in Los Angeles, California, first active from 1985 to

2001 and re-formed in 2014. Their longest standing lineup consists of Suzi Gardner (guitars, vocals), Donita Sparks (vocals, guitars), Jennifer Finch (bass, vocals), and Dee Plakas (drums, vocals). L7 has released seven studio albums and has toured widely in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. "Pretend We're Dead" was heavily played on US alternative radio and entered the top 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in 1992.
                                                 

Due to their sound and image, L7 is often associated with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and

early 1990s. As an all-female band, L7 formed Rock for Choice in 1991 and have, at times, also been linked to riot grrrl, although they preceded and are outliers of both the grunge and riot grrrl movements. The band's name, L7, derives from a slang term for square, and was deliberately chosen as a gender neutral sign. A documentary film about the band, L7: Pretend We're Dead, premiered in 2016.
                                                            

[Often lumped in with the Seattle scene of the early '90s, raucous punk rock band L7 emerged from the streets of Los Angeles in 1985. Owing as much to the hard-charging metal of Motörhead as the no-frills

punk of Ramones and Frightwig, the band's sound was a collision of throat-shredding vocals, crunchy riffs, chugging rhythms, and a ferocious attitude that would influence a range of bands from Nirvana to the Distillers. After their first two releases, they made a break into the mainstream with 1992's Butch Vig-produced Bricks Are Heavy, which garnered L7 critical acclaim and a Top 10 single ("Pretend We're Dead"). At the end of the decade, following the release of their sixth effort, Slap-Happy, they entered an extended hiatus, returning two decades later with 2019's Scatter the Rats.
                                         

The seeds for L7 (whose name was taken from a slang term in the '50s that meant someone who was a "square") were planted in 1985, when a pair of guitarist/singers, Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks, decided to start a band. Over the next few years, the group extended their lineup to include bassist

Jennifer Finch and drummer Dee Plakas, as their sound grew more and more metallic yet never lost the attack and simplicity of punk. In 1988, L7 were signed by the Epitaph label, which issued their self-titled debut the same year, and the group spent the better part of the next few years touring the world. The band issued Smell the Magic for the Sub Pop label in 1991, and formed the Rock for Choice nonprofit organization the same year. Raising money and awareness for the pro-choice movement, the organization put on several benefit shows over the years, featuring such noted performers as Nirvana, Hole, Pearl Jam, and Neil Young, among others.
                                          

With Nirvana bringing a punk spirit to the mainstream via grunge, bands such as L7 suddenly became in demand and the quartet was signed to Slash/Reprise, issuing their best-known album with the Butch Vig-produced Bricks Are Heavy (which spawned their highest charting single, "Pretend We're Dead") in April 1992. While L7's follow-up, 1994's Hungry for Stink, failed to expand the group's following,

they joined the 1994 installment of U.S. alt-rock festival Lollapalooza and made cameos in John Waters' cult film Serial Mom, delivering "Gas Chamber" as the fictional band Camel Lips. Bassist Finch left the group shortly thereafter (eventually replaced by former Belly bassist Gail Greenwood), and the group issued such further releases as 1997's The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum, 1998's Live: Omaha to Osaka, and 1999's Slap-Happy, while the band was also the subject of a 1998 concert film made by former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, also titled The Beauty Process. In 2000, a 12-track retrospective collection was issued, Best of L7: The Slash Years, but for all intents and purposes the band were no longer touring and were widely believed to have ceased operations. Indeed, the following year saw L7 announce, via their website, that they would be going on "indefinite hiatus."
                                             

The members continued to be musically active, however, with Sparks pursuing a solo career, with help from Plakas, under the moniker Donita Sparks & the Stellar Moments and Finch playing with the punk

unit the Shocker. In 2014, Sparks, Gardner, Finch, and Plakas announced that the group would be reuniting. L7 played their first show in 18 years together at the Echo in Los Angeles on May 23, 2015, followed by an international tour. A crowd-funded documentary -- L7: Pretend We're Dead -- debuted in 2016, further fueling their comeback effort. Following the release of a pair of non-album singles, they issued their seventh set, 2019's Scatter the Rats. Released via Joan Jett's Blackheart Records, the album included the singles "Burn Baby" and "Stadium West."
by Greg Prato]

BRICKS ARE HEAVY  1992

                                                          

Though they hailed from sunny L.A., L7 became the poster girls for grunge in 1992, with the meteoric

success of their third album, Bricks Are Heavy. While their previous efforts had sounded sloppy and uneven, Nevermind producer Butch Vig helped the girls obtain a tight, compact sound on Bricks, pushing them to focus on their songwriting to boot. After all, great albums need great songs, and that's exactly what you have here.
                                           

Mosh-pit anthem "Everglade" (sung by bassist Jennifer Finch) will simply knock you on your ass, and big single "Pretend We're Dead" is so good that its tough swagger harks back to seminal bad girl

anthems like Joan Jett's "I Love Rock'n'Roll," Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," and even the Go-Go's -- well, maybe not the Go-Go's. The sardonic "Diet Pill" tackles female compulsions with clever irony, and even when they let their mega-riffing take over on such full-throttle stomps as "Wargasm," "Mr. Integrity," and "Shitlist," L7 still manage to imbue their lyrics with humor and substance.
by Eduardo Rivadavia.

L7 – Bricks Are Heavy
Label: Slash – 9 26784-2
Format:    CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Apr 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk, Alternative Rock

TRAXS

                                           

01. Wargasm
(Voice [Sample] – Yoko Ono/Written-By – Sparks)  2:40
02. Scrap
(Written-By – Gurewitz, Sparks)  2:53
03. Pretend We're Dead
(Written-By – Sparks)  3:53
04. Diet Pill
(Written-By – Sparks)  4:21
05. Everglade
(Written-By – Ray, Finch)  3:18
06. Slide
(Written-By – Sparks, Gardner)  3:37
07. One More Thing
(Written-By – Finch)  4:07
08. Mr. Integrity
(Bongos – Pauli Ryan/Handclaps – Pete Love/Written-By – Sparks)  4:06
09. Monster
(Written-By – Gardner)  2:56
10. Shitlist
(Written-By – Sparks)  2:55
11. This Ain't Pleasure
(Written-By – Caivano, Gardner)  2:42

MP3 @ 320 Size: 89 MB
Flac  Size: 269 MB

HUNGRY FOR STINK  1994

                                         

Following their breakthrough third set, 1992's Butch Vig-produced Bricks Are Heavy, L7 issued the hulking Hungry for Stink. Although the album was less favorably received by critics for failing to maintain Bricks' momentum, Stink stands as one of the crunchiest, grimiest, and nastiest selections in

their decades-long catalog. The albums that followed -- 1997's The Beauty Process and 1999's Slap-Happy -- expanded the band's horizons and wiped away some of the sludge, opting for softer tones, fresh genre touches, and even slow almost-ballads. Thus, Hungry for Stink benefits from a hindsight, big-picture view, especially considering menacing thrills like "Andres," "The Bomb," "Fuel My Fire," and "Freak Magnet." As Suzi Gardner's guitar buzzed and the aggressive rhythm section of Jennifer Finch and Dee Plakas grooved and pounded, vocalist Donita Sparks' throat-shredding growls and howls were at their prime.
                                            

As the prelude to subtle stylistic changes on the horizon, the effort included a couple hints at where L7

were headed, such as the epic "Questioning My Sanity," which stretched Sparks' vocals by whipping from ethereal coos to stuttered gurgles while funhouse sound effects amplified the insanity. Stink's overall mélange drew upon the sleaziest corners of everything from Nirvana and Hole to Nick Cave and White Zombie. While not as crisp and catchy as Bricks Are Heavy, Hungry for Stink merits attention and appreciation for being the end of a certain era for the band, just as they were on the verge of a brief evolution before their two-decade hiatus.

L7 – Hungry For Stink
Label: Slash – 9 45624-2, Reprise Records – 9 45624-2
Format:    CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 1994
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Punk

TRAXS

                                                              

01. Andres
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner)  3:03
02. Baggage
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner)  3:18
03. Can I Run
(Written-By – Donita Sparks)  3:54
04. The Bomb
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Jennifer Finch)  2:39
05. Questioning My Sanity
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Jennifer Finch)  3:42
06. Riding With A Movie Star
(Keyboards – Roddy Bottum/Written-By – Donita Sparks)  3:19
07. Stuck Here Again
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner)  4:58
08. Fuel My Fire
(Written-By – Cosmic Psychos, Donita Sparks)  3:46
09. Freak Magnet
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner)  3:14
10. She Has Eyes
(Written-By – Donita Sparks, Jennifer Finch)  3:16
11. Shirley
(Written-By – Jennifer Finch)  3:09
12. Talk Box
(Written-By – Donita Sparks)  6:16

MP3 @ 320 Size: 105 MB
Flac  Size: 309 MB