I have been thinking about blogging about L7 for months now. Today is the day. I don't claim to be an expert on all female rock bands, but I have always liked L7. I think my first exposure to an all female band was The Runaways back in the early 70's. I remember hearing my friend Jeff play "Cherry Bomb" and thinking that it was kind of interesting. The most successful all girl band would have to be The Go-Go's I suppose, but if I was posting about The Go-Go's I would have listed this post under Guilty Pleasures. It's hard for a out and out rock fan like me to admit he likes The Go-Go's, but I have to say I didn't mind them. They were completely overexposed thanks to MTV and Belinda Carlisle's attractive mug, but, love 'em or hate 'em, The Go-Go's had some great songs. I used to like "This Town" from Beauty and The Beat. I also enjoyed "Vacation" from Vacation and "Turn To You" from Talk Show. If that makes me uncool...well, let's just say it wouldn't be the first time. I have always loved a female voice on top of my rock. So be it.The Runaways, with Lita Ford and Joan Jett in the band, knocked down a few walls, but it wasn't until years later that The Go-Go's proved an all female band could actually sell records. Ironically, female fronted rock bands with lead singers like Debbie Harry, Chrissy Hynde, Joan Jett, Ann Wilson, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Sinead O'Connor, PJ Harvey, Annie Lennox, Shirley Manson, Kim Deal, Courtney Love, Karen O, Stevie Nicks, Tanya Donnelly, Siouxsie Sioux, Pat Benatar and on and on were often very successful precisely because their singers were female. For some strange reason the powers that be decided women couldn't handle their instruments as well as men. Pretty crazy if you ask me, but I wasn't an A&R guy in the 70's making these types of pronouncements.
After you strip out the popular, but hardly rocking, all female acts such as The Go-Go's, The Bangles, The Indigo Girls, The Dixie Chicks, Bananarama and bands of that ilk you are left with the female bands that rock. Hard. You have your Girlschools, your Donnas, your 4 Non Blondes, your Vixens, your Kittys, Your Slits, Your Sleater-Kinneys etc, but I liked L7 the best. I didn't have time to make certain that every band I mentioned was, in fact, all female, but the consensus is what I went with. I'm a sucker for Joan Jett, old Heart, Hole, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Garbage, Fleetwood Mac, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, Jefferson Airplane, Belly, The Breeders, Throwing Muses, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Pretenders & Blondie (just for starters), but all of them had at least one male in the group so they are disqualified from this discussion (as it were). Your definition of the hardest rocking all female band will differ wildly, but, I'm throwing in with L7. They weren't messing around.
L7 is a Los Angeles band that existed mostly from 1985-2000. Their unusual name, sometimes mistaken for the sexual connotation of 69, was apparently a 1950's slang phrase to describe someone who was square. As in not cool. Of course, "square" is missing from today's lexicon with good reason, but that is the word on the band's name according to Wikipedia (so it must be true). In fairness, L7 began originally with a guy name Roy Koutsky on drums, but he was quickly replaced in 1988 by Demetra Plakas to compete the all female lineup. Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner and Jennifer Finch were the other three original members of the band. In 1992 they released their third album called Bricks Are Heavy produced by wunderkind Butch Vig. You may have heard their signature song "Pretend We're Dead" on the radio, but that record had at least one other excellent radio friendly track called "One More Thing." 1994 bought us Hungry For Stink and the song I came to post today called "Can I Run." These gals were labeled a grunge act since they became popular in the wake of Nirvana's Nevermind, but they seemed to disappear from the scene fairly quickly after Hungry For Stink. Their final studio record was 1999's Slap Happy. They had a nice run and performed at Lollapalooza at least once. Radio is fickle and the record buying public didn't get much of a chance to know this band, but they were excellent. It' a shame they didn't get more recognition.
Like Public Image Limited, their status is listed on their web site as being on an indefinite hiatus. Sorry to hear that, but they never really busted into the main stream despite their modest success. However, I'm here to report that they actually rocked and that is what I'll always remember. Apologies in advance to all the all female bands I omitted in this post. I know there were many.
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