(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
IVH: L7 / Bricks Are Heavy [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-03
Tonight’s selections from L7’s second full length, 1992’s Bricks Are Heavy.
L7 were never really much of a riot grrrl band, no matter how many people tried to lump them into that category. Sure, their music had the same themes of female empowerment and sexuality, but the music is where things really differed. While they started with a more hardcore punk-tinged musical framework like their contemporaries, the 90s saw L7 enter a new phase with more metal and grunge influences. Suddenly, the band seemed closer to Alice in Chains and Melvins than they did to Bikini Kill or Bratmobile. Plus, let's face it: L7's focus was more on quality music than simply pushing a message to a male-dominated music scene... or at least there was more of a balance. These were ladies that not only clung closely to their feminist ideals, but made kickass albums in the process. Of course, their stage antics also played a part in their success during their 90s heyday. Guitarist/singer Donita Sparks was usually the main cause of the controversy, particularly in 1992; first she pulled down her pants during a performance on the British variety show The Word, and then she threw her [look it up- AD] at the audience during the Reading Festival after the audience threw mud at the band. — Sputnik Music
Pretend We’re Dead
Bricks Are Heavy was L7’s strongest statement to date about their influences: the dirty jeans and surfer-punk of Ramones; the unforgiving riffs and aggressive noise inherent to Black Flag; the melodic, often melancholic doo wop of 1950s and 1960s grandstand bands; art-school dropouts who teach themselves to play out-of-tune guitars – it’s all here. Back in 1985, Sparks, a songwriter and singer, and Gardner, a writer, singer and poet, were hanging out in the same Echo Park community of rebel artists, writers and musicians, with both having at one point worked in production at newspaper LA Weekly. They were connected by mutual friends, and Sparks’ early demo tapes convinced Gardner that they were riding the same wave of music. Soon they’d ride it onto the stages of LA’s burgeoning punk and hardcore venues, where the duo experimented with a shifting line-up. Things were solidified in the mid-1980s with the addition of bassist Jennifer Finch and drummer Roy Koutsky. L7’s self-titled debut followed in 1988, before Koutsky quit. Anne Anderson then joined as a touring drummer before being replaced by self-taught Chicago-born punk Dee Plakas, plucked by L7 from her LA trio Pirate Radio. Determined to pummel, thrash and throttle alongside her equally fierce bandmates, Plakas was the spark to the fuse. Everyone in the band now rightfully saw L7 as a job, and had the stamina and passion to make it work. — Guitar
Shitlist
L7 was never a one-trick pony. Beneath the raw, pummelling riffs and buckets of attitude lay razor-sharp melodies and searing, venomous passion. Vig balanced both sides of the band’s formidable approach and presented it in an engaging yet hard-hitting package. He recognised that Donita Sparks had a wickedly expressive voice capable of flitting from angelic cries to deep melodic drawls, raging snarls, and savage punk bellows, encouraging her to explore the full dynamic range of her singing, which in turn added depth and excitement to each song. The rhythm section of Dee Plakas and Jennifer Finch is precise and dynamic and swings hard. The 1990s produced a plethora of incredible drummers, and Dee Plakas is no exception. Like an alt-rock Ringo Starr, her playing is essential to L7’s sound, providing hook-laden fills and relentless drive. Jennifer Finch is the talismanic firebrand whose vibrant, devil-may-care attitude and powerful bass playing propel the band both on and off stage. Finch occasionally takes lead vocals, adding her mighty punk-rock snarl to devastating effect. Suzi Gardner’s guitar playing is heavy, sludgy, and aggressive, yet always quirky, memorable, and filled with an infectious sense of urgency. She, too, contributes lead vocals, adding yet another dimension to the rich tapestry of L7’s sound. — The Year Grunge Broke
Wargasm
It’s funny how perceptions change. Several of what have become regarded as the genre-defining records of 1991-93 or thereabouts – including Nevermind, Badmotorfinger, Piece of Cake and Bricks Are Heavy, L7’s first non-underground album – were noted at the time by snobbish rock critics for being somewhat lacking in, um, grunge and instead being more-or-less commercial heavy rock albums. Compared to the frazzled punk of L7’s self-titled 1988 debut or their 1990 Sub Pop album Smell the Magic, Bricks Are Heavy is indeed a relatively polished, even polite piece of work; but it’s also overall a generally better album than either of those was. Star producer Butch Vig is often given credit for the band’s transformation into something that could conceivably get on the charts, but though his work on the album is indeed magnificent, Jack Endino’s production for Smell the Magic was too. It could even be argued that an Endino version of Bricks Are Heavy – or, for that matter, an Endino version of Nevermind – might have been even better. The fact that remains that, for all of its excellent points and general high quality, the definitive L7 song for those in the know – and a bona fide punk/grunge anthem too – was “Shove,” which appeared on Smell the Magic, and nothing on Bricks Are Heavy is up to quite that standard. As with Nirvana and Nevermind, the real difference was less that L7 and their producer had found a better sound than before, than that the band had sharpened their songwriting skills considerably, delivering an album in which the all-important tunes-to-attitude ratio was far more evenly balanced than it had been previously. — Spectrum Culture
Diet Pill
Donita Sparks: We liked our relationship with Sub Pop a lot, but we felt like we wanted to have wider distribution and it was sort of what all the bands were doing at the time, which was, you know, signing to a major label. In fact, most of Sub Pop's roster split from Sub Pop, but it wasn't because they were bad guys or doing a bad job or anything like that. It was just simply, it was a natural next step for us. And it was not over money or anything like that. There was no bidding war about L7 at all, but we did find some like-minded people at Slash Records and Slash, LA legendary label, put out the Germs and X and Violent Femmes and The Blasters and stuff. And you know, they were cool and they had just signed a deal with Warner Brothers for their distribution. So it was kind of like, “Wow, this is kind of best of both worlds for us.” So we decided to go for it. I had no problem going from the underground into the mainstream. I thought it was cool. I wanted to get our message out. I wanted to be an inspiration to kids who were stuck in the suburbs who were getting picked on and, you know, felt alienated and isolated. I liked getting on TV on MTV, on David Letterman, whatever it was just to, you know, “Hey, you're not alone out there.” We were alone too. And you know, that kind of thing. Some people just felt that major labels were corporate and they didn't like 'em and whatever, but, you know, I'm glad that the Beatles were on a major label. I'm glad I heard the Beatles. I'm glad I heard their message. I mean, what the fuck? You wouldn't hear the Doors. You wouldn't hear, you know, a lot of bands that had cool stuff to say. You know, the Rolling Stones, they were all on major labels and even the underground cool bands, Blondie, all of 'em. They were on major labels. You know, the Ramones. I have no problem with that. — Life of the Record
Everglade
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Steve Martin, Zach Cherry, Alison Brown, Tim O'Brien (R 6/16/25)
Jimmy Fallon: Shaquille O'Neal, Hayley Atwell, Dasha (R 5/22/25)
Stephen Colbert: Natalie Portman, Dawn Staley, Wednesday (R 5/21/25)
Seth Meyers: Joel McHale, Nico Parker, Atsuko Okatsuka (R 6/10/25)
After Midnight: Sandy Honig, Mitra Jouhari, Alyssa Stonoha (R 3/5/25)
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/3/2328287/-IVH-L7-Bricks-Are-Heavy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
