L7 is an American punk rock band founded in Los Angeles, California, first active from 1985 to 2001 and re-formed in 2014. The group currently consists of Suzi Gardner (guitars, vocals), Donita Sparks (vocals, guitars), Dee Plakas (drums, backing vocals) and Janis Tanaka (bass guitar). L7 has released seven studio albums and has toured widely in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. "Pretend We're Dead" was heavily played on United States 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, and as an all-female band, L7 has, at times, been linked to riot grrrl, although they preceded and are outliers of both the grunge and riot grrrl movements. L7 has been supportive of political causes, and formed Rock for Choice in 1991. A documentary film about the band, L7: Pretend We're Dead, premiered in 2016.
History Formation and early years (1985–1989) L7 was formed by Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner in 1985. Both artists were active in the art punk community of Echo Park and had met in 1984 through mutual contacts at the cultural hub of the LA Weekly. Of their meeting and on hearing Gardner play a tape of her songs in progress, Sparks described it as "one of the happiest days of my life" with a clear synchronicity in the music they were each interested in creating. At the time, Gardner was also active as a poet. A year prior, Gardner had performed backing vocals on the college radio hit "Slip It In" by Black Flag. Gardner and Sparks began performing regularly in Los Angeles at punk and metal venues along with a revolving list of supporting musicians in the early years.
The punk rock duo brought Jennifer Finch on board as bass guitarist and Roy Koutsky on drums. Finch, with the strongest Californian roots of the four, connected the band with an even wider network, including Brett Gurewitz of Epitaph Records where the band recorded their first demo. Their eponymous debut album, described as "intense, energetic" and "fast straightforward punk music" was released by Epitaph Records in 1987. L7 reported challenges in the early years with finding a suitable, stable drummer. Shortly after the release of L7, Koutsky quit the band and was replaced by Anne Anderson. Anderson's only studio appearance with L7 was on the SST Records compilation The Melting Pot in 1988 (via a cover of the Ohio Express track "Yummy Yummy Yummy"). Subsequently, Anderson left at the end of the touring cycle for the L7 record, and Demetra "Dee" Plakas was recruited by the band in late 1989 which completed the band's first stabilized lineup as an all-female band.
Time with Sub Pop (1989–1991) The band released ("Shove"/"Packin' a Rod") in 1989 as the Sub Pop Single of the Month. L7 reportedly spent a short time in Seattle in the early 1990s. L7's next album, Smell the Magic, was released in 1990 on Sub Pop and earned a four star review by Rolling Stone who stated "With Donita Sparks' and Suzi Gardner's twin lockstep guitars racing down the highway to hell, Smell the Magic was one of Sub Pop's finest hours." L7 traveled to England and opened for Nirvana on several dates in 1990.
In August 1991, L7 performed at the International Pop Underground Convention (IPU) held in Olympia, Washington. The IPU was organized around a fiercely independent DIY ethic, with L7 the only band with major label representation, having recently signed with Slash Records (a subsidiary of London Records).
Major label releases with Slash (1991–1997) Their 1992 third album, Bricks Are Heavy, produced by Butch Vig, was featured in Rolling Stone May 1999 list of 'Essential recordings of the 1990s', and was their most critically and commercially successful release.Rivadavia, Eduardo. "[ Bricks Are Heavy: Review]". AllMusic. Retrieved July 11, 2005. When Donita Sparks reached out to Yoko Ono to request permission to sample her scream in the opening track "Wargasm," Ono reportedly replied that she had her fingers crossed for the group as it was time for their music to get popular. Their 1992 single "Pretend We're Dead" spent 13 weeks on the US Alternative Songs chart while peaking at the No. 8 position, and it had also peaked at No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart. The singles "Everglade" and "Monster" also made appearances on the UK Singles chart. In their listing of the top 50 grunge songs, Paste magazine included "Pretend We're Dead" as number 21. L7 went on a year long tour to promote Bricks Are Heavy. Variety reported in 1992 that L7 had built a huge underground following all over the world due to repeatedly touring. The popularity of Bricks Are Heavy was also boosted by frequent video play on MTV. By June 2000, Bricks Are Heavy had sold 327,000 copies in the US.
During their performance at the 1992 Reading Festival, the band experienced "technical difficulties with their audio equipment" and were forced to stall their set. The rowdy crowd grew restless and began throwing mud onto the stage, repeatedly pelting the band. In protest, lead vocalist Donita Sparks removed her tampon on-stage and threw it into the crowd yelling "Eat my used tampon, fuckers!" Sparks has remained unapologetic about the incident, and the tampon has been referred to as one of the "most unsanitary pieces of rock memorabilia in history." Later in 1992, Sparks caused controversy in the United Kingdom when she dropped her jeans and underwear on live television, appearing nude from the waist down, during an L7 performance on the late night UK programme The Word. Of the incident, Sparks later commented that the Word show L7 appeared on had a number of chaotic aspects already underway including "a men's bum contest" and a "hidden camera in Oliver Reed's dressing room, showing him intoxicated with his shirt off, which was really fucked up. So I added my contribution to this craziness."
In a July 1993 article for Spin which featured L7 on the magazine's cover, Renée Crist described L7 as "four of the funniest, meanest, strongest, coolest, most pissed-off women I know" and as "wild, rambunctious, spontaneous" with a stage show that "is a wash of buddy love, crowd working, and acrobatics".
L7's fourth album, Hungry for Stink, was released in July 1994. The album peaked at No. 117 on the Billboard 200 chart, their highest position to date. "Andres" was the lead single off the album, which peaked at No. 20 on the US Alternative Songs and No. 34 on the UK Singles charts. The band continued to be regarded as a strong live act and performed on the main stage of the Lollapalooza tour in 1994, which also included The Smashing Pumpkins, the Beastie Boys, George Clinton, Nick Cave, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Breeders. In January 1995, L7 played a set of benefit concerts for Voters for Choice at Constitution Hall along with Neil Young, Lisa Germano, and Pearl Jam. Finch created a "slight fuss" after reportedly playing the final song of one show after removing her shirt.
In 1995, L7 was one of four bands featured in the documentary film Not Bad For a Girl. The film, which focused on several all-female bands, was awarded Best Documentary at the New York Underground Film Festival in 1996.
Finch left the band in 1996, during the recording of their fifth album,The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum. Sparks and Greta Brinkman played bass on the album, after which Gail Greenwood – formerly of the band Belly – became the band's full-time bassist. L7 performed at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, Washington in 1997.
Independent output and initial disbandment (1997–2001) In 1998, the pseudo-documentary film L7: The Beauty Process was released, directed by Krist Novoselic. The film contains actual concert footage of L7's trials and travails of being a "punk-like band in a pop-like marketplace."
L7's sixth studio album, Slap-Happy, was released on the band's own label Wax Tadpole Records in 1999. To promote the record, on July 17, 1999, L7 had a plane fly over the crowd at the Lilith Fair at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, with a banner that read, "Bored? Tired? Try L7." The following day, an airplane towed a banner over the crowd at the Warped Tour at the Stone Pony lot in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The banner read "Warped needs more beaver...love, L7." Greenwood later left the band and was replaced by Janis Tanaka, formerly of the San Francisco band, Stone Fox.
Record sales continued to wane during the late 1990s, and the band grew increasingly low on funds. However, the band's live performances consistently garnered praise, including a September 1999 review by rock critic Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune that stated "Gardner and Sparks favor low-end guitar chug, a sound that suggests the idling engine of a Harley-Davidson more than the high-end squeal of most lead guitarists. They intersect with bassist Janis Tanaka to create a thick, sludgy bottom that rumbles the floorboards and shoots right through the sternums of innocent passersby. Their secret weapon remains drummer Dee Plakas." In 2000, the band raffled a one-night stand with Demetra Plakas at a London gig. The winner got to spend the night on the tour bus. Rolling Stone reported that Plakas and her bandmates decided "We're not being hypocritical about rock & roll anymore. Rock & roll is prostitution."
By 2001, L7 was no longer touring. The band listed the following statement on their website: "L7 is on an indefinite hiatus. We know that's vague, but that's just the way it is. The future of the band is a bit up in the air at the moment." L7 appeared to be defunct for all practical purposes. From 2007 to 2012, Sparks pursued another project, along with Plakas on drums, in their band Donita Sparks and The Stellar Moments. Finch formed several projects including OtherStarPeople and her punk rock group The Shocker. Tanaka played bass for Pink and Greenwood played with Bif Naked and later, the reformed Belly.
In 2012, Sparks started a Facebook page for the band, posting videos and archival images of L7, where their fan base quickly began to regroup.
Reunion (2014–2025) On December 10, 2014, L7 announced, on their official Facebook page, that they were reuniting, featuring Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner, Jennifer Finch and Demetra Plakas. As part of the reunion, the band revamped their website and included a mailing list for fans.
The reunited band kicked off a European tour at Rock am Ring in Germany on June 6, 2015 with shows in the Czech Republic, Austria, UK, France, and Spain. This was followed by North American dates in New York, Toronto, and at Riot Fest in both Denver and Chicago, and the Fun, Fun, Fun Festival in Austin, Texas. Exclaim! reviewed their Toronto show and stated that "Their subversive sense of humour and brash confidence provides feminism with some much-needed comic relief and audacity, and on this night, as 50-somethings in a 30-year-old band, they looked, acted and sounded every bit as brazen as they did 25 years back."
On February 15, 2016, L7's original drummer Koutsky died at the age of 53. Later in 2016, the documentary film L7: Pretend We're Dead, directed by Sarah Price, premiered in Los Angeles. The film, largely funded through Kickstarter, features original footage and interviews with the band members and eyewitness accounts of their development from Lydia Lunch, Shirley Manson, Krist Novoselic and Butch Vig. The film was nominated for a VO5 NME Award for Best Music Film.