L7 (l to r): Suzi Gardner, Donita Sparks, Dee Plakas, Jennifer Finch
“Eat my used tamp*n, f***ers!”
– Donita Sparks at the 1992 Reading Festival
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, Donita Sparks, Jennifer Finch, and Dee Plakas.
Early Life:
Suzi: (guitars, vocals) was born in Altus, Oklahoma on 8/1/69 to Anne B. Gardner. She had an older brother, Bob, and grew up partly in Citrus Heights, California. Gardner moved to Southern California in 1977. She attended Orange Coast College in 1978 and studied physical anthropology and guitar. In 1980, Gardner moved to Los Angeles.
Donita: (vocals, guitars) was born on 4/8/63 in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. One of several sisters, Sparks was raised in Oak Lawn, in a family that regularly participated in political actions. Sparks credits her father for cultivating her sense of rhythm at an early age and her mother with instilling an awareness of equal rights. During high school, Sparks used her older sister’s ID to get into clubs, including Club 950 Lucky Number and Neo. Following her graduation from high school in 1981, she attended classes at the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. She moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19.
Jennifer: (bass, vocals) was born on 8/5/66 and grew up in West Los Angeles. She was adopted in 1967 by Robert Edward Finch, an aeronautics engineer, and his wife Sandra Jacobson; they later divorced in 1974. Finch credits the support of her adoptive father, who was also an amateur photographer, as being instrumental to her creative development. Finch took an interest in photography at an early age and attended a summer art session at Otis Parsons in 1980.
Dee: (drums, vocals) Plakas was born on 11/9/60 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents immigrated independently from Greece and later met in Chicago. Plakas has a younger sister.
Musical Beginnings:
Suzi: She was writing poetry and music at the time she met Donita Sparks in 1984 and co-founded the punk rock group L7 with Sparks by 1985.
Donita: met Suzi in 1984 and they formed the creative foundation of L7 by 1985. Sparks and Gardner had both worked at LA Weekly, although at separate times, and were active participants in the Art punk DIY scene in the Echo Park/Silver Lake area when they began writing music together. Sparks credited mutual friends at LA Weekly for connecting her to Gardner and stated that the publisher was a cultural hub of performance artists, writers, and musicians including Vaginal Davis and Johnathan Gold on staff at the time.
Jennifer: Active in L7 from 1986 to 1996, Finch also wrote music and performed with her bands OtherStarPeople and The Shocker in the interim before joining the reunited L7 in 2014.
Dee: She learned to play the drums while in high school. In the late 1970s, she joined a punk band called Problem Dogs. In the thriving Chicago punk scene, they played sporadic gigs at places like Space Place and O’Banion’s, opening for The Bangles at The Metro. They also released a single, “City Hall/ You Are The Knife” in 1982. Plakas moved to the greater Los Angeles metro area in 1985.
Discography:
|
L7 discography |
|
|---|---|
|
Studio albums |
7 |
|
Compilation albums |
3 |
|
Music videos |
12 |
|
EPs |
1 |
|
Singles |
12 |
Other things to share:
The band appeared in John Waters’ 1994 film Serial Mom under the name “Camel Lips.” Their songs have been featured on the soundtracks of numerous films, including Natural Born Killers, Point of No Return, and Pet Sematary Two. “Shove” appears on the soundtrack of the movie Tank Girl and “Pretend We’re Dead” appears on the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and can be heard on an in-game radio station, and on the music video game Rock Band 2.
Official website: here
Source: wikipedia
Tao Talk 
They can really rock it out!
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Yes they can!
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I met them once! In Tacoma before they played. All four of them together. I even got an L7 t-shirt signed, their new record Scatter the Rats signed, and got a picture taken with them. They’re so awesome. They’ve been one of my top ten favorite bands since the 90s.
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Now how fantastic is that. You must have been flying high that night. They are hardcore good from what I’ve heard of them.
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I had the biggest cheesiest smile of my life
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If you like L7, you should check out Babes in Toyland. Also an all-female rock band.
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I’ll add them to my list and should feature them sometime in 2025. As I’ve been doing this every March I’ve grown more and more amazed at the female musicians I never knew about that are SO GOOD!
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Oh wow! That’s awesome. LA Witch is a three piece out of Cali. A newer all female band that I love.
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Adding them to my list…
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Cool pick, Lisa, and another band I had not heard of before. While no longer as rare as during the days of trailblazers Fanny, all-female rock groups still aren’t very common. These ladies really seem to rock! Also, if I see this correctly, three of their four current members are from the original line-up – not the kind of longevity many other (male) rock bands can claim!
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I think Max covered Fanny before and I really liked their sound. These musicians are pretty darned good and yes good to see they have longevity.
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Yep, it was actually Max who brought Fanny on my radar screen in October 2021, which prompted me to check out and cover their debut album.
When reading the post again just now, I realized I never watched the then-upcoming documentary about them. Based on the trailer, it looks intriguing!
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Another group I did not know!
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These ladies rock on! :)
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That they do!
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I never heard of this band surprisingly enough… I do like their punk rock…they have been together for a while.
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I love that Serial Mom clip. These girls don’t play when they play.
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Thank you for pointing me back to this post, which I evidently missed first time around. I love this angst of this band- I have since the first moment I heard one of their songs.
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You’re welcome. I remember how delighted I was to learn what I did about them when I was writing the post up. They are like The Runaways, but they carry switchblades — and use them! ;)
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