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L7 is the band’s debut album: gritty grunge-punk full of heavy riot grrrl swagger. I’m partial to a few of their later releases but there are some great ass-kicking tracks on this record. “Bite the Wax Tadpole” is crazy frenzied energy (bite the wax tadpole = Chinese translation of Coca Cola, thanks internet!), “Let’s Rock Tonight” and “Runnin’ From the Law” are a bad girl’s call to party, “Uncle Bob” is ton-of-bricks heavy and “Snake Handler” is probably my favorite track, asking all dangerously sexy “Are you a snake? Are you a man?”

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L7 “Bricks Are Heavy” 1992. Slash Records. Massive poster included. Today, November 9th, is L7 drummer Demetra Plakas’ birthday (b. 1960). Bricks Are Heavy, produced by Butch Vig (and recorded in Madison, WI – hey, I was living there in ‘91 and ‘92 during its recording! – and Sound City in CA), was L7′s most successful record, charting at #160 on Billboard. The single “Pretend We’re Dead” became one of many grunge anthems.

Bricks are Heavy is, true to its name, heavy, infusing feminist grrrl power into its punk and metal influences. “Everglade” is a scathing commentaries on being women in the testosterone-infused music scene:

Glade told her ma, “Home scene’s lame”
“I gotta go in into town, blow some steam at the rock show”
Sneak through the back door and head for the pit
And then some drunk stupid bruiser started giving her shit

Rednecks on parade
“Don’t cross my line!” says Everglade
Everglade

He was whipping through the pit
Knocked her onto the stage
She said, “Have your fun
But stop being so lame”

The guy was drunk stupid
And he must have weighed a ton
Said, “Get outta here, girlie
I’m just trying to have some fun”

Domestic violence gets a fuck you in “Diet Pill.” And then of course there is the blatant flip of the middle finger to pretty much everyone: “Shitlist.”

When I get mad and I get pissed
I grab my pen and I write out a list
Of all the people that won’t be missed
You’ve made my shitlist
For all the ones who bum me out
(Shitlist)
For all the ones who fill my head with doubt
(Shitlist)
For all the squares who get me pissed
(Shitlist)
You’ve made my shitlist
Shitlist, shitlist
When I get mad and I get pissed
(Shitlist)
I grab my pen and write out a list
(Shitlist)
Of all you assholes who won’t be missed
(Shitlist)
You’ve made my shitlist

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This EP is brilliant, angry but angry in a way that makes the listener feel gloriously alive. “Shove” is majestically, anthemically amazing and rips everyone and everything in its way to shreds. (“Get out of my way or I might shove. Get out of my way or I’m gonna shove”). “Fast and Frightening” is female power at its dirtiest, nastiness, finest:

Her glance hits me like lightning
I heard that girl is fast and frightening
Dirty hair and a laugh that’s mean
Her neighbors call her an evil machine
She’s fast, she’s lean
She’s frightening
She’s fast, she’s lean
She’s frightening
Popping wheelies on her motorbike
Straight girls wish they were dykes
She’ll do anything on a dare
Mom and Daddy’s worst nightmare
Down at the creek smoking pot
She eats the roach so she don’t get caught
Throws her mini off in the halls
Got so much c*** she don’t need no balls

Run-off groove etchings: Side A – “Rock show tonight – big butts live on stage” Side B – “Smell It Sniff It Smell It” and “Swappin’ fluids across the nation”

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