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While probably a bit biased, the reviewer on the Green Noise Records website totally nails it and is worth quoting here: “…holy fuck, holy fox face, this album rips, ripped out my brain and made my day, scraped my brain from my skull and slapped it on a platter, red and black swirl indeed, stick my head in that batter and call me baked, slap a bow on my ass and call it an early Christmas, these women are obviously not messing around, the goods have been delivered, teeth fang and claw, once bitten twice delighted, welcome to the planet of Fox Face, this is obviously their world, and I’m just happy I get to live on it…As the sleeve art suggests this is a monster from the Rust Belt, impossible to ignore as it thunders into your eardrums, driving riffs into the punk rock, lifting it up on a bottom thick as plate iron and powering forward, shaking like an earthquake.  Take cover, a big one is coming.”

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From their liner notes: “The term spoil + destroy is taken from a witch-hunting manual that, to paraphrase, states that even good witches who do not ‘spoil and destroy, but save and deliver’ should be killed. That resonated with us – the idea that, as a woman, your achievements are irrelevant because of your gender.” The tracks on the album back up this sentiment, with grit and without apology, a giant middle finger fuck you to the age of Trumpism. “(What You’re) Good For” leads off the record, bouncing with infectious rage. “Clever Girl” has an ominous groove and seethes with glorious feminist fury (this is probably my favorite track on the record but there are several runners-up). “Hiawatha” is beautifully haunting, deliciously dark. “Boogie Man” and “Girl Hater” are even darker, violently so as the beat revs up to head banging punk. The hashtag of 2016 appears on “Nasty Woman” as does the sane person’s response to climate deniers on “I Believe in Science.” While not my favorite song on the LP, Fox Face’s cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” is intriguing, reimagining the princess hit as a witchy antidote to pop poison.

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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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One track from Spanking Machine appears on The Peel Sessions, the heavy grinding dirge “Dogg,” but most others appear on Babes in Toyland’s first EP, To Mother, including “Catatonic,” “Map Pilot,” “Primus,” “Laugh My Head Off” and one of my favorites: “Ripe.” Only one track, “Pearl,” appeared on their 1992 full album Fontanelle.

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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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