Originally published in MOO Magazine (Issue 05, 1994)
Hungry for stink? If you’re an L7 fan, you may be, but if you are the band’s bassist, Jennifer Finch, you are hungry for some carbohydrates.
“You know what I’d like? Spaghetti with tomato sauce, parmesan cheese on the side,” Finch tells someone in the band’s record company offices during her phone call to MOO. “And one meatball on the side. With the fat drained off.”
The call came prior to the start of the Lollapalooza Festival which L7 has earned a spot on this year, performing during mid-afternoon each day. The road warrior Finch has been through the touring thing before and knows that musicians must be in tip-top shape (unless you’re TAD or in the Screaming Trees) to maintain the rigorous lifestyle of a rock n’ roll star.
“We go on the road for nine months at a time. After the second month, you’re not eating right, you’re not sleeping. I started passing out on stage,” Finch jokes. “We were playing in this humidity box in Florida, you know, this tiny club that was filled, and Dee (Plakas, drummer) has this fan next to her. I saw her bending over and I thought she was just getting air from the fan. And then her face started moving closer and closer. I realized that she had passed out and was headed straight for the fan. I intercepted.”
L7’s inclusion on the Lollapalooza tour came at the perfect time. Not only did L7 fill the obligatory “chick band” spot on the lineup, Finch, Plakas, and singer/guitarists Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks had the chance to promote their recently released fourth effort, Hungry for Stink, which far surpassed the expectations of both L7 and its record company, Sire/Reprise. Due to the popularity, the band has been hit with a barrage of interview requests ranging from Billboard to the oddly named S.A.T.W.S. which Finch says stands for Steve Albini Thinks We Suck. Besides being a founding member of Big Black, Alibini is a noted producer who has occasionally stirred up a bit of trouble.
“We have these friends in L.A. called Celebrity Skin, and they wanted Steve Albini to produce them in around 1991,” Finch says. “They sent him a 7″ single and he sent it back them smashed with no explanation.”
“He’s so talked about. He must be an interesting character,” Finch rationalizes. “He may be the Courtney Love of recording producing. He’s very hated and loved at the same time.”
Fortunately, L7 co-produced Hungry for Stink with Garth Richardson (Rage Against the Machine, Melvins), and didn’t have to deal with any problems. Richardson’s father, Jack, produced the Bay City Rollers, Bob Seger, and Alice Cooper in the ’70s. Finch says that L7 thought Richardson was a good producer “because of his diversity, and flirting with his father was not a bad idea. The Rage Against the Machine album totally rocked. And Richardson, with the help of L7, worked his magic on Hungry for Stink, a harder, less-polished effort than their 1992 release, Bricks Are Heavyi.
“We made some choices on Bricks Are Heavy that we wanted to do. We made some choices on this record that we wanted to do. And we made some choices on our first two records,” Finch says. “Hey, no record has to sound the same as the last.”
“Andre,” the hard-hitting first single, Finch explains is about “a friend of ours. Don’t ask us anymore what it’s about because we’ll give you a sarcastic answer.” The single has been gathering loads of airplay on many different radio formats ranging from A.O.R. to metal. “I hear a single in every song on the record,” Finch says. “Ever since we’ve done these interviews, I ask people and they all tell me something different. There are people that say they really like ‘Riding with the Movie Star.’ They think that should be the first single. Wouldn’t that be easy because it’s an instrumental, very groovy – and it could lend itself to MTV visual kind of stuff. We’re starting from the top.” Coincidentally, “Andre” is the first single on the album and Finch jokes that the band will release the singles in chronological order. In that case, look for “Talk Box” to be released in July 1995.
The new album is loaded with feminist issues, as the band members are all heavily involved with various feminist groups, most notably Rock for Choice. The members of L7, according to Finch, planning on hanging out at the Rock for Choice booth at various stops along the Lollapalooza tour.
One of the more interesting songs on Hungry for Stink is “Shirley,” a tribute to drag racer Shirley Muldowney that borrows a few samples from the Muldowney-based film, Heart Like a Wheel. “She tours like we do,” Finch says. “She does the two-months-out-of-the-year kind of circuit, and goes back and forth and does interviews and promotional type of stuff.” So is there any possibility of a Shirley Muldowney/L7 tour in the near future? “Everybody would hate us. Why would we do that?” Finch asks. “We’d have like big, fat, beer-drinking men with their little boys with their identical long/short haircuts yelling at us.”
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