Fun for the whole family

>> It's been a banner bad-taste year for grunge goddesses L7

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Back on tour for their latest album Slap-Happy, L.A.'s L7 are hard at work staying vital. Over the past year and some, the rrriot women have launched a record label (Wax Tadpole), flown protest banners over the Lilith Fair ("Bored? Tired? Try L7") and the Vans Warped Tour ("Warped needs more beaver, love, L7") and raffled off their drummer Dee Plakas for a one-night stand in London. Tampon-slinging may be a thing of the past, but 12 years in the business has taught these rock chicks how to keep the press on their trail. The Mirror spoke to frontwoman Donita Sparks about dolls, jocks and bad TV.

Mirror: So your voice was used in Live Freaky, Die Freaky, an animated film about Charles Manson's Family--how weird is that?

Donita Sparks: It's with actual dolls, kind of like Thunderbirds. The director, John Roecker, is still working on the movie, but I hope he gets it finished soon 'cuz he's got a real cavalcade of stars making appearances [Henry Rollins, Joey Ramone, members of Rancid, White Zombie, etc]. I'm doing a song for my character [Sharon Tate] to sing, probably a big production number. It's kind of a takeoff on a kids' thing, like Rudolph or whatever, so it'll probably sound nothing like L7.

M: Speaking of family values, what's your take on the whole rap-metal craze?

DS: I don't really follow that, probably because what I've heard I'm not that crazy about.

M: After the Woodstock disaster last summer, many critics blamed those bands for attracting exceptionally stupid fans.

DS: Those kind of fratboys make me ill, but we've had them at our concerts, too. I remember the Nirvana guys being really bummed out by their fans and they certainly did not put forth that macho trip. So if you're a rock band in the mainstream, you're gonna get a lot of assholes. I don't know if those bands would consider their music a soundtrack to rape or not--I highly doubt it. How could they be that Neanderfuck?

M: A character on Chicago Hope described your music as "sonic sewage." How did that come about?

DS: They were playing our song "I Need" in the operating room because one of the surgeons was a big fan of ours. However, the song drove the other surgeon to jump off the roof. You can't ask for better press than that. When our publisher contacted us for permission, we of course said yes, because we'll use any opportunity to infiltrate the masses.

M: Your whole career seems to be based on what is conventionally considered bad taste.

DS: We're happy to put jabs in the mainstream whenever possible, hence the Lilith Fair banner, the Warped tour banner. You have to shake things up a little bit.

M: Where do you see yourself in five years?

DS: Probably talking on the phone to you, hopefully still writing and performing music. It's so much a part of our lives that I don't know if we could adjust to doing anything other than this. We enjoy what we do and there's always something to bitch about in a song. :

L7 play at Club Soda on Sunday, June 4, 8pm, $15