Picks and Pans Review: Bricks Are Heavy
updated 09/14/1992 AT 01:00 AM EDT
•originally published 09/14/1992 AT 01:00 AM EDT
OK, this grungy L.A. quartet happens to be all female. Does that make them a novelty? The Bangles in dirty leather? Negative. Anything but a gimmick, L7 offers a welcome return to searing punk.
Bricks sounds like a direct descendant of material from such veteran punkers as the Dead Kennedys and X, from the slash-and-burn guitar of "Wargasm" to the thunderous crunch of "Diet Pill." In the grand punk tradition, there are no loved-and-lost power ballads, just verbal acid attacks on Desert Storm, political apathy—but not the anti-male rant you might expect. L7 pays as much attention to putting melody into the madness as it does to politics. All it takes is two minutes of listening, and the group's attitude, not its gender, will be what you remember. (Slash)