Remembering Jennifer Finch, 5 August 1966 to 18 July 2026

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Rest in Peace, Jennifer Finch: L7 bassist dies at fifty-nine. {Billboard 19 July}

https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/jennifer-finch-l7-bassist-dies-1236297297/

L7 were a breath of fresh air in the early 1990s, one of a wave of intelligent hard rock bands who — however briefly — found a degree of success after years of gutter-trash hair metal dominating the airwaves. ‘Pretend We’re Dead’, their signature ‘hit’ song (not a commercial chart hit, but it received a reasonable amount of MTV exposure and airplay on rock stations such as WAAF here in Massachusetts), is far darker, heavier, and more lethal than anything any of the pretty boy cock rockers ever produced. They were a band that embraced the label of ‘punk rock’, but, really, the style of music they, and similar bands such as Babes in Toyland or even Hole, produced was in no way identical to the stereotypical three-chord tripe made by dudes with mohawks and safety pins sticking out of their noses. Informed by those punk rockers, certainly, but equally so by ‘60s garage rock and psychedelia, and delivered with a pointedly metallic sheen that owed an obvious debt to Black Sabbath. 

I do not remember exactly, but I believe I may have owned the record that produced ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ (Bricks Are Heavy) and perhaps one or two other L7 discs at some point. At one time, I had upwards of 1,200 CDs in my collection. It was ridiculous. I cannot honestly proclaim I kept much track of the women of L7 in the decades since — along with scores of other bands and artists from those halcyon days — but Godspeed to a woman who was part of a much-needed revolution in rock music, back when such things still mattered.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Born #OTD 1964: Courtney Love

Courtney Love, circa 1994. Photo: Jeff Thurnher/CORBIS

By what machinations of fate has this most tempestuous woman, Courtney Love, reached the ripe age of threescore? Though she resides outside the public eye of late, and rock music is no longer a commercially viable genre, in the bygone days of the 1990s, she was ever-present, and she was a hot mess if ever there was one.

As a musician, one cannot laud her as a songbird of unparalleled voice nor a guitarist of prodigious skill. Indeed, the tasks of melody and intricate fretwork fell to the token male in the otherwise female band. Yet, for all her eccentricities (which likely persist to this day), she and her band, Hole, recorded two albums of undeniable merit: 1994’s ‘Live Through This’ and 1998’s ‘Celebrity Skin’. Both resonate with a power that defies the ravages of time, standing superior to the vast majority of the ‘alternative rock’ which dominated the airwaves and popular discourse during that halcyon decade.

Though she may have been, and perhaps remains, as mad as a hatter, the memory of Courtney Love stirs a yearning for a simpler time. An era before everything in music became fixated solely on the vapid offerings of the top forty, and everyone else was shut out of the conversation.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.