Heavy duty

Gail Greenwood on life with L7

by Michael Caito

Gail Greenwood started with the Dames, singing sugary, folky melodies about "Puberty." Then it was Boneyard's rhythm guitar punk anthems like "Chix Dominate" riffed through a plaid half-stack. Then it was on to bass with Belly, grabbing the cover of Rolling Stone after "Feed the Tree" jetted to #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart.

Perhaps the most telling quote about Greenwood being asked to replace co-founder Jennifer Finch in L7 came from her former bandmate Jack Flagg, the Boneyard drummer who most recently played with Churn. To paraphrase that rabid hockey fan/percussionist, "That's kinda like the Habs asking me to play forward."

Speaking from Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, where L7 were prepping for their first headliner tour with Greenwood on bass, the Middletown resident caught us up.

Q: You're playing with Foo Fighters tonight?

A: It's exciting. Seattle is somewhat of a home town. LA is definitely a hometown for L7, but Seattle is a little bit the second hometown pressure because they were on Sub Pop for so many years. The old faces, old cohorts will be here, a little bit of that pressure. There's about 22,000 people.

We'll get back to L7 in a minute . . . I guess someone's putting together a tribute to Matt Botelho and wanted to know if Boneyard wanted to do it. I said do it without me because I'll be out of town [latest update: Followers and Ether are scheduled. Geno Severens appears with My Way, who include a few Boneyard covers; Motor Mag includes three former Botelho bandmates from One Ton Shotgun plus Jon Jones from Mother Jefferson]. That was the saddest. He used to call me "Auntie Gail." I remember him and Pete D'Andrea yelling things at Boneyard from the back like "Aren't you a little too old for this?" The funniest heckles I have ever heard in my life. Unfortunately they were directed at me. He was a fuckin' funny kid.

Q: L7 opening for KISS and Manson -- two fairly controversial tours. Especially Manson 'cause people were trying to shut it down.

A: KISS too, because what is Peter Criss and Ace Frehley? Are they organic? What's the story?

Q: Was the censorship scary?

A: We did about two months with [Manson] in the States, and we were given a whole guideline list of do's and don'ts around the band and Manson in particular. Don't engage Mr. Manson in idle sports talk. Don't look him in the eye . . . a little bit of a Danzig thing. All people had to leave the building during soundcheck. They turned out to be decent people. Half of that stuff is funny, too. They would ask for mealworm and cat litter on their rider, so, I think, they could stir up shit and hype. That's classic. What was scary was there were bomb threats every other night. They'd bring in bomb dogs and we'd hold up the show for two hours while dogs sniffed out bombs. The censorship issue was more . . . I mean, at one point, we even deduced that the bomb threats were being called in by rival promoters that didn't get the show. We didn't know how much was related to "freak churchers," though we saw signs saying "devil children go home." We were saying, "Well, we're devil children, too!"

The show in Wheeling was scary. CNN was there for that. If it is "freak churchers," or parents calling in bomb threats -- great Christians, blowing up their neighbors' children. What kind of Christianity is that? We were out with them at the height of it, so I don't know if the hype is still going on now. The music end of it I got into after a few shows, but lyrically, it's not anything Satanic or not even out of the ordinary. It's just a guy who has beliefs in free speech, and freedom from religion that is binding and tells you what to do. He says great things, but it gets so twisted in the press -- people thinking he's beheading chickens onstage and he's not at all. It's scary when they twist his words.

Q: Does anything scare L7?

A: Yeah, the freak churchers I would say, because the band is so involved in -- founded -- Rock for Choice. Blanket anti-abortionists are scary. We saw that element at Manson shows, not so much our own shows. But in general, in the world, it's scary to us that people are still bombing abortion clinics.

Q: Some say the Internet is an equalizer, as far as helping bands build up grass roots followings. Does it cut through the BS in the music press?

A: I was talking with Wally from Orbit about each others' bands, and we kept saying I heard "blank" this and that on the Internet. It's funny how true some of the rumors are. But, I mean, all of us are guilty of getting on there and lurkin'. If it's on the printed page, be it illuminated from behind on a computer screen or on a printed page, I have a tendency to believe it, and I'm in the so-called business. If some 12-year-old wrote it in his basement, I'll believe it. There's some scariness there, but we all used to love fanzines held together with dental floss and snot. It's a fancier version of a fanzine. And I've been guilty of going into a teen chat room and saying I'm a 58-year-old ex-Navy squid from the Korean War.

Q: An 18-year-old today versus an 18-year old seeing Boneyard 10 years ago. What's the difference ?

A: Back in the day. Boneyard were around for so long . . . well, six years, whatever. Supporting Manson we saw all spooky kids, which are basically a little bit dirtier Cure kids, but as sweet as could be. They appeared to be outsiders from their high school or junior high, and this is where they fit in with a whole group of kids. Non-threatening, non-violent. Then we opened for the Offspring, all baseball-hat wearing jocks yelling choruses of "show us your tits." This is our first headline tour since I've been in the band, and we see a lot of old-school guys, but we are surprised by the number of 14-year-olds at our shows, especially since we're a band that doesn't get a lot of radio play. How do they know about L7? Their older brother and sisters' records, or do they just go to any show? So I don't see a wide cross-section or a breakdown in values or anything like that. In Portland a guy brought his five-month-old baby -- little earplugs on the kid. They were the sweetest, albeit very young, but they seemed like great parents. I have hope for the future. As long as they keep buying L7 records they'll be fine.

Q: Was punk rock affected by Green Day selling millions and millions of records?

A: After a while, and any band will tell you this: playing to a vacuum, then it's not fun any more, then there isn't any feedback, not even any aggression. What's the reason for doing it? It's knocking your head against the wall . . . it's all about who can be more old-school than somebody else, and it's a little bit silly.

Q: A pissing contest?

A: Sometimes. I wonder what the next thing is. Prodigy just covered an L7 tune, "Feel My Fire," so we're like, "Go, boys." We did a bunch of festivals in Germany with them and Keith, the guy with the Flock of Seagulls haircut, blew us kisses every night.

Q: What difference between L7 and Belly?

A: Kids would heckle me yelling "L7!" every night. In England I got it a lot, but I'd never even met them until the Lunachicks gave Donita [Sparks] my name and she called from California out of the blue. Playing-wise, my style is the same, I'm still the hick and I still play like an idiot. Sound-wise, it's more bottom, heavy, more down-strokey, and in Belly it was a little more chordal. Personality is the hugest thing, and I will always go on record saying I love Tanya [Donelly] and have nothing but the hugest respect for her. I think she's a genius, even after living on top of her for four years. The easiest thing was feeling like a kindred soul with a sisterhood -- people who felt exactly the same way I did about touring, the business, making music and making records. No fucking bullshit ego, no competitiveness. Complete democracy. Very unusual. Bands like R.E.M. and L7 -- bands who have been around as long as they have -- that's obviously the key. Belly was destined to self-destruct. Of course, this a totally biased opinion, but it wasn't us against the world, it's our band against the industry, let's go out there and play the best music we can play. I like to say that the boys were so busy preparing my resumé for L7 that they were neglecting their rocking duties. I was sooo ready for a band like L7.

It's next to impossible to make a living as a professional musician. In a rock band, to do it for a living is so rare. L7 is liquid enough to keep itself afloat. It's a blue-collar, working person's rock group. There's a job to be done and L7 does it.

Q: Is it laziness that keeps media harping on the girl-group factor?

A: We keep getting asked about the Spice Girls, but there have been "girl groups" since music started. They're a pop band, we're a rock band. Apples and oranges. I'd say they're all gorgeous, and if I was of like mind I'd chow down on any one of 'em. It might be laziness, and the girls really get angered by it. I'm of the mind that for some reason it is a question that still asked, so in many minds it's still an issue for whatever reason. If it were in fact the novelty journalists make it out to be we'd be making a shitload of money cashing in on the novelty factor. But there are so many bands with women players -- I'd say today it's even 50-50 women players. In France we were asked that over and over. Go figure. The reason I'm in L7 is because it is the heaviest band playing music I've loved my whole life.

L7 headline the Met Cafe on Wednesday with Krist Novoselic's new band Sweet 75 and Bluebird.

BLACK &GOLD. Know what? Montreal is so bad Sluggo could play for them. Elsewhere, cellist supreme Gideon Freudmann hits the Green Room Coffeehouse (508-947-7833) Friday. You may remember his last effort Cellobotomy(Gadfly) as a provocative and especially informed take of bluegrass, blues, folk and jazz filtered through his exceptional cello work. No quibbles with his latest, Adobe Dog House (Gadfly), which has nothing to do with the profanities shouted when Illustrator's rancid PostScript files only print via Quark XPress. Freudmann is unique. CAV offers the fine double dose of Geri Verdi on Friday and Kim Trusty on Saturday. Dave Van Ronk is permanently unpredictable, so hearing a reality-soaked American legend at Stone Soup Saturday is difficult to pass up. Ronnie Earl's Verve labelmate Jimmy Johnson transplants the Call to the Windy City Friday with Vic Foley's Swang Thang opening. Foxtrot Zulu feature new CD tracks at the Ocean Mist Friday; re-discover Tony Blackett (ex-Maasai) and Dub Squad there on the 15th and 19th. Other SoCo news finds singer/bassist Tom Kutcher now fronting the Indestructibles, an "old-school" five-piece with horns. After toiling for years with the Jungle Dogs (see also "incorruptible"), it must've been a drag to see milquetoast ska bands make mad loot on such little talent as soon as the Dogs called it a day. So T.K. reaches back for the original kernel. Naturally.

When I tool on the music press (and myself, which is by necessity often), one guy always excluded from the doodoo list is Robert Palmer, longtime New York Times crit. At presstime the respected scribe lay in mortal peril in a Little Rock hospital, having been refused treatment in New Orleans, awaiting a liver transplant. No health insurance. Notes of support can be sent to him c/o his wife Jobeth Briton (Room 341B, U. of Arkansas for Medical Science, 4301 West Markham, Little Rock, AR 72205.) Thank you, Mr. Palmer.