Customer Reviews

Bricks Are Heavy

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Courtney Love has nothing on the women of L7 and never had. L7 was the wake up call I needed back in the early '90s when music was still stuck with that godawful glam metal scene. Nirvana never really did anything for me except for killing the careers of Warrant, Poison, and their ilk (thank heavens for that!). Bands like Nirvana and L7 were the antithesis of the overindulgent hair metal scene which had at the time worn out its welcome. I discovered L7 in an issue of Rolling Stone magazine (which ironically had Nirvana on the cover). I don't remember what the two paragraph long article said about L7 but I knew that my curiousity was piqued. I was looking for new music. Music that wasn't wimpy like Warrant and Poison. A few days later, I bought a cassette copy of "Bricks Are Heavy". I was completely blown away by what I heard. The music was equally as loud, abrasive, and intense as Nirvana's but with four talented women. Everything I thought I knew about music went out the door. I immediately embraced L7's music. Little did I knew then that then unknown producer Butch Vig would go on to becoming a member of one of my all time favorite bands Garbage. "Bricks Are Heavy" is a testament to Butch's talents as a record producer. He kept the music raw and unpolished. As heavy and raw as the music is, the songs are incredibly catchy but without being overpolished. I wore out my cassette copy of "Bricks Are Heavy" within a matter of weeks. I played that sucka to death. As I am listening to the album again for the first time in a few years, I am quickly reminded what made me fall in love with the band's music. All the songs are great. I loved every single song. When I saw the band perform live at Lollapalooza '93 (or was it '92?), I immediately got into the mosh pit and went wild to songs like "Everglade" and "Pretend We're Dead". I wish there were more bands like L7 today and less of bands and artists like Limp Bizkit, Creed, and Avril Lavigne.

The year was 1992, and I had never heard of L7. I was up watching 'Headbanger's Ball' (For those of you who don't know, MTV used to play rock videos, and at midnight on Saturday, heavy metal and hard rock videos were played). I was excited because Dio had just gotton back with Black Sabbath, and they were going to premeir their new video from 'Dehumanizer'. Anyway before they came on Ricky Rachman was talking to two girls in the studio, their names were Jennifer Finch, and Suzi Gardner. They were talking about their new album 'Bricks are Heavy', then they showed the video 'Pretend we're Dead'. From that moment I was hooked.

Eight years later I have all their albums, autographs, and T-shirts. I've seen them in concert four times and can't get enough of them. L7 will blow away most bands that are playing this modern, watered down version of hard rock-n-roll. 'Bricks' is an excellent album, and is highly recommeded for anyone curious about L7 without knowing any of their material. All their albums are great, but I don't have a favorite, they all stand up honorably on their own.

Also catch L7 performing as 'The Camel Lips' on the movie 'Serial Mom'.

Recently I heard Pretend We're Dead, I was struck by how 'up to date' a 13 year old song was. Rather than sounding dated songs like Pretend We're Dead and Wargasm sound like they came from today's headlines.

L7 has always been a fav of mine. I consider this album to be one of the best of the 90's in it's category. And what category would it be considered? Not knowing is what makes it great. The album is perfect, from start to finish. Don't know if they're still around or not but would be one of the only bands that i would go to see these days of mediocrity. Hope that they are remembered for the music and not only for the infamous 'tampon incident'.

I don't know if I'd call "Bricks Are Heavy" their best album, but it's definitely their most popular. Propelled by the song "Pretend We're Dead", and released when "The Donnas" were still in grade school, this is the album that exposed most people to "L7". It's punk, grunge, metal, and pop all at the same time. I wish alot of guys played this well, and with so much heart. Other awesome songs on here are "One More Thing" and "Diet Pill", which includes my favorite lyrics "Calgon can't take me away". Though all their other albums equally rock, I haven't heard much from them recently. It might be time for a "Best Of". Hopefully they tour again soon, I wanna catch a tampon.

Kicking off with the driving riff in "Wargasm", L7 know how to rock. I remember hearing about L7 here and there when i was growing up, but never thought anything more about them. Then i heard that their song "Sh*tlist" was used in Natural Born Killers a few years ago, so i watched it again and thought it sounded really cool..it really fits the movie perfectly. Then, like another reviewer, i heard their song "Pretend We're Dead" (Probably the most 'poppy' song on this album) on the game GTA: San Andreas and thought..enough is enough, i gotta buy an album of theirs and so this is it. And i really can't pick a bad song on this, they're all great. They really do mix rock/grunge/metal/pop in and out of each song.

If you're a fan of any of those genre's, i'm sure you'll love this CD too. Donita Sparks' vocals are great as well, and the riffs just make you want to air-guitar all over the place. My favorite songs are probably "Wargasm", "Pretend We're Dead", the pretty heavy "Diet Pill", "Everglade" and also "Sh*tlist". Very awesome CD, and i really don't think anyone can be disappointed in it.

5/5

It is hard to believe that BRICKS ARE HEAVY by the band L7 is fifteen years old. The cd was released in 1992. I was a junior in high school and when I first heard the album, the music was a breathe of fresh air to me. While my peers in high school were listening to hip hop and r&b (which I found to be absolute rubbish and still do to this very day), I had embraced the alternative culture that Nirvana had pushed to the forefront of mainstream music. L7 was my Nirvana especially BRICKS ARE HEAVY.

BRICKS ARE HEAVY is 37 minutes of pure ecstasy for me. The music is both grunge and punk. As aggressive as the music is, every song is riddled with great pop hooks. Songs like "Everyglade" and "Mr.Integrity" are great examples of the band's talent of mixing aggressive music with infectious pop hooks without sounding like the Go Go's (not that there is anything wrong with the Go Go's). My personal anthem for me was "Pretend We're Dead". That song embodied the angst and nihilism of my high school years.

As an adult in her early 30s, BRICKS ARE HEAVY remains as relevant to me as it did fifteen years ago. I still revere this modern rock classic as highly as I did as a teenager. Although I enjoyed the band's follow up albums, none of them really captured the essence of fun and energy of BRICKS ARE HEAVY.

This is by far the best of the female grunge/punk bands. I love songs like "Pretend We're Dead", "Sh** List", "Wargasm", and "Mr. Integrity". I saw them open up for Marilyn Manson during the Antichrist Superstar tour and they were awesome! IMO, this is the best L7 album.

I always get annoyed when L7 is called a girl-band. You won't hear people call all-male bands boy-bands, so it's logical to stop the girl-band category nonsense (except in the case of riot grrrl/post-riot grrrl bands who wanted/want it that way, for a reason). L7 were simply a band. A rock band. And a damn good one, also. And this album proves how amazing they were. Favorites are Wargasm, Pretend We're Dead, Everglade. And while both equal-quality and inferior male rockers got worldwide fame and acclaim, L7 unfortunately remained under most people's radars, except for a short time after this album came out...All I can say is, those people have no idea what they're missing out on...

L7 plays hard and heavy to be sure, but they didn't write very memorable songs. I enjoy the roaring guitars and hammering drums, but it's all in the service of some pretty pedestrian music. The hit "Pretend We're Dead" and "Everclear" are the best of the bunch.