Jennifer Finch, bassist, singer and songwriter for the veteran indie-rock band L7, died Saturday after a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer. She was 59.
A popular and well-known presence on the indie-rock scene of the 1990s, earlier in her career Finch played with Courtney Love in a band called Sugar Baby Doll and was an avid photographer and writer.
In just one testament to the esteem in which she was held, a GoFundMe announced last week to help with her treatment quickly passed its $350,000 goal and received contributions from members of Green Day, Pearl Jam, Tool and many others.
“We are shattered by the loss of our beloved bandmate, sister and friend Jennifer Finch, whose fierce spirit, humor and boundless creativity helped shape L7 and changed all of our lives forever. Jennifer was a true original who lived entirely on her own terms, and the impact she made on music, art and everyone lucky enough to know her cannot be measured. We love her beyond words and will carry her with us always. Rest in power our dear friend.
A Los Angeles native, Finch was born in 1966 and pursued photography and art as a teenager. She began taking photos of her friends on the L.A. punk scene of the early ‘80s, including members of Redd Kross, Bad Religion, the Cramps and others, which were displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame decades later.
She took up the bass, relocated to San Francisco and joined Love in Sugar Baby Doll, which also featured future Babes in Toyland cofounder Kat Bjelland. She returned to L.A. and had a brief stint in the all-female band the Pandoras before joining L7 in 1986.
The group’s debut album, produced by Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz and released on Epitaph, featured the band performing live in a blurry, proto-grunge photo and opened with a song called “Bite the Wax Tadpole,” a fitting statement on their sound and attitude. The group toured heavily with multiple bands of the alt-rock era, uniting with Sub Pop Records and veteran Seattle producer Jack Endino for their second album, 1990’s “Smell the Magic.”
Yet it was the group’s third outing, “Bricks Are Heavy,” that made the most impact. Recorded late in 1991 with Nirvana/ Smashing Pumpkins producer Butch Vig, the album featured the group’s biggest hit, “Pretend We’re Dead,” and gave their gnarly sound a sharp power-pop crunch. It was released on Slash Records, which was riding high from the success of Faith No More and had a distribution pact with the powerful Warner Bros. Records. The band followed with “Hungry for Stink” in 1994 but Finch left the group two years later.
Over the following years she joined the band OtherStarPeople, which released an album on Interscope in 1999, and later the punk band the Shocker. In 2014 Finch joined a reformed L7, releasing an album called “Scatter the Rats” via Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records in 2019, and continued to perform with them until this year. She announced her cancer diagnosis early in July and died just days later.
While she leaves behind a solid discography, Finch’s influence was perhaps most pervasive on young musicians, particularly women. Molly Neuman, drummer for Riot Grrl act Bratmobile and currently president of the indie-centric publishing administrator Songtrust, wrote on social media: “I am so sorry you’re gone. An inspiration in everything I’ve ever done. I am grateful for the time I had with you and will do my best to honor your legacy every day.”