Jennifer Finch, who shattered eardrums and stereotypes as the raucous, barefoot bassist for L7, a scalding feminist band that, with its ferocious blend of punk and hard rock, rode the grunge wave of the 1990s, died on July 18 in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 59.<\/p>\n
Her death was announced<\/a> by L7 on social media. Several days before she died, her family released a statement<\/a> saying that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.<\/p>\n L7 was a product of the same Los Angeles punk scene that spawned celebrated bands like Black Flag and X. But it became indelibly linked to the so-called grunge movement after signing in 1989 with Sub Pop, the storied Seattle label that brought Nirvana and Soundgarden to prominence. (Ms. Finch briefly dated the Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.)<\/p>\n Blending the sledgehammer sound of Mot\u00f6rhead with the jackhammer energy of the Ramones, L7 released four albums during Ms. Finch\u2019s decade-long initial tenure with the band. Its 1992 breakout, \u201cBricks Are Heavy,\u201d which included anthems like \u201cPretend We\u2019re Dead\u201d<\/a> and \u201cWargasm,\u201d<\/a> was produced with Butch Vig, who oversaw Nirvana\u2019s blockbuster \u201cNevermind.\u201d \u201cPretend We\u2019re Dead\u201d became a Top 10 hit on the alternative charts.<\/p>\n Armed with her black Fender bass, known as the Ghost<\/a>, Ms. Finch was celebrated for her \u201cslob girl\u201d image, including hair colors that called to mind a raging wildfire and an avoidance of footwear during gigs.<\/p>\n A female band in an overwhelmingly male scene, L7 burnished its feminist bona fides by helping found the organization Rock for Choice, a nonprofit abortion rights organization, in 1991. They also put out songs like \u201cShirley,\u201d<\/a> written by Ms. Finch as a blast-furnace ode to Shirley Muldowney, who was known as \u201cthe first lady of drag racing\u201d: \u201cHow many times must you be told \/ There\u2019s nowhere we don\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n In a much-chronicled act of defiance at the 1992 Reading Festival in Britain, the band\u2019s lead singer, Donita Sparks, responded to an onslaught of objects hurled at the stage by removing her tampon and returning fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThey threw mud, I threw blood,\u201d Ms. Sparks later recalled. \u201cAnd there it goes down in herstory.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the band squirmed under the inevitable \u201cwoman-in-a-man\u2019s-world\u201d narratives, Ms. Finch said in a 1994 interview<\/a> with Daina Darzin of Rolling Stone. Ms. Darzin wrote that L7 emphasized that they were not \u201c\u2018foxcore,\u2019 Riot Grrrls, insert-label-of-your-choice-here girls.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo create genre out of gender is just horrible to me,\u201d Ms. Finch said. \u201cI think journalism perpetuates that. I hope the story angles for L7 will eventually be the same as for Nirvana or Cracker. There\u2019s a uniqueness in being a woman, but not that much.\u201d<\/p>\n Erin Michelle Fredin was born on Aug. 5, 1966, in a Salvation Army home for unwed mothers in Los Angeles, and was adopted by Robert Finch, an aeronautics engineer, and Sandra (Jacobson) Finch, an Air Force veteran.<\/p>\n During her teens, she took to photography and began chronicling bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bad Religion. In 1984, she graduated from high school and headed north to study computer science at San Francisco State University.<\/p>\n Despite having minimal musical skills, she soon quit college to play guitar with Sugar Babydoll, a short-lived trio featuring Courtney Love, the future Hole star, and Kat Bjelland, who would go on to front Babes in Toyland.<\/p>\n When Sugar Babydoll fizzled, Ms. Finch returned to Los Angeles and became a fan of the fledgling L7, formed by guitarists and singers Suzi Gardner and Ms. Sparks.<\/p>\n The group, named for an old slang term for \u201csquare,\u201d was searching at the time for a new bassist and drummer. Hiring was no easy feat.<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally, dudes who wanted to play hard rock had no desire to play with women,\u201d Ms. Sparks recalled in the 2016 documentary \u201cL7: Pretend We\u2019re Dead.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Instead, she said, \u201cthere was this persistent chick who had come to see our shows,\u201d adding that Ms. Finch \u201calmost challenged me to let her in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Finch was challenging herself, as well. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know very much about bass,\u201d she said in the documentary, adding, \u201cI had to borrow a bass and learn what an amplifier was really quick.\u201d<\/p>\n The band released its debut album on the independent label Epitaph. After moving to Sub Pop, and now with the drummer Demetra (known as Dee) Plakas, the group issued an E.P., \u201cSmell the Magic\u201d (1990), that was later expanded into a full album, before signing with Slash Records and receiving wider acclaim with \u201cBricks Are Heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n Riding the momentum, the band performed on the main stage at Lollapalooza in 1994. The same year, it had a cameo<\/a> as the fictional punk band Camel Lips in the John Waters cult film \u201cSerial Mom,\u201d<\/a> starring Kathleen Turner.<\/p>\n Ms. Finch became sober in 1990, and left the band six years later for a variety of reasons, including grief over her father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n