{"id":359598,"date":"2026-07-31T04:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/ambient-music\/remembering-jennifer-finch-the-bassist-who-gave-l7-its-attitude-music-with-depth-pr\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T04:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:57:35","slug":"remembering-jennifer-finch-the-bassist-who-gave-l7-its-attitude-music-with-depth-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=359598","title":{"rendered":"“Remembering Jennifer Finch, the Bassist Who Gave L7 Its Attitude” \u2022 Music With Depth PR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Just minutes ago, I learned that Jennifer Finch, the bassist for grunge band L7, has died. This came just days after it was reported that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer<\/a>. The band released an official statement via Instagram. Clearly, this is sad news.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps a week before the reports of Finch\u2019s diagnosis, I found myself thinking about L7 and a phase in the \u201990s when I was really into them. Their music was especially helpful when I\u2019d sit at my kitchen table and create comics with extreme, gratuitous violence. The energy of their music helped me connect one frame after another, where it felt like I was generating a constant flow of creativity. At the time, it was \u201cBricks Are Heavy<\/a>\u201d (1992) and \u201cHungry for Stink<\/a>\u201d (1994), and then I moved on to other things.<\/p>\n

When I thought about them again recently, I realized I hadn\u2019t listened to anything since and caught up with \u201cScatter the Rats<\/a>\u201d (2019) \u2014 one release after Finch had already left the band, her last album being \u201cThe Beauty Process \u2013 Triple Platinum<\/a>\u201d (1997). Fortunately, their sound remained consistent, because what would L7 be without her? As it turns out, she returned for \u201cScatter the Rats,\u201d writing one of my favorite tracks, \u201cGarbage Truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

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All links in the previous paragraph to L7 albums go to Amazon hard copy purchases. This one is not included since it doesn\u2019t include Jennifer Finch but it\u2019s worth checking out nonetheless. Click on the image to get the album. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jennifer Finch\u2019s Attitude Was Key To L7\u2019s Sound<\/h2>\n
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Jennifer Finch performs live at L7 tour. Image from her Bluesky account<\/a><\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What stood out to me about L7, on top of the gritty production, was Finch\u2019s bass playing. What\u2019s been said about her playing is that it was more about attitude<\/a> overall. I felt that come through on those albums, where the bass stood out to me. I could feel their grunge coolness translate into the comics I was creating.<\/p>\n

Her involvement with other riot grrrl and grunge-rock icons includes her history with Courtney Love, having played alongside her in the pre-Hole outfit Pagan Babies, whose demos featured Love on vocals after the group relocated from Portland to San Francisco. Finch later appeared as the bassist in Hole\u2019s 1994 music video for \u201cDoll Parts,\u201d the band\u2019s first single released after bassist Kristen Pfaff\u2019s death that June.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Finch\u2019s The Ghost bass guitar to The Punk Rock Museum in Last Vegas.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that her bass guitar, nicknamed \u201cThe Ghost,\u201d has a history of its own. Finch has described it as a hybrid between a Fender Jazz and a Precision Bass \u2014 a black Fender that came into her possession in the mid-to-late 1980s. Considered less than top-shelf, its low-end quality made it ideal to experiment with as a kind of canvas, and with each early L7 show, she\u2019d add to or strip away its look. Around 1989, while working at an L.A. screen-printing shop, she and a friend applied a screen print of the Crimson Ghost \u2014 a figure from a 1946 film serial that the Misfits had adopted as their own emblem \u2014 onto the body, giving the bass its name.<\/p>\n

The Ghost logged serious mileage over the years. It appeared on L7\u2019s \u201cShove\u201d for Sub Pop\u2019s singles club and toured alongside Helmet, Nirvana, the Melvins and NOFX. It was retired from live performance in 1993, then returned for L7\u2019s 2016 reunion. During a tour with Nirvana, the band reportedly didn\u2019t travel with a backup bass, so Krist Novoselic would often play Finch\u2019s for fun.<\/p>\n

Finch eventually donated the bass to the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, where it isn\u2019t kept behind glass \u2014 visitors can pick it up, plug it in and play it in the museum\u2019s jam room.<\/p>\n

She was definitely open to engaging with the people, also very active on social media so she came across as an open book. Check out her official site<\/a> where she would blog, and promote interviews she would do podcasts with. Jennifer will surely be missed.<\/p>\n

[Featured image sourced from Andreas Lawen, Fotandi<\/a> via Wikimedia and licensed under the\u00a0Creative Commons<\/a>\u00a0Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported<\/a> license., cropped<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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