7 year bitch
| 7 year bitch | |
|---|---|
 7 Year Bitch at a concert in Seattle |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Punk rock , grunge |
| founding | 1990 |
| resolution | 1997 |
| Website | www.myspace.com/7yearbitchofficial |
| Founding members | |
| Selene Vigil | |
| Stefanie Sargent (1990– † 1992) | |
| Elizabeth Davis | |
| Valerie Agnew | |
| former members | |
guitar |
Roisin Dunne (1992-1996) |
guitar |
Lisa Faye Beatty (1997) |
7 Year Bitch was an American punk band from Seattle , Washington . The band represented feminist concerns with their music , but did not pursue any political intentions like the bands of the Riot Grrrl movement that was emerging in this region at the time . After a checkered history with two tragic deaths in the band and their environment, the band split up in 1997 - seven years after it was founded in 1990.
history
Inspired by the bands of the grunge and punk rock scene that flourished around Seattle in the early 1990s , singer Selene Vigil, guitarist Stefanie Sargent and drummer Valerie Agnew initially played in the band Barbie's Dream Car . After the bassist of the band had moved to Europe, dared Vigil, Sargent and Agnew along with bassist Elizabeth Davis a new start under the name 7 Year Bitch , of the title of the film The Seven Year Itch German (title: The cursed 7th year ) was ajar. They were encouraged and supported by their friends from the punk band The Gits , at whose concerts they were initially allowed to appear as the opening act.
In 1991 the band released their first single Lorna on the independent label C / Z Records . In the following year, the recordings for the debut album Sick 'Em began , which had to be interrupted by the sudden death of Stefanie Sargent. Sargent choked on her own vomit in her sleep on June 27, after consuming excessive alcohol and heroin . The release of the album was delayed until the beginning of October. After a long period of uncertainty, the remaining band members decided to continue and finally found a new guitarist in Roisin Dunne that same year.
On July 7, 1993, about a year after Sargent's death, Mia Zapata , the Gits singer, who had a long friendship with the band, was brutally raped and murdered at night on her way home from a Seattle bar. Badly shaken by this further stroke of fate, 7 Year Bitch released the album ¡Viva Zapata! After a long break in June 1994 . whose songs refer to both deaths. In response to the murder case and other violent crimes in Seattle, drummer Valerie Agnew founded the anti-violence organization Home Alive together with other artists and musicians from the city , which not only organizes self-defense courses but also training courses on civil conflict management . Previously, 7 Year Bitch played with Babes in Toyland and Jack Off Jill on April 8, 1994 at a benefit concert for Rock Against Domestic Violence at the Cameo Theater in Miami Beach .
After moving to the major label Atlantic Records in 1995, the band's third album, Gato Negro , was released the following year . During the subsequent tour, guitarist Roisin Dunne left the band and was replaced by Lisa Faye Beatty, the long-time sound engineer for live performances.
In early 1997, the band members moved from Seattle to California (Agnew and Davis to San Francisco and Vigil to Los Angeles ) and began recording a fourth album. After one last tour, however, they decided to break up the band due to the physical distance between the band members and Dunne's departure.
Relationship to the women's rights movement
The emergence of many politically active women's bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially with the riot grrrl movement , which advocated women's rights in the music industry , led to the fact that women's bands without political awareness of their mission, such as 7 Year Bitch, were mistakenly by the mass media were attributed to this movement. When asked about this common misunderstanding, drummer Valerie Agnew stated:
“We just weren't Riot Grrls. We had nothing to do with that movement, we never did, and when we went on our first big tour of Europe, every single promotor said, "Riot Grrls, from Seattle!" [...] We weren't doing it for political reasons the way the Riot Grrls were. We had a lot of respect for the Riot Grrls and people like Kathleen Hanna […] We were supportive of them and what they were doing, it wasn't that we thought that the Riot Grrls were bad. "
“We just weren't riot grrrls. We had nothing to do with this movement, never, and when we went on our first big tour in Europe every single organizer spoke of "Riot Grrrls from Seattle!" […] We did it [meaning: making music] not for political reasons like the Riot Grrrls did. We had a lot of respect for the riot grrrls and people like Kathleen Hanna […] We supported them and what they did; it wasn't that we thought the riot grrrls were bad. "
Even if there was no political motivation behind the musical activities of the band, the members took decidedly feminist positions. They rejected traditionalist or radical standpoints and invoked liberal feminist principles that became popular at the time with the third wave of the women's movement :
“We don't fit into stereotypes at all. I mean if you get into our van for our tour, we got 8 bottles of nail polish, like 10 fashion magazines, we are all very vain and like to dress up, we wear lingerie and all that shit, totally without apologizing for it all. Some feminists think you have to be on one side of the fence or the other. I kinda laugh at that cause there are so many different ways of being a strong feminist woman. I claim to be a feminist, definitely, I'll totally give props to that movement. "
“We don't fit into stereotypes at all. I mean when you get in the van for our tour; we have 8 bottles of nail polish and about 10 fashion magazines. We are all very vain and like to dress in fancy clothes. We wear lingerie and all that shit without apologizing for any of it. Some feminists suggest that you either have to go on one side or the other. I just kind of laugh about that because there are so many different ways to be a strong, feminist woman. I claim to be a feminist, definitely. I fully respect this movement. "
The "recapture" or rehabilitation of negative connotations such as " bitch " sought in the course of this movement is welcomed by the band and - with the band name - aggressively promoted, as Valerie Agnew notes:
“For me, bitch is something positive - if someone calls me bitch, I take it as a compliment. Bitch means having a strong character, being a woman who knows what she wants and doesn't put up with anything. We claim the word for ourselves and use it for positive images. It's a question of attitude. "
Discography
Albums
- 1992 - Sick 'Em
- 1994 - ¡Viva Zapata!
- 1996 - Gato Negro
Singles
- 1991 - Lorna
- 1992 - Antidisestablishmentarianism EP
- 1992 - 7 Year Bitch EP
- 1994 - Rock-a-Bye Baby
- 1996 - Miss Understood
Web links
- Official website
- 7 Year Bitch on MusicBrainz (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Bush: 7 Year Bitch - Biography. In: Allmusic. All Media Guide, accessed June 28, 2010 .
- ↑ a b Rachel Arieff: Int: Valerie Agnew, 7 Year Bitch. (No longer available online.) In: Popular 1. 2009, archived from the original on September 29, 2010 ; accessed on June 28, 2010 (English).
- ↑ 7 Year Bitch and Zine Reviews. (PDF) In: 10 Things Jesus Wants You to Know. Dan Halligan, 1993, accessed June 28, 2010 .
- ↑ Interview with Valerie Agnew (7 Year Bitch) . In: Anette Baldauf, Katharina Weingartner (ed.): Lips. Tits. Hits. Power? Pop culture and feminism . Folio, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85256-077-2 , p. 41 .
- ↑ Interview with Valerie Agnew (7 Year Bitch) . In: Anette Baldauf, Katharina Weingartner (ed.): Lips. Tits. Hits. Power? Pop culture and feminism . Folio, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85256-077-2 , p. 63 .