L7 have released "Loma Linda," a track originally recorded in 2003 with bassist Janis Tanaka, who played with the band from 1999 to 2001. The band reworked the decades-old demo with updated music and lyrics finished this week, according to a statement, and is offering it as a free download through its website for one week before the song arrives on streaming platforms.
The release is described as a gesture of gratitude to Jennifer Finch, to Tanaka, and to fans for their support following Finch's death. Finch, the band's bassist, died on July 18 after a battle with brain cancer. She was 59.
"This new single marks the return of Janis Tanaka being back in L7 on bass after the sadness of losing Jennifer Finch a couple of months ago," singer-guitarist Donita Sparks said in a statement. "I was searching the band's archives and came across this unfinished track from when Janis was in the band. It still sounded rather fresh and very L7 so we recorded new vocals with new lyrics and some other additional tracks and cranked it out in a couple of days ahead of this upcoming tour. Gotta warn ya, we dig it and hope you do too."
The song arrives just before L7 launches The Last Hurrah Tour, billed as the band's final world tour, which begins tomorrow in San Diego at Casbah.
In an interview with Rolling Stone conducted after Finch's death and as the band prepared for the tour, Sparks revealed that Finch's doctors had held out hope she might be able to perform during the group's fall dates. "It's a really weird feeling of grieving but also having to keep the ball moving forward," Sparks said. "I wrote this down: 'I just have to do a little bit each day, and if I can do a little bit each day, I can get through this and all of us can get through this.' It's just really a little bit at a time."
Sparks added that the tour's tone has shifted in the wake of Finch's death. "The tour is supposed to be joyous saying goodbye," she said. "We can celebrate Jennifer. Now there's going to be a lot more emotion with it for sure. We're tying up our career with a ribbon. That's what Jennifer wanted us to do, so we're doing it."
Photo: User:Goroth (Jan Brauer), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
