7 Year Bitch - Biography
7 Year Bitch were an all-female punk band that roared out of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1990's. Although they only released three albums, they made an impact on the rock scene with their aggressive feminist message and legendary live shows.
The group formed in 1990 when drummer Valerie Agnew, guitarist Stefanie Sargent, and singer Selene Vigil dissolved their previous band, Barbie's Dream Car after the bassist moved to Europe. The three remaining members recruited bassist Elizabeth Davis and they started playing under the name 7 Year Bitch — a play on the title of the Marilyn Monroe movie, Seven Year Itch. Their first gig was opening for Northwest punk stalwarts The Gits. Mia Zapata, lead singer of The Gits, made a major impact on the 7 Year Bitch with her aggressive, take-no-prisoners performance style and spurred them on to make their own joyful, chaotic blend of punk and grunge. The group quickly established a reputation for raucous live shows, very much in keeping with male contemporary Northwest bands like Mudhoney and Tad.
7 Year Bitch released their debut single "Lorna / No Fucking War" (Rathouse) in 1991. Because of their rising popularity and the underground success of “Lorna,” the group was signed to local independent label C/Z Records later in 1991. Almost immediately after they signed with C/Z, their friends in Pearl Jam had to cancel a series of Northwest dates as openers for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so they recommended 7 Year Bitch take the slot. The tour exposed the band to a much wider audience very quickly. 7 Year Bitch released their debut album Sick 'Em in 1992, but the release of the album was delayed and overshadowed by the death of guitarist Stephanie Sargent from a heroin overdose. Once the album was released, the band dealt with the grief of losing one of their own but decided to carry on with the band. They recruited a new guitarist, Roisin Dunne, to fill the position. Sick 'Em boasted songs with titles like “Dead Men Don't Rape” and “You Smell Lonely,” and received generally positive reviews from fans and the underground media. Though the band was allied philosophically with the Riot Grrl movement, 7 Year Bitch was never really a part of that scene as most of the Riot Grrl bands were either from Olympia, Washington or Washington, DC, and played a brand of punk rock that was more college-oriented and cerebral than what 7 Year Bitch released.
The group spent the next couple of years touring relentlessly in both North America and Europe, and played with the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Cypress Hill, Love Battery, and Silverfish. While the group was away touring in 1993, their friend and inspiration Mia Zapata was brutally raped and murdered in Seattle. The event deeply affected the band and the tightly-knit Northwest underground music scene. Drummer Valerie Agnew helped to co-found the self-defense and anti-violence organization Home Alive, and 7 Year Bitch titled their next album !Viva Zapata! (1994 C/Z) in honor of their fallen friend. Though !Viva Zapata! still held all the anger and energy the band was known for, it had a cleaner, sharper attack. Due to the publicity surrounding the deaths of Sargent and Zapata, and because of the better quality of their songs on their latest album, the band became known among mainstream music fans.
After being courted by several major labels, 7 Year Bitch was signed to Atlantic Records in 1995 by famed A&R man Tim Sommer. Their third album, Gato Negro (Atlantic), was released in 1996 to a flood of publicity from Atlantic and an extensive year-long tour. Though the album garnered positive reviews, it failed to sell in the numbers that Atlantic had hoped to see. After the tour, guitarist Dunne decided to leave and was replaced by the band's live sound engineer and friend Lisa Faye Beatty. After the tour ended, the band discovered that they had been dropped from the Atlantic roster.
The members of 7 Year Bitch moved from Seattle to California in early 1997, with Davis and Agnew settling in the San Francisco Bay area, and Vigil moving to Los Angeles. Along with Beatty, the foursome began recording material for a fourth record, but the geographical separation of the band members and the rough times they had all endured took their toll. After embarking on a last tour with San Francisco band Lost Goat, the band decided to break up in late 1997. In a strange bit of irony, the group lasted exactly seven years. Elizabeth Davis went on to play with the band Clone and later was a founding member of Von Iva. Selene Vigil formed a new band called Cistine and wed her long-time boyfriend Brad Wilk, the drummer in the famed bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave, in 2005. Roisin Dunne moved to New York and joined the band The Last Goodbye in 2006.
