Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Donita Sparks of L7 on solo tour

Donita Sparks (www.myspace.com/donitasparks ), front person extraordinaire for the legendary rock band L7, hits the road backed by her new band The Stellar Moments for a five-week tour with The Donnas. The last time Sparks was on tour was in 2000 with L7. Today she finds herself in the midst of her first national solo tour ever that began September 19 at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and ends October 27 at The Roxy in her hometown of Los Angeles.
Donita Sparks is also set for another first, this time in 2008 when her debut solo release Transmiticate is scheduled for January 22, 2008. The record is filled with dance rock and dark pop gems that sees Donita moving solidly into interesting new territories. Long time fans will get their rock on as well with the twin guitar attack and the catchy, melodic, booty shaking sounds.

Confirmed live dates with The Donnas include:
9/27 Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE
9/28 Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
9/29 Double Door, Chicago, IL
9/30 Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
10/2 The Basement, Columbus, OH
10/3 The Mod Club, Toronto, ON CANADA
10/5 Tralf Music Hall, Buffalo, NY
10/6 The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
10/7 Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
10/8 World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
10/10 Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
10/12 Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
10/13 The Earl, Atlanta, GA
10/14 The Bottle Tree, Birmingham, AL
10/16 House of Blues, Dallas, TX
10/17 The Meridian, Houston, TX
10/18 The Parish, Austin, TX
10/20 The Brickhouse, Phoenix, AZ
10/27 The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA

This fall solo tour kicks off an extensive end-of-year schedule for Sparks and her band, that includes Lady Dee Plakas (also of L7) on drums, Dat T. Ngo on bass and Alan the Italian Santalesa along with Sid Brown on guitar. Shortly after arriving home from The Donnas tour, Sparks will be off to rock Brazil with her own headlining shows. It will be her first appearance in the country since 1994, where L7 experienced mucho successo.
Speaking of Brazil, Donita created a mash-up of Brazilian rock sensations CSS (vs. L7) in response to the band doing a lively cover of the Sparks penned classic “Pretend We’re Dead.” The mash-up “Pretend We’re Alala” is getting radio airplay and is on CSS’s MySpace page www.myspace.com/css . In fact, Donita joined CSS onstage at their recent sold out show in Los Angeles, treating the crowd to a duet version of “Pretend We’re Dead” with Lovefoxx.
Apparently “Pretend We’re Dead” is alive and well! Following the Brazilian tour, Sparks and The Stellar Moments are confirmed for more tour dates, including a show with Social Distortion at the House of Blues on December 23 in Los Angeles.
Then comes the release of her new album in January 2008 and a European Tour.

ABOUT DONITA SPARKS
Donita Sparks co-founded the highly influential, heavy, riff-oriented band L7 in 1985. L7 released six studio albums, one live CD, and one greatest hits on legendary U.S. labels Epitaph, Sub Pop, and Slash/Reprise, as well as their own label, Wax Tadpole.
Since their recording career began in 1987, L7 have spawned underground and mainstream hits, such as: “Shove”, “Pretend We’re Dead”, “Shitlist”, “Andres”, and “Drama”. When not rocking out live or writing songs for her first solo project, Donita writes for the popular, politically progressive blog Firedoglake.com with her weekly column “The Spin I’m In.”

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