Donita Sparks (www.donitasparks.com), front person for the seminal rock band L7 announced today her first headlining tour with her band The Stellar Moments this Summer in support of her debut solo record Transmiticate, released on her own label, SparksFly and distributed through Redeye (www.redeyeusa.com). The tour begins June 6, 2008 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J. and is precipitated by two Southern California dates in late May.
Prior to the release of Transmiticate Sparks hit the road for the first time as a solo artist with The Donnas for a national tour in 2007. Sparks and her band headed to Brazil earlier this year for her first tour of the country since L7 toured with Nirvana, and the crowds went just as wild.
While this first leg of the Sparks’ tour will primarily focus on the East Coast and Midwest, a full West Coast tour in July is planned.
Confirmed dates include:
05/23 @ Alex’s Bar, Long Beach CA
05/24 @ The Casbah, San Diego, CA
06/06 @ Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ
06/07 @ Highline Ballroom, New York, NY (w/ Mudhoney, The Cynics)
06/08 @ T.T. The Bear’s, Cambridge, MA
06/10 @ Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH
06/11 @ Magic Stick, Detroit, MI
06/13 @ Double Door, Chicago, IL
06/15 @ 31st Street Pub, Pittsburgh, PA
06/16 @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
Transmiticate is filled with dance rock and dark pop gems and sees Sparks moving solidly into interesting new territories. This new direction was lauded critically in such diverse outlets as NPR’s "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" (“…about as vulnerable as The Shangril-La’s and Chrissie Hynde, which is to say, not at all.”), Outburn, Los Angeles Times, Elle, Alternative Press, MTV.com, All Music Guide, Mania TV’s “Dave Navarro’s Spread TV”, Venus and Harp. Fan reaction to this new direction has been immediate as well.
Sparks recently launched CASH Music (Coalition of Artists and Stake Holders), formed with venerable singer/songwriter Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses). CASH Music (www.cashmusic.org ) is a platform for artists to create a sustainable livelihood and more interaction/exchange with their fans who become stakeholders in the production of music. It is this connection that fans have jumped at – remixing songs online, supporting band tours and even participating in the profits on song licensing
(http://donitasparks.cashmusic.org/sparksync.php ).
As if all this isn’t enough for the first half of 2008, Sparks continues to write weekly for the influential political blog Firedoglake (http://firedoglake.com/) in her music/ pop art column “The Spin I’m In”. She also contributed to the score of the 2007 feature film The Life of Reilly (starring the late Charles Nelson Reilly) listed in the Village Voice as one of the best documentaries of 2007.
ABOUT DONITA SPARKS
Donita Sparks co-founded the heavy riff-oriented band L7 in 1985. L7 released six studio albums, one live CD, and one greatest hits record. Their 1992 release Bricks Are Heavy was included in Rolling Stone’s list of “Essential Albums of the 1990s”. With their recording career beginning in 1987 and continuing through the ‘90s, L7 spawned underground and mainstream hits such as: Shove, Pretend We’re Dead, Shitlist, Andres, and Fuel My Fire. Touring the world countless times, L7 also graced the main-stage of Lollapalooza in 1994 and appeared in the John Waters movie Serial Mom as the band Camel Lips. In 1991, Donita and L7 formed Rock For Choice with the Feminist Majority Foundation, which staged numerous concerts benefiting pro-choice organizations.
www.myspace.com/donitasparks
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