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donita sparks

  • alon portraitItalian-born and Californian-based Alon Delon is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter who played guitar in Donita Sparks and the Stellar Moments, Sparks’ post-L7 project, and appears on the 2008 album “Transmiticate”. 

    He later formed the Los Angeles dark-rock band Shiteland Ponies with bassist Dat Ngo, combing shoegaze and dark pop with glam and heavier rock influences.

    Delon played in the Hollywood hard-rock band Shire. A notable piece of his history is that a young Izzy Stradlin briefly played bass in Shire alongside him. Henow plays in Hector Penalosa Gang.

    Whether or not I get to rock with this brother, I think he is an amazingly bad ass underground rock ‘n’ roll motherfucker, whose work is pretty much impeccable…my kinda songs, my kinda bands, my kinda style.

    Don’t believe me? Here’s what some other people say about him:

    "I love the Shiteland Ponies, and think Mr. Delon is a marvellous human. I'm very proud to call him my friend. I always enjoy watching their live shows, and look forward to their next record..." -John Easdale, Dramarama.

  • l7 robert faganRobert Fagan photo.

    By tragic coincidence, a few hours before my interview with L7 guitarist and singer Donita Sparks, news broke of the passing of Irish musician and songwriter, Sinead O’Connor

    At first glance, the association between L7 and O’Connor is opaque: L7 was a hard-rocking, all female rock’n’roll band who emerged from Los Angeles; O’Connor was a talented singer and songwriter from Ireland, whose angelic voice belied her outspoken views on religious dogma and practice. 

    But on a cold evening in October 2009 at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, O’Connor had taken to the stage as part of the Melbourne Music Festival’s “Seven Songs to Leave Behind” to belt out a mesmerising version of L7’s “Shitlist” – a track which O’Connor had chosen, per the structure of the evening for the various guest performers featured, as the song she’d wished she’d written.