Even in retrospect, it's hard to tell whether "Pretend We're Dead," L7's signature tune from 1992's Brichs Are Heavy, was a blast from the past or a grenade set to detonate in some hazy future. Polished but powerful, the song had as much to do with leaden mid-'80s gal rockers like Joan Jett as it did with punk's exhilarating assault on the mainstream.

But let's not forget that when Bad Religion's...

This monstrously hard-rocking Los Angeles quartet can attract hordes of hair-flinging, stage-diving devotees at home and humiliate headliners on tour. What L7 has been unable to do, however, is translate its big grungy mess of a sound into product; both its 1987 outing on Epitaph and a 1990 EP for Sub Pop, Smell the Magic, failed. Enter Slash Records and producer du jour Butch Vig, whom many...

Talking tough and truly, women rocking the hard side continue to rise in number and authority. Veteran no-bullshitter Chrissie Hynde leads her Pretenders to a new plateau. True to Hynde's straight-rock muse, Independents is standard black-leather issue; its distinction lies not only in its honesty (a Hynde hallmark) but in how its tailor stretches the form to include both muscle flexing ("Rebel...