Born On November 9, 1960 in Lansing, Illinois, Demetra “Dee” Plakas spent her childhood in the suburbs near Chicago. The day she joined Problem Dogs is the first day she picked up a pair of drum sticks. As the band practiced in bassist Algis Kizya's basement, Plakas bought a drum set and learned to play along.
Soon the band was gigging around town at places like the Space Place and O’Banion’s, and even opened for The Bangles at The Metro. In 1982 they released single “City Hall/ You Are The Knife,” right after Kizya left the band.
In 1987 Plakas joined the all-girl group L7, a foursome from L.A. consisting of Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner sharing guitar and vocal duties, and Jennifer Finch on bass. They released a number of albums, including the hit single “Pretend We’re Dead.” The band took its name from a 1950s slang phrase meaning "square," which can be heard in the classic Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs song "Wooly Bully" and in the Rick James song "Bustin' Out."
In 1991 L7 formed a pro-choice women’s rights group called Rock For Choice which earned the support of bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Rage Against The Machine. A year later, L7 released their third album Bricks Are Heavy and was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of "Essential Recordings Of The 1980s." It is still considered to be their classic album.
In the summer of 1994, a fourth album, Hungry For Stink, was released as they played the Lollapalooza tour, where they shared the stage with the likes of Green Day and Nick Cave. But after a disappointing fifth album, Slap-Happy, in 1999 the band started to crumble and by 2001, was for all intents and purposes defunct and Plakas went on to join Sparks on a solo project.
—Salman Haqqi
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