Faces to Watch: Music

L7
Once L7 — as in square — was strictly an L.A. rocker kind of thing, playing your usual slam-dance kind of venues. Now the group is five years old and about to release its third album, Bricks Are Heavy(Slash, due out in March). And fans can have fun decoding the band's ironic lyrics in songs like ''Wargasm'':''...body bags and dropping bombs/the Pentagon knows how to turn us on '' As non-square fans know, politics is never far from the music of these four female rockers in their mid-20s: Last fall, L7 started Rock for Choice, musicians who do benefits for organizations involved in issues of reproductive rights; this month they planned to play at the Hollywood Palladium for a pro-choice benefit marking the 19th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But if L7's metal-punk-surfer-hardcore sound doesn't appeal to you, that's fine by the band — as long as you get to hear it. Because, see, the band says it's on a mission. ''We have a spiritual obligation to expose people to our music,'' says bassist Jennifer Finch. Why? So audiences loyal to bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, explains Finch, might ''get clued in on knowing that women can be a strong force that can rock.''
— Melissa Rawlins

Tori Amos
Were it not for the failure of a 1988 album called Y Kant Tori Read — a misguided, hard-edged embarrassment that aimed at rock radio and missed — Tori Amos might not have put her heart and soul into the very different Little Earthquakes. This time, Amos seems a superb singer, songwriter, and pianist — and radio airplay has never mattered less. While her subjects aren't light — the harrowing ''Me & a Gun,'' for example, is an a cappella account of a rape — Amos weaves a spell that is deeply affecting and oddly reassuring at the same time. Born in North Carolina, Amos, 28, last year took refuge in Britain, where critics regularly compare her to Laura Nyro, Kate Bush, and even Patti Smith. Does she mind? ''You know when you feel like sometimes the fairy godmother has put her little dink on your hat, and you just feel like something magical is kind of happening at this moment, and you allow yourself to go with that?'' she asks. ''I think what people are just , comparing is that dink on your head. I think those other women were dinked, too.''
— Dave DiMartino

Pearl Jam
Seattle's Pearl Jam has given the world its first album, and it's a Ten. Yes, that's the title of the Epic release; yes, that's the highest you can turn a volume control you're Spinal Tap; and yes, say critics, that's also where it reaches on the quality scale. A powerful, eclectic quintet — guitarist Mike McCready, 26; drummer Dave Abbruzzese, 23; bassist Jeff Ament, 28; singer Eddie Vedder, 26; and guitarist Stone Gossard, 25 — Pearl Jam combines the brute aggression of modern heavy metal with a surprising postpunk intelligence. A tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers has given the band enviable exposure. So will its role as the fictional rock group Citizen Dick in Cameron Crowe's film Singles, a look at Seattle rock life that opens in April. And so may its special mix. Pearl Jam's lyrics explore the existential angst of youth, but musically the group delivers a continual sense of hope, which may be why its version of the Beatles' ''I've Got a Feeling' connects with audiences. Seattle's other successes are fine by them too. ''The fact that Nirvana had a No. 1 record and a No. 6 single is, like, sick,'' laughs Ament. ''And it's beautiful at the same time.'' Pearl Jam might not mind its own stuff described that way.
— Dave DiMartino

Eye & I
Early on, the New York funk & roll band Eye & I was told it couldn't get a record deal unless it played strictly R&B. Then came the success of the group's friends Living Colour, and all that changed. Says the band's bullhorn-voiced lead singer, D.K. Dyson, 34, ''It opened people's eyes that people of color could make this kind of music.'' In the case of Eye & I, that music is a mix of sleek urban funk, fusion, pop balladry, and psychedelic hard-rock (a crunching cover of Lou Reed's ''Venus in Furs'') heard on the band's eponymous Epic debut album, due in February. ''When we started, we decided to use all those different elements — dark and light, fun and serious,'' says Dyson, below center. ''And we still use them.'' Unconventionally mixing and matching such styles had its price: The band (Dyson with guitarist Gary Poulson; DJ Jason Kibler, known as J. Logic; guitarist André Lassalle; bassist Melvin Gibbs; and drummer Richie Harrison) endured years of record-company rejections. Yet they built a reputation as one of New York's most galvanizing live acts, thanks in part to Dyson's wild-eyed stage garb (exotic headgear one night, a nightgown and glasses the next). The band's eclecticism still ''makes it a little hard to market — the business dudes are going crazy!'' Dyson says with a laugh. But when it comes to Eye & I, a little craziness can go a long way.
— David Browne