Hole (band)
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Hole was an indie rock band formed in 1989 and (officially) disbanded in 2002, fronted by Courtney Love and co-founded by Eric Erlandson. Featuring Patty Schemel on drums and Melissa Auf der Maur on bass from 1995 until the band's disbandment in 2002 (Live Through This-era bass player Kristen Pfaff died of a drug overdose in 1994 shortly after the album's release). Also heavily linked was Love's husband, Kurt Cobain (Live Through This), and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan (Celebrity Skin).
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Early years / Live Through This era
After a number of releases on independent record labels, including their first full-length album Pretty on the Inside, which received praise from underground critics, Hole was signed to DGC (David Geffen Company) to release 8 albums. Hole entered the studio to record their major label debut in 1993, around the time that Nirvana released it's third and final album In Utero. Many songs were recorded including the hits "Doll Parts", "Violet" and "Miss World". B-Sides that were later released on My Body The Hand Grenade included "20 Years in the Dakota" about Yoko Ono, and the infamous "Old Age", which was subject to controversy over the true writer of the song (revealed to be Cobain after many conflicting stories from Love), that turned out to be a recycled song from the Nevermind sessions in 1990/1991. Love rewrote most of the lyrics and made the song her own. A rare recording from Live Through This surfaced in 2001 with Kurt Cobain providing backing vocals on Asking for it. After close listening, it was confirmed that Cobain was on the original track with very turned down vocals. Many thought a Love/Cobain duet did not exist, and this was deemed a major discovery in the Nirvana community. Live Through This (1994) was released very shortly after the suicide of Love's husband Kurt Cobain. Due to Cobain's suicide, one of Live Through Thiss tracks had to be renamed and one was entirely deleted. "Rock Star" originally was a song making fun of rock stars and contained the lyrics "So much fun to be Nirvana, how would you like to be Nirvana? I'd rather die" and in the wake of his suicide, these lyrics would have been highly insensitive. After the decision to remove "Rock Star" was made, the album artwork and various other inserts had already been printed. To fix this, "Olympia", a hidden track after "Rock Star", was renamed "Rock Star" and filled the gap.
The New Orleans sessions
No demos have surfaced that were recorded for an abandoned third Hole album. Interviews by Eric Erlandson confirm the legitimacy of this session. The only song to make it out of these sessions was an extremely early version of "Awful". Courtney was supposedly unhappy with the quality of the songs recorded here and believed they had an extremely similar sound to Live Through This. Billy Corgan was not involved in this project.
Celebrity Skin era
Hole's third album had a completely new sound for the band. Featuring a more "Pop" sound, the album was a critical success with somewhat strong sales and successful singles. Many of the lyrics in the album are an outcry from Courtney about her grief at the death of her husband. "Northern Star", "Playing your Song", and "Malibu" are said to be the songs about Cobain. "Northern Star" in praticular is about Kurt's ghost with a story that during a concert some fan held up a Kurt Cobain T-Shirt and Courtney began to cry while performing to back up connections. "Malibu" is about Cobain's final rehab session being in Malibu and how he ran away to Seattle only to be dead in days. With lyrics such as, "Hey Hey they're all watching you" and "I knew the darker secret of your heart" it is easy to see the connections. Playing your Song is in refrence to Courtney's reading of Cobain's suicide note days after his death. Eric Erlandson has later revealed through posts on the fan site Kittyradio.com's message boards that he was very uncomfortable and displeased with Corgan's involvement on the record. All guitar rifts were written by Eric and all lyrics were handled by Courtney and Corgan. Working titles included "Reasons to be Beautiful" (Courtney's Pick) and "Malibu" (Eric's Pick). The first single was "Celebrity Skin", which was about Courtney's feelings about the pressures of being a public figure. Three videos and singles were released for Celebrity Skin, The title track - "Celebrity Skin", "Malibu", and "Awful" which had a live clip montage as a video. Band members have changed frequently over the years; the line-up of Hole's last album Celebrity Skin (1998) was Love (lead vocals), Melissa Auf der Maur (bass), Eric Erlandson (guitars), and Patty Schemel (drums).
End comments
Although Love's flamboyant personality and controversial statements have often overshadowed the reception of Hole's music, it should be stressed that Hole's records all sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, and that their music releases (as well as the musicianship of the band members) have been critically praised. Currently planned is a Hole Box Set, to be assembled by Eric Erlandson and follow much of the same format as the Nirvana box set.
Discography
- Pretty on the Inside (1991)
- Live Through This (1994)
- Ask For It (1995)
- My Body The Hand Grenade (1997)
- Celebrity Skin (1998)
References
- Erlewine, Stephen Thomas & Prato, Greg. "Hole (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:r60e4j670wav)". All Music Guide. Retrieved June 13, 2005.
Single
1995-Violet
External links
- Drown Soda (http://drownsoda.free.fr/) (Unofficial fan site)
- [http://www.moonwashedrose.com/ Moonwashed Rose (Unoffical fan site)
- [http://www.sassyandpunk.com/ Sassy and Punk (Unoffical fan site)
- [http://www.kittyradio.com/ KittyRadio (Remenants of old Hole.com)