I'm surprised no one started a Hole thread. They have a new album coming out this year, Nobody's Daughter. I'm actually looking forward to hearing this album. I didn't care for America's Sweetheart, but really enjoyed all three Hole albums. Not sure if this is more like a Courtney solo album or a Hole album, but I'll give it a listen. Here's what she has to say about using the name "Hole" and being the sole remaining member:

[www.cdinsight.com]

Courtney Love's newest album, Nobody's Daughter, will be released under the name Hole, a decision she confirmed and defended in an interview with NME.

The new album was recorded with Micko Larkin, of Larrikin Love, but doesn't feature contributions from any former Hole members.

"It is Hole, yes of course," said Love. "How do I do this? It is just because it is, and it is because we just negotiated our thing and it'll be fine. Everyone has good lawyers."

Last year founding Hole member Eric Erlandson said the band would not be able to exist without his involvement. The last album to use the name was 1998's "Celebrity Skin."

Love also hinted that she and Erlandson may have come to a financial agreement with regards to use of the name. "I'm a big sharer. Inside the business I am not known for being a stinge, for sure. I'm not stingy in any way, I give a lot of publishing to everyone," said Love.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2010 03:13PM by RhettButler.

excellent article I happened to pass by
link

AnnaDraconida posted:

I tried to get into Hole... I gave up. C-Love's voice sucks, plain & simple, plus she's a disgusting person.

It's sort of an..."acquired" taste.


Really takes me back to my early teen years. Say what you want about her, but this is a classic album.

I can not stand Hole. Not to mention it's primary musician murdering Kurt Cobain.
lolololololol. Anyways, go on with your Hole chatter. I'll lurk.

Courtney's voice is not for everybody, I had a hard time getting used to it. Also, she is someone I respect and despise at the same time which can be confusing sometimes. But Hole has become one of my favourite bands in the last years and I am looking forward to listening to "Nobody's daughter".

I'm usually not so fond of glossy poppy tunes but "Celebrity skin" is a timeless pop album, it's filled with so many emotions.

Though Courtney is one of the most annoying tweeter of all time.

Softer, Softest is my absolute favorite. fo sho.

SPIN gave Nobody's Daughter 3.5 stars (of 5)
[www.spin.com]

With Courtney Love the only original member involved, Hole's return is nominal, but Love's resurrection is very real. From the slick, spiraling guitars of the title track and "Pacific Coast Highway," it’s obvious that her collaborators -- Billy Corgan, producer Michael Beinhorn -- come from the frisky Celebrity Skin era, but references to "sour milk" and women who "wrap [their] legs around the world" capture some of Live Through This' seething imagery. It's only when Love throws a pity party on a series of slow jams that sincerity eludes her. She made her bed. Now she's gotta lie in it.

Funny, I thought "Skinny Little Bitch" sounded more reminiscent of Pretty On the Inside era Hole than anything from Celebrity Skin.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2010 01:43PM by RhettButler.

By Adam Rathe

At the end of Hole’s new record—Nobody’s Daughter, out this week—there’s a song called “Never Go Hungry Again.” It’s been bouncing around for a few years; a Billy Braggstyle number that sounds great live but loses something in recording. On this version of the record—the real version, unlike the leaks and demos that have surfaced again and again—when Courtney Love stops singing and starts in with her howl, she does so on the phrase “And the phoenix, she rises.” So forgive me for making the mistake of confusing a singer with the subject of her song, but at the end of this record it’s obvious that rising is just what this new permutation of Hole is doing.

Nobody’s Daughter isn’t Live Through This. This album is mellower and more mature—it’s on half a Valium instead of a nose-full of God knows what—and is produced (nine songs by Michael Beinhorn, two by Linda Perry) with a sheen not unlike 1998’s Celebrity Skin; the song “Pacific Coast Highway” even apes the music from that album’s “Boys On The Radio.”

The album’s first single, “Skinny Little Bitch,” is heavier than it should be—it sounds like a slick L7 song—but has grown on me. Once a listener gets beyond the oddity of the often-emaciated and famously unpleasant Love railing against the titular character (supposedly herself during one of her druggier periods) and overcomes the nu-metal arrangement, the song is catchy enough but not indicative of what the band is capable of. Much better is “Samantha,” which snarls and spits without betraying Love’s lyric-writing talent and culminates in an explicative-laden sing-a-long that begs to be blasted over the protests of stupid parents.

The middle of the album sags just a bit under ornate, measured songs like “Someone Else’s Bed” and “Letter To God,” but gets, um, a shot in the arm from “Loser Dust” which lays off the acoustic guitar for a bit and actually rocks; think

“She Walks On Me” for a 21st-century Courtney.

Before we come to “Never Go Hungry Again,” we get “How Dirty Girls Get Clean,” one of four songs co-written with Perry (and one of two with Billy Corgan), and one long rumored to be the album’s title track. Now in the final stretch of the record, the band doesn’t bother to put its teeth away and tears through the song, which sounds like Hole from an earlier era, with crashing guitars and a looser, throatier voice guiding it.
There’s something unpleasant about seeing and, even more so, hearing rock idols grow old. With this record, though, Courtney Love and Hole prove that sometimes there’s a choice other than burning out or fading away.
[www.nypress.com]

Heard ''Skinny Little Bitch'' on the radio.It was one of the worse songs I've ever listened to in my life.Maybe I'll give it another listen to see if anything changes...

i was very disappointed with the album.
i wouldn't have been if i hadn't heard the demos over a year ago.

the demo versions..although not as well produced..are just much better written.
she changed her singing...less feeling
the song structures...ugh

listen to the demo versions of nobody's daughter and pacific coast highway
i actually want to know if anyone prefers the newer versions to these songs.
seems like someone would've told her she was moving in the wrong direction with these.

Acharis posted:

Not sure how I feel about the new album. It's not as bad as I thought it would be (it's not even THAT bad really) but it kind of makes me wonder why this had to be a 'Hole' album, when it sounds more like more the followup to her last solo album.

Probably because her solo album sold about 15 copies. ND, using the "Hole" name may sell in the 300,000 range.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2010 02:13PM by RhettButler.

RhettButler posted:

Acharis posted:

Not sure how I feel about the new album. It's not as bad as I thought it would be (it's not even THAT bad really) but it kind of makes me wonder why this had to be a 'Hole' album, when it sounds more like more the followup to her last solo album.

Probably because her solo album sold about 15 copies. ND, using the "Hole" name may sell in the 300,000 range.

Well, yeah. I figured the marketing element was kind of a given there...(Remember "Billy Corgan" before the "smashing pumpkins" reformed?)
was just wondering if there was any other element?

I picked up the new album and quite like it. Arguably it's not really a Hole album, more of a Courtney Love solo album, but I feel it's pretty strong. When I heard the first single "Skinny Little Bitch" I thought this was going to be a return to classic early 90s Hole, but the single isn't really representative of the album overall. It's full of these melancholy ballads--and the album seems to be really honest and reflective, with CL sounding more resigned than angry. I'll have to give it a few more spins but I'd say it is pretty solid and a welcome addition to the Hole catalog, not the disaster some people were expecting.

Saw Hole last night (6/23/10) in Boston at the House of Blues. Fucking awesome. I would put it in one of the top five shows I have ever attended. She sounded great--said she sounded stronger the night before and will sound like shit tomorrow, so she said at this show she will sound the best. The band played a great setlist--a good mix of songs from Live Through This, Celebrity Skin and Nobody's Daughter. At times she would ask her band if they knew this or that song, so it looks like they diverged from their setlist that they had in mind. She was very charismatic, chatting with the audience, or at times chastising people who were being obnoxious. She played a medley of "Closer" and a Judy Garland cover--which was cool. A woman in the audience yelled "lets go!" and Courtney called her a bitch, afterwords which was kind of funny.

It may not be the original band, but it is clearly the Courtney show, so it didn't really matter. She sounds as good now as she ever did. The show had an element of nostalgia, but the new songs sounded great, as tunes like "Pacific Coast Highway" blended in perfectly with older classics like "Awful" and "Doll Parts." The show was pretty long--over two hours I think. I had to leave a little early as I was concerned I would miss the train (in Boston the trains shut down around 1:00-ish, before the bars close, go figure).

Definitely check out the tour if you get a chance.

^
Hmm, that is odd! As I already wrote, the Hole show in Boston last week was phenomenal--one of the best shows I have ever attended.

LobotomyBaby posted:

i was very disappointed with the album.
i wouldn't have been if i hadn't heard the demos over a year ago.

the demo versions..although not as well produced..are just much better written.
she changed her singing...less feeling
the song structures...ugh

I'd like to hear those.

This is from the Boston Phoenix. If you go to the link there is a video of her playing "Closer.'

[thephoenix.com]

Three hours late, Courtney Love stormed into the Ames Hotel on Court Street a week ago Wednesday, faced a small group of radio-station contest winners, and explained that her tardiness was the result of a mid-day romp in the sack with an ex-boyfriend who's now a professor at Harvard University.

The room ate it up. But at the end of the short, full-band acoustic session, Love admitted she'd been joking about the Harvard shag — it just sounded like a good excuse for being late. The fans seemed almost let down.

The brief interaction, which preceded a gig by Love's band Hole that night at the House of Blues, sums up this new era of the well-put-together complete train wreck that is Courtney Love: there is build-up, there is elation, there is disappointment, there is payoff. Both of Hole's performances — the acoustically restrained rage at the Ames and the full-on grunge blowout on Lansdowne — were riveting. And against the backdrop of the not-half-bad new album, Nobody's Daughter (Mercury), and a much-talked-about-around-the-Interwebs VH1 Behind the Music special on Love's life, it's clear that the woman who in the '90s went from Kurt Cobain's drugged-out widow to Golden Globe–nominated actress (The People vs. Larry Flint) is on the comeback trail.

But the question remains: are we ready for a Courtney Love revival? And do we necessarily want one?

Now 45 years old, Love claims to be five years clean. She still has a black cloud hovering overhead, however, and now it appears that drugs have given way to real-life adult issues, like finances and what she calls "money karma." At the Ames, a simple question about songwriting spurred a diatribe about her money situation, bank loans, and legal problems — all of which is detailed toward the end of the VH1 special.

Love was down with the first half of the 90-minute biography, which documented her troubled early years and her eventual romance with Cobain as she found her musical way. She took issue (no surprise) with VH1's portrayal of her after Cobain's suicide as an endless string of drug abuse, hostility, and failures. Yet anyone who was alive and casually following Love's trials and tribulations through the second half of the '90s knows that the portrait wasn't far off the mark.

"The first hour was fine; the second could have done so much more, editorially," she said at the Ames. "It had great ratings, and they want to show it again and again, and I said no fucking way. It's aimless."

After her stop in Boston, Love threatened to go to VH1's headquarters in New York to do some re-editing. At the House of Blues, she made the same threat, and she warned the crowd that if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself. There was a sparkle in her eye, however, when she noted — both at the Ames and at the House of Blues — the show's glowing ratings and buzz.

Love knows people will watch. She's keenly aware of her surroundings at all times. At the Ames, she stopped mid thought to ask a female reporter from the Herald to identify herself as a member of the press.

"Don't print my 'pass list,' " she warned the reporter after running through a laundry list of Hollywood big-budget films she claims she turned down in the late '90s. "Except passing up The Matrix to record Celebrity Skin, because everybody knows that."

After the session, when that same reporter approached her, Love asked about the paper's political leanings and whether the interview was for some type of page 6 gossip column. (It was.) After politely answering the reporter's nonsensical question, she turned away, giving an overzealous fan the opportunity to get in the face of the Herald scribe and protest, "She's had a tough life, you don't know what's she's been through!"

Fans still adore Love, and she knows it. She's charming without trying, sincere just by appearing. There's a magnetic charm about her, and in a world of Lady Gaga and her countless imitators, an ass-kicking, rocking-out Courtney Love might be what music truly needs. As pop music has taught us in the past 15 years, her kind of charisma can't be created.

On stage, page 6 became irrelevant: Hole were both a time bomb and a time machine. Transporting the crowd back to the '90s — and it was a two-thirds-full House of Blues decked in cargo shorts, band T-shirts, and ball-chain necklaces eager to revisit the period — the opening grunge crunch of a "Pretty on the Inside"/"Sympathy for the Devil" medley proved that the band still have balls. Walking out on stage and singing an off-key blip of the Standelles' "Dirty Water" while puffing on a Marlboro Light doesn't hurt in warming the crowd up either.

But as the band spanned their gritty catalogue and showed that the weighty-pop '90s hits "Doll Parts," "Violet," "Malibu," and "Celebrity Skin" still hold up quite well in a fragmented era of rock, you couldn't escape the feeling that Love could stop the affable nice-girl routine on a dime and jump into the crowd throwing 'bows. More than a few heads probably stayed for the duration of Wednesday's 95-minute set just to see her explode, to catch a meltdown that would be on YouTube by the time the last person left Lansdowne.

At one point, an object was tossed on stage, just missing Love, who didn't notice it. One can imagine what would have gone down had it smacked her in the face mid song. But no such hostile interruption took place, and the show hit a high point during new single "Pacific Coast Highway," which sounds an awful lot like 1998 radio hit "Malibu." That Belinda Carlisle–aided ditty remains Hole's highest Billboard charter, at #24.

"I wrote it for Stevie Nicks as well — and didn't give it to her as well," Love said at the Ames.

A Doc Martens boot full of covers, the band also paid sonic tribute to Leonard Cohen, Judy Garland, and of course, Fleetwood Mac. (Hole's cover of "Gold Dust Woman" was first released on the Crow 2: City of Angels soundtrack.) A cover of "Closer" was the sexiest rendition of the Nine Inch Nails classic since Trent Reznor first thought up the savage chorus.

The heavy serving of cover tracks could be explained by the new backing line-up. Gone are long-time guitarist Erik Erlandsen and fashion-mag-pretty bassist Melissa Auf der Mar, and though Hole always had a reputation of being sort of a girl band (despite Erlandsen's presence as player and co-songwriter), Love has rounded out this new incarnation with dudes: guitarist Micko Larkin on guitar (a Pete Doherty doppelgänger, though lankier), Stu Fisher on drums, and Shawn Dailey on bass (the target of more than a few curious beer tosses at the Ho.

"This is no rent-a-band," Love said on stage. "We lived in the same house for five years, so shut up!"

It's strange that though grunge is still a staple of rock radio, Hole are generally left out of the picture. Bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Stone Temple Pilots are revered while Hole are relegated to random plays. Courtney Love has already experienced one successful music career, a life in the tabloids, and a fairly impressive run as an actress — and her story is far from finished. A few more hits seem inevitable; so do more acting gigs.

"I'd like to do acting, and I'd really like to direct," she said at the Ames. "I really need my reputation to be back." And, uh, what reputation is that? From Hole to VH1 to her flirtation with Hollywood to her notorious tweets, there's room for argument. But however you want to think about Love, she's back.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2010 02:13PM by RhettButler.