Hole | |
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 Hole performing at Public Assembly, NYC, in April 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Works | Discography |
| Years active |
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| Past members |
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Hole was an Americanalternative rock band formed inLos Angeles, California, in 1989. It was founded by singer and guitaristCourtney Love and guitaristEric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being drummerPatty Schemel and bassistsKristen Pfaff (d. 1994) andMelissa Auf der Maur. Hole released a total of four studio albums between two incarnations spanning the 1990s and early-2010s and became one of the most commercially successful rock bands in history fronted by a woman.[5]
Influenced by Los Angeles'punk rock scene, the band's debut album,Pretty on the Inside (1991), was produced byKim Gordon ofSonic Youth, and attracted critical interest from British and American alternative press. Their second album,Live Through This, released in 1994 byDGC Records, combined elements of punk,grunge, and pop rock music,[1] and was widely acclaimed, reachingplatinum status within a year of its release. Their third album,Celebrity Skin (1998), marked a notable departure from their earlier punk influences, boasting a more commercially viable sound; the album sold around 2 million copies worldwide, and earned them significant critical acclaim.
They disbanded in 2002, and the members individually pursued other projects. Eight years later in 2010, Hole was reformed by Love with new members, despite Erlandson's claim that the reformation breached a mutual contract he had with her. The reformed band released the albumNobody's Daughter (2010), which was conceived as Love's second solo album. In 2013, Love retired the Hole name, releasing new material and touring as a solo artist.
Hole received several accolades, including fourGrammy Award nominations. They were also commercially successful, selling over three million records in the United States alone, and had a far-reaching influence on contemporary female artists. Music andfeminist scholars have also recognized the band as the most high-profile musical group of the 1990s to discuss gender issues in their songs, due to Love's aggressive and violent lyrical content, which often addressed themes of body image, abuse, and sexual exploitation.
In Euripides'Medea, when she kills the bride and her own child, she says "There's a hole that pierces my soul." [And] my mother's this kind of new age psychologist, and I said "You know, I had this terrible childhood," and she said "Well, you can't have a hole running through you all the time, Courtney." You know, and then [there's] the genital reference, go ahead and make it if you will.
Hole formed afterEric Erlandson responded to an advertisement placed byCourtney Love inThe Recycler in the summer of 1989. The advertisement read: "I want to start a band. My influences areBig Black,Sonic Youth, andFleetwood Mac."[7] Erlandson recalled of their first meeting: "We met at this coffee shop, and I saw her and I thought 'Oh, God. Oh, no, What am I getting myself into?' She grabbed me and started talking, and she's like 'I know you're the right one', and I hadn't even opened my mouth yet."[8] In retrospect, Love said that Erlandson "had aThurston [Moore] quality about him" and was an "intensely weird, good guitarist".[7] In his 2012 bookLetters to Kurt, Erlandson revealed that he and Love had a sexual relationship during their first year together in the band,[9] which Love also confirmed.[10]
Love had been living a nomadic life prior, immersing herself in numerous music scenes and living in various cities along theWest Coast.[11] After unsuccessful attempts at forming bands inSan Francisco (where she was briefly a member ofFaith No More)[12] andPortland, Love relocated to Los Angeles, where she found work as an actress in twoAlex Cox films (Sid and Nancy andStraight to Hell).[13][14] Erlandson, a Los Angeles native and a graduate ofLoyola Marymount University, was working as anaccountant forCapitol Records at the time he met Love.[15]
Love originally wanted to name the band Sweet Baby Crystal Powered by God, but opted for the name Hole instead.[16] During an interview onLater... with Jools Holland, she claimed the name for the band was partly inspired by a quote fromEuripides'Medea that read: "There is a hole that pierces right through me."[17] She also cited a conversation with her mother as the primary inspiration for the band's name, in which her mother told her that she couldn't live her life "with a hole running through her".[6][4] Love also acknowledged the "obvious" genital reference in the band's name, alluding to thevagina.[6]
In the months preceding the band's full formation, Love and Erlandson would write and record in the evenings at a rehearsal space in Hollywood, loaned to them by theRed Hot Chili Peppers;[18] during the day, Love worked as astripper to support the band and purchase amplifiers and theirbackline for live shows.[19] Hole's first official rehearsal took place at Fortress Studios in Hollywood with Love, Erlandson and Lisa Roberts on bass. According to Erlandson, "these two girls show up dressed completely crazy, we set up and they said, 'okay, just start playing something.' I started playing and they started screaming at the top of their lungs for two or three hours. Crazy lyrics and screaming. I said to myself, 'most people would just run away from this really fast.' But I heard something in Courtney's voice and lyrics."[20] Initially, the band had no percussion until Love met drummer Caroline Rue[4] at aGwar andL7 concert inLong Beach.[21] The band subsequently recruited a third guitarist, Mike Geisbrecht. Hole's first show took place atRaji's, a small bar in Hollywood, in October 1989.[22] By early 1990, Geisbrecht and Roberts had both left the band, which led to the recruitment of bassist Jill Emery. According to Caroline Rue, Love fired Roberts after she threatened a Long Beach club owner—the wife of mobsterEddie Nash—with a screwdriver when the club refused to pay them for their performance.[23]
Hole released theirno wave-influenced debut single "Retard Girl" in April 1990, and followed it with "Dicknail" in 1991, released onSympathy for the Record Industry andSub Pop, respectively. According to disc jockeyRodney Bingenheimer, Love would often approach him at aDenny's onSunset Blvd. where he went for coffee in the mornings, and convinced him to give "Retard Girl" airtime on his stationKROQ-FM.[24]
In 1991, the band signed ontoCaroline Records to release their debut album, and Love soughtKim Gordon ofSonic Youth to produce the record.[25][26] She sent a letter, aHello Kitty barrette, and copies of the band's early singles to her, mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work and appreciated "the production of theSST record"[27] (either referring to Sonic Youth's albumSister orEVOL). Gordon, impressed by the band's singles, agreed to produce the album, with assistance fromGumball's Don Fleming. The album, titledPretty on the Inside, was released in September 1991 to positive reception from underground critics, branded "loud, ugly and deliberately shocking",[28] and earned a spot onSpin's "20 Best Albums of the Year" list.[29] It was also voted album of the year by New York'sVillage Voice[30] and peaked at number 59 on the UK albums chart.[31] The album spawned one single, "Teenage Whore", which entered the UK Indie Chart at number one,[32] as well as the band's debut music video for the song "Garbadge Man".
Musically and lyrically,Pretty on the Inside was abrasive and drew on elements of punk rock andsludge metal, characterized by overt noise and feedback, chaotic guitarriffs, contrasting tempos, graphic lyrics, and a variation of Love's vocals ranging from whispers to guttural screaming.[33] In later years, Love referred to the album as "unlistenable", despite its critical accolades and eventualcult following.[34] The band embarked on a Europeantour in the fall of 1991 supportingMudhoney.[35][36] They also toured intermittently in the United States between July and December 1991, playing primarily at hard rock and punk clubs, includingCBGB and theWhisky a Go Go, where they opened forthe Smashing Pumpkins.[37] In a write-up by theLos Angeles Times on the band's final show of the tour, it was noted that Love smashed the headstock of herRickenbacker guitar onstage.[37]
In mid-1991, the band began to get the attention of the major labels. The first to court them wasMaverick — aWarner subsidiary founded byMadonna and music executiveFreddy DeMann. Love, however, was uninterested: "[They] would have me riding on elephants. They don't know what I am. For them, I'm a visual, period."[38] She was also uneasy about sharing the spotlight on a label so heavily associated with one of the industry's most iconic female performers. In a 1992 interview withVanity Fair, Love described Madonna's interest as "kind of like Dracula's interest in his latest victim".[38]
Love and Erlandson began writing new material for a second Hole album in 1992, in the midst of Love's pregnancy withNirvana frontmanKurt Cobain. Love's desire to take the band in a more melodic and controlled rock format led bassist Emery to leave the band,[39] and drummer Caroline Rue followed. In an advertisement to find a new bass player, Love wrote: "[I want] someone who can play ok, and stand in front of 30,000 people, take off her shirt and have 'fuck you' written on her tits. If you're not afraid of me and you're not afraid to fucking say it, send a letter. No more pussies, no more fake girls, I want a whore from hell."[40] In April 1992, drummerPatty Schemel was recruited after an audition in Los Angeles, but the band spent the remainder of the year without a bassist; Love, Schemel, and Erlandson began to write material together in the interim.[34]
Hole signed toGeffen's subsidiaryDGC label with an eight-album contract in late 1992. In the spring of 1993, the band released their single "Beautiful Son", which was recorded in Seattle with producerJack Endino as a fill-in bass player; Love also played bass on the single's b-side "20 Years In the Dakota", as well as on their contribution to the 1993Germs tribute albumA Small Circle of Friends.[41] In the spring of 1993, Love and Erlandson recruitedJanitor Joe bassistKristen Pfaff,[42] and the band toured the United Kingdom in the summer of that year (including the Phoenix Festival on July 16), mainly performing material from their upcoming major label debut,Live Through This, which they recorded at Triclops Studios inMarietta, Georgia, in October 1993.
Live Through This was released on April 12, 1994, one week after Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in his Seattle home. In the wake of Love's family tragedy,Live Through This was a critical success. It spawned several popular singles, including "Doll Parts", "Violet", and "Miss World", going multi-platinum and being hailed "Album of the Year" bySpin magazine.[43][44]NME called the album "a personal but secretive thrash-pop opera of urban nihilism and passionate dumb thinks",[45] andRolling Stone said the album "may be the most potent blast of female insurgency ever committed to tape".[46]
Despite the critical praise forLive Through This, rumors circulated insinuating that Cobain had actually written the majority of the album, though the band vehemently denies this.[39] The band's drummer Patty Schemel, who had been friends with Cobain since the late 1980s,[34] said: "There's that myth that Kurt [Cobain] wrote all our songs— it's not true. Courtney and Eric wroteLive Through This."[39] The band did, however, state that Love convinced Cobain to provide backing vocals on "Asking for It" and "Softer, Softest" while visiting the studio, and music producers and engineers present during the recording sessions noted that Cobain seemed "completely unfamiliar" with the songs.[47] According toRolling Stone rock journalist Gavin Edwards, Love and Cobain had written songs together in the past, but opted to not release them because it was "a bit too redolent ofJohn andYoko".[48]
In 1994, bassist Kristen Pfaff went into a drug treatment facility to treat her heroin addiction. Pfaff contemplated leaving the band for health reasons. In June 1994, she was found dead of a heroin overdose in the bathroom of her Seattle home, two months after the death of Cobain.[49] The band put their impending tour on hold, pulling out of the upcomingLollapalooza festival.
Recruiting bassistMelissa Auf der Maur over the summer, they commenced their world tour on August 26 at theReading Festival in England, giving a performance thatJohn Peel described as "teetering on the edge of chaos".[50] The band embarked on a worldwide tour throughout late 1994 and for the duration of 1995, with appearances at theKROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas,Saturday Night Live, theBig Day Out festival,MTV Unplugged, the 1995 Reading Festival, Lollapalooza 1995, and at theMTV Video Music Awards, where they were nominated for the "Doll Parts" music video.[51][52]
Love's reckless stage presence during the tour became a media spectacle, drawing press from MTV and other outlets due to her unpredictable performances.[53] While touring with Sonic Youth, Love got into a physical fight withKathleen Hanna backstage at a 1995 Lollapalooza festival and punched her in the face.[54][55] In an August 1995 band interview withRolling Stone, drummer Patty Schemel formallycame out as alesbian, saying: "It's important. I'm not out there with that fucking pink flag or anything, but it's good for other people who live somewhere else in some small town who feel freaky about beinggay to know that there's other people who are and that it's okay."[8] In a retrospective interview, Schemel said:
We had a really safe place [in Hole]. Courtney was a force that would not allow any of us to be spoken down to—or any of that kind of behavior in a space that we were in—no matter where we were. She was good at that. I felt safe in my band to come out as a gay woman.[56]
Toward the end of the tour, the band released their firstEP, titledAsk for It, in September 1995; it featured 1991Peel session recordings, as well as covers of songs byWipers andthe Velvet Underground.[57] The band performed its last show of the year on September 3, 1995, at the Molson Polar Beach Party inTuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. The concert was a promotional event for theMolson Brewery, and also featured performances byMetallica,Veruca Salt, andMoist.[58]
In 1996, the band recorded and released a cover ofFleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" forThe Crow: City of Angels (1996) soundtrack,[59] the band's first studio song to feature Melissa Auf der Maur on bass, and produced byRic Ocasek. Hole released two retrospective albums during this time: firstly, their second EP, titledThe First Session (1997), which consisted of a complete version of the band's first recording session at Rudy's Rising Star in Los Angeles in March 1990, some of which had been bootlegged widely years prior. It featured the group's first ever recorded track, "Turpentine", which had previously been unreleased to the public.[60] The same year, the band released their first compilation album,My Body, The Hand Grenade (1997), featuring early singles, b-sides and recent live tracks.[60][61]
Our band is a collective, but Courtney has a lot of ideas and it's weird how they infiltrate our lives—it just happens. Like with the drowning theme, there were all these things going on while we were making this album, likeJeff Buckley drowning. And years before [bassist] Kristen [Pfaff] died in a bathtub. My father died basically drowning in his own body, he couldn't breathe, and Melissa's father died of lung cancer. Those were literal things, but drowning became a metaphor for this record and for all the people we had lost.
In 1997, the band enteredConway Recording Studios in Los Angeles after attempts to write new material in Miami, New Orleans, London, and New York.[63] Recorded over a ten-month period, Hole's third studio album,Celebrity Skin (1998), adopted a complete new sound for the band, incorporating elements of power pop, and had Love drawing influences fromFleetwood Mac andMy Bloody Valentine.[63] According to Erlandson, Love was more focused on song-writing and singing than playing guitar on the record; Love stated that her aim for the album was to "deconstruct theCalifornia sound" in the L.A. tradition of bands likeThe Doors,The Beach Boys andThe Byrds.[63] In addition to Hole,Smashing Pumpkins frontmanBilly Corgan entered the studio and helped perfect five of the album's twelve songs.[63] Love, who felt she was in a creative slump, likened Corgan's presence in the studio to "a math teacher who wouldn't give you the answers but was making you solve the problems yourself".[63]
Upon the album's release, Corgan toldCNN that he should have "been given credit [for writing the entire album]".[64] Erlandson responded to Corgan's statements in aRolling Stone interview, commenting: "We were working on all the stuff that Courtney and I had already written. Billy really facilitated things, in a way ... I would bring in the music, Courtney would start coming up with lyrics right away, and [Billy] would help map it all out." Erlandson also stated: "Courtney writes all her own lyrics. Nobody else is writing those lyrics and nobody ever has."[62] One journalist took note of the controversy when reviewing the album, stating: "Back in 1994, the acclaim forLive Through This was undercut by whispers that Love's late husband wrote the album. Combine thoseconspiracy theories with the unfounded but persistent rumor that Cobain was actually murdered, and it is no surprise that, in the song 'Celebrity Skin', Love calls herself a walking study indemonology."[64]
Although Schemel is listed as drummer in the liner notes of the record, her drumming does not actually appear on the record; she was replaced by session drummerDeen Castronovo, under pressure from producerMichael Beinhorn.[65] After the replacement, Schemel quit the band.[65][66] Though Love and Erlandson had authorized Schemel's replacement, both expressed regret in retrospect, and Love stated in 2011 that Beinhorn was notorious for replacing drummers on records, and referred to him as "aNazi".[34] After Schemel's departure, the band hired drummerSamantha Maloney for their upcoming tours and music videos.[66]
Celebrity Skin was a critical success with strong sales and successful singles, including the title track, "Celebrity Skin", "Malibu", and "Awful". The album received largely positive reviews, with praise from music periodicals such asRolling Stone,NME, andBlender,[67][68] as well as a four-star review from theLos Angeles Times,[69] calling it a "wild emotional ride" sure to be "one of the most dissected and debated collections of the year".[69] The album peaked at number 9 on theBillboard 200, and garnered the band its first and only number 1 single, "Celebrity Skin", which topped theModern Rock Tracks.[70] "Malibu", released December 29, 1998, was the album's second single; it charted at number 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks.[71]
In the winter of 1998–99, Hole went on tour to promoteCelebrity Skin, joiningMarilyn Manson, who was promoting his album,Mechanical Animals (1998) on theBeautiful Monsters Tour.[72] The tour turned into a publicity magnet, and Hole dropped out of the tour nine dates in, due to both the majority of the fans being Manson's, and the 50/50 financial arrangement between the groups, with Hole's production costs being disproportionately less than Manson's.[72] Manson and Love often mocked one another onstage, and Love attacked Manson's stage antics, which included tearing up aBible during performances: "You know, whenever somebody rips up the Bible in front of 40,000 people, I think it's a big deal", she said during a 1999 interview.[24] Hole officially announced that they would be dropping out of the tour after a poorly received concert at theRose Garden Arena inPortland, Oregon, which ended with Manson fans booing the band.[73]
The band continued to book shows and headline festivals after dropping off Manson's tour, and according to Auf der Maur, it was a "daily event" for Love to invite audience members onstage to sing with her for the last song at nearly every concert performance.[74] On June 17, 1999, during Hole's set at theHultsfred Festival in Sweden, a 19-year-old girl died after being crushed by the mosh pit behind the mixing board.[75] Hole played its final show at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver on July 14, 1999.[76]
In October 1999, Auf der Maur quit Hole and went on to become a touring bassist for The Smashing Pumpkins.[77] Samantha Maloney also quit a few months later.[78] The band's final release was a single for the movieAny Given Sunday (1999). "Be a Man", released in March 2000, was an outtake from theCelebrity Skin sessions.[79] In April 2002, Love calledThe Howard Stern Show and said she had written nine songs with songwriterLinda Perry, but less than a month later Love and Erlandson officially disbanded Hole via a message posted on the band's website.[78][80] After the split, the four musicians each took on projects of their own: Erlandson continued to work as a producer and session musician, eventually forming the experimental groupRRIICCEE with controversial artistVincent Gallo.[81] Love began a solo career, releasing her debut,America's Sweetheart, in 2004, featuring several of the songs written with Perry.[82]Melissa Auf der Maur also embarked on a solo career, and released herself-titled debut album in 2004, which included Erlandson performing lead guitar on the track, "Would If I Could".[83] Her second album,Out of Our Minds, was released in March 2010.[84] Hole's body of work from its inception to its first disbandment includes thirteen singles,[85] three LPs,[86] three EPs,[85] and one compilation album.[86]
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On June 17, 2009, seven years after Hole's disbandment,NME reported that Love was re-forming the band with guitaristMicko Larkin for an upcoming album, on which Melissa Auf der Maur would be providing backup vocals.[87] Days later, Melissa Auf der Maur stated in an interview that she was unaware of any reunion, but said Love had asked her to contribute harmonies to an upcoming album.[88] In response, Eric Erlandson stated in an interview withSpin magazine that a reunion could not take place without his involvement, citing that he and Love "have a contract".[89]
Hole launched a new website and various social media pages on January 1, 2010, and performed onFriday Night with Jonathan Ross in February. On February 17, 2010, they played a full set at theO2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, with support fromLittle Fish. On March 16, the first Hole single in ten years was released, titled "Skinny Little Bitch"; it peaked at No. 29 on theBillboard Rock Chart, and at No. 21 on theAlternative Singles chart.[90] The track also received airplay onActive rock and alternative radio.[91]
Nobody's Daughter was released on April 26, 2010, worldwide onMercury Records, and was received moderately well by music critics.[92]Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars, but noted "[while Love] was an absolute monster vocalist in the nineties, the greatest era ever for rock singers ... She doesn't have that power in her lungs anymore – barely a trace. But at least she remembers, and that means something in itself." The magazine also referred to the album as "not a true success", but a "noble effort".[93] Love's voice, which had become noticeably raspier, was compared to the likes ofBob Dylan.[94]NME gave the album a 6/10 rating, andRobert Christgau rated it an "A−", saying, "Thing is, I can use some new punk rage in my life, and unless you're a fan ofGoldman Sachs andBP Petroleum, so can you. What's more, better it come from a 45-year-old woman who knows how to throw her weight around than from the zitty newbies and tattooed road dogs who churn most of it out these days. I know—for her, BP Petroleum is just something else to pretend about. But the emotion fueling her pretense is cathartic nevertheless."[95] In support of the release, Hole toured extensively between 2010 and 2012 throughout North America and Europe,[96] as well as performing in Russia[97] and Brazil.[98]
On March 28, 2011, Love, Erlandson, Patty Schemel and Auf der Maur appeared at the New York screening of Schemel's documentaryHit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Patty Schemel at theMuseum of Modern Art.[99] The appearance was the first time in thirteen years that all four members appeared together in public. Schemel had expressed a desire to record with Love, Erlandson and Auf der Maur stating "nothing has been discussed, but I have a feeling."[99] After the screening, the four took part in a Q&A session where Love stated: "For me, as much as I love playing with Patty – and I would play with her in five seconds again, and everyone onstage – if it's not moving forward, I don't wanna do it. That's just my thing. There's rumblings; there's always bloody rumblings. But if it's not miserable and it's going forward and I'm happy with it ... that's all I have to say about that question."[100]
In May 2011, a music video for "Samantha" was shot inIstanbul, although it remained officially unreleased.[101] In September 2011,Scott Lipps joined the band, replacing drummerStu Fisher. In April 2012, Love, Erlandson, Auf der Maur and Schemel reunited at the Public Assembly in New York for a two-song set, including "Miss World" and theWipers' "Over the Edge", at an after-party for theHit So Hard documentary.[102] The performance marked the first time the four members performed together since 1998 after Schemel's departure and the 2002 breakup of the band.[103]
On December 29, 2012, Love performed a solo acoustic set in New York City, and in January 2013, performed at theSundance Film Festival under her own name.[104] She booked further performances across North America as a solo act, with Larkin, bassistShawn Dailey, and Lipps as her backing band.[105]
On December 28, 2013, Love posted two photos of herself with Erlandson onFacebook andTwitter, with a caption reading: "And this just happened ... 2014 going to be a very interesting year."[106] Love alsotagged Melissa Auf der Maur as well as Hole's former manager,Peter Mensch, in the post, alluding to a reconciliation with Erlandson and possible reunion in 2014.[107][108]
On April 2, 2014,Rolling Stone reported that theCelebrity Skin line-up of the band had reunited (with Patty Schemel in lieu of Samantha Maloney).[109]Rolling Stone erroneously reported Love's upcoming solo single, "Wedding Day" to be a product of this reunion. Shortly after, Love curtailed her statement, saying: "We may have made out but there is no talk of marriage. It's very frail, nothing might happen, and now the band are all flipping out on me."[110] On May 1, in an interview withPitchfork, Love discussed the possibility of a reunion, and also stated it had been "a mistake" releasingNobody's Daughter as a Hole record in 2010. "Eric was right—I kind of cheapened the name, even though I'm legally allowed to use it. I should save 'Hole' for the lineup everybody wants to see and had the balls to putNobody's Daughter under my own name."[111][112][113] Love further discussed the possibility of reuniting the band, saying:
No one's been dormant. Patty teaches drumming and drums in three indie bands. Melissa has her metal-nerd thing going on—her dream is to play Castle Donington withDokken. Eric hasn't flipped—I jammed with him, he's still doing his Thurston [Moore]-crazy tunings, still corresponding withKevin Shields. We all get along great. There are bands who reunite and hate each others' guts.[111]
In October 2019, Hole rehearsed at theHollywood Walk of Fame, in Los Angeles. Nothing transpired after the event, since Love had relocated to the United Kingdom afterwards.[114][115] In March 2020, Love and Auf Der Maur planned a performance at the "Bans Off My Body" event, which was eventually canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[116]
Initially, Hole drew inspiration fromno wave and experimental bands, which is evident in their earliest recordings, specifically "Retard Girl", but frontwoman Love also drew from a variety of influences. Love citedpost-punk groupEcho & the Bunnymen[117] and classic rock such asNeil Young[4] andFleetwood Mac.[118] The band's first album,Pretty on the Inside, was heavily influenced by noise and punk rock, using discordant melodies, distortion, and feedback, with Love's vocals ranging from whispers to guttural screams.[86] Love described the band's earliest songwriting as being based on "really crazySonic Youth tunings".[119] Nonetheless, Love claimed to have aimed for apop sound early on: "There's a part of me that wants to have agrindcore band and another that wants to have aRaspberries-type pop band",[4] she toldFlipside magazine in 1991. Both Love and Erlandson were fans of the notorious LA punk band theGerms.[120] In a 1996 interview for a Germs tribute documentary, Erlandson said: "I think every band is based on one song, and our band was based on "Forming" ... Courtney brought it into rehearsal, and she knew, like, threechords and it was the only punk rock song we could play."[121]
The band's second albumLive Through This, captured a less abrasive sound, while maintaining the group's original punk roots. "I want this record to be shocking to the people who don't think we have a soft edge, and at the same time, [to know] that we haven't lost our very, very hard edge",[122] Love told VH1 in 1994. The group's third album,Celebrity Skin, incorporated power pop into their hard rock sound, and was heavily inspired by California bands; Love was also influenced by Fleetwood Mac andMy Bloody Valentine while writing the album.[63][123] The group's 2010 release,Nobody's Daughter, featured a more folk rock-oriented sound, utilizing acoustic guitar and softer melodies.[124]
The group'schord progressions by and large drew on elements of punk music,[125] which Love described as "grungey", although not necessarilygrunge.[126] Critics described their song style as "deceptively wispy and strummy",[125] combined with "gunshot guitar choruses".[46] Although the group's sound changed over the course of their career, the dynamic between beauty and ugliness has often been noted, particularly due to the layering of harsh and abrasive riffs which often bury more sophisticated arrangements.[127]
In a 1991 interview, Love stated that lyrics were "the most important" element of songwriting for her.[4] Her lyrics explored a variety of themes throughout Hole's career, includingbody image, rape,child abuse, addiction,celebrity, suicide, elitism, andinferiority complexes; all of which were addressed mainly from a female, and oftenfeminist standpoint.[128] This underlying feminism in Love's lyrics often led the public and critics to mistakenly associate her with theriot grrrl movement, of which Love was highly critical.[129][130][131]
In a 1991 interview withEverett True, Love said: "I try to place [beautiful imagery] next to fucked up imagery, because that's how I view things ... I sometimes feel that no one's taken the time to write about certain things in rock, that there's a certain female point of view that's never been given space."[132]Charles Cross has referred to her lyrics onLive Through This as being "true extensions of her diary",[39] and she has admitted that a great deal of the lyrics fromPretty on the Inside were excisions from her journals.[119]
Throughout Hole's career, Love's lyrics were often influenced by literature: The title of the band's second albumLive Through This, for example (as well as lyrics from the track "Asking for It") is directly drawn fromGone With the Wind;[133] and the group's single "Celebrity Skin" (the title track to their 1998 album), contains quotes fromShakespeare'sThe Merchant of Venice[134] andDante Rossetti's poemA Superscription.[135] Love had had a minor background in literature, having briefly studied English literature in her early twenties.[136]
Throughout the duration of the 1990s, the band received widespread media coverage due to Love's often rambunctious and unpredictable behavior onstage.[137] The band often destroyed equipment and guitars at the end of concerts,[37] and Love would ramble between songs, bring fans onstage, andstage dive, sometimes returning with clothes torn off of her or injuries sustained.[138] In a 1995New York magazine article, journalist John Homans addressed Love's frequent stage diving during Hole's concerts:
The most shocking, frightening, and fascinating image in rock in the last few years is Courtney Love's stage dive ... When some male performers do it, it looks like muscular, frat-boy fun, controlled aggression ... For obvious reasons, the practice was strictly no-girls-allowed, but Love, typically, decided that she wanted to do it, too. Groped, ravaged, she compared the experience to beingraped, wrote a song about it, and now does it just about every show.[139]
Nina Gordon ofVeruca Salt, who toured with Hole in 1995, recalled Love's erratic behavior onstage, saying "She would just go off and [the rest of the band] would just kind of stand there."[34] The majority of Love's chaotic behavior onstage was a result of heavy drug use at the time, which she admitted: "I was completely high on dope; I cannot remember much about it."[34] She later criticized her behavior during that time, saying: "I [saw] pictures of how I looked. It's disgusting. I'm ashamed. There's death and there's disease and there's misery and there's giving up your soul ... The human spirit mixed with certain powders is not the person, it's [a] demonic presence."[140]
Love's stage attire also garnered notoriety, influenced in part byCarroll Baker's wardrobe in the filmBaby Doll (1956).[141] The style was later dubbed "kinderwhore" by the media, and consisted ofbabydoll dresses,slips andnightgowns, and smeared makeup.[142][143]Kurt Loder likened her onstage attire to a "debauched ragdoll",[144] andJohn Peel noted in his review of the band's 1994 Reading Festival performance, that "[Love], swaying wildly and with lipstick smeared on her face, hands and, I think, her back, as well as on the collar of her dress, ... would have drawn whistles of astonishment inBedlam. The band teetered on the edge of chaos, generating a tension which I cannot remember having felt before from any stage."[50]Rolling Stone referred to the style as "a slightly more politically charged version of grunge; apathy turned into ruinous angst, which soon became high fashion's favorite pose."[145]
The band's set lists for live shows were often loose, featuring improvisational jams and rough performances of unreleased songs. By 1998, their live performances had become less aggressive and more restrained, although Love continued to bring fans onstage, and would often go into the crowd while singing.[74]
Hole was one of the most commercially successful female-frontedalternative rock bands in history, selling over 3 million records in the United States between 1991 and 2010.[96][146][5] In spite of Love's often polarizing reputation in the media, Hole received consistent critical praise for their output, and was often noted for the predominant feminist commentary found in Love's lyrics, which scholars have credited as "articulating athird-wave feminist consciousness".[147] Love's subversive onstage persona and public image coincided with the band's songs, which expressed "pain, sorrow, and anger, but [an] underlying message of survival, particularly survival in the face of overwhelming circumstances".[148] Music journalistMaria Raha expressed a similar sentiment in regard to the band's significance to third-wave feminism, stating, "Whether you love Courtney [Love] or hate her, Hole was the highest-profile female-fronted band of the '90s to openly and directly sing about feminism."[149]
WhileRolling Stone compared the effect of Love's marriage to Cobain on the band to that ofJohn Lennon andYoko Ono, they noted that "Love's confrontational stage presence, as well as her gut-wrenching vocals and powerful punk-pop songcraft, made her an alternative-rock star in her own right."[150] Author Nick Wise made a similar comparison in discussion of the band's public image, stating, "Not since Yoko Ono's marriage to John Lennon has a woman's personal life and exploits within the rock arena been so analyzed and dissected."[151]
The band has been cited as a major influence on several contemporary artists, including indie singer-songwriterScout Niblett,[152]Brody Dalle (ofThe Distillers andSpinnerette),[153]Sky Ferreira,[154]Lana Del Rey,[155]Tove Lo,[156]Tegan and Sara,[157]Annie Hardy (ofGiant Drag),[158]Victoria Legrand (ofBeach House),[159] and the British rock bandNine Black Alps.[160] The band ranked at number 77 onVH1's100 Greatest Hard Rock Artists list.[161]
In 2008a fire swept throughUniversal Studios Hollywood destroying buildings belonging toUniversal Music Group. News reports said that many artists including Hole had lost recordings in the fire. Love and the band were one of the artists suing UMG for the loss; however, on August 16, 2019, the band was removed from that lawsuit as it was amended "based on UMG's representations that none of Hole's original masters were destroyed (subject to confirmation)".[162][failed verification][163]
Timeline
| Award | Year | Category | Nominated work(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammy Awards[164] | 1999 | Best Rock Album | Celebrity Skin | Nominated |
| Best Rock Song | "Celebrity Skin" | Nominated | ||
| Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group[165] | Nominated | |||
| 2000 | "Malibu" | Nominated | ||
| MTV Video Music Awards[166][167] | 1995 | Best Alternative Video | "Doll Parts" | Nominated |
| 1999 | Best Cinematography | "Malibu" | Nominated | |
| NME Awards[168] | 1999 | Best Band | Hole | Nominated |
| Best Album | Celebrity Skin | Nominated | ||
| Best Single | "Celebrity Skin" | Nominated | ||
| Spin Readers' Poll Awards[169] | 1994 | Album of the Year | Live Through This | Won |
My girlfriend and bandmate at the time, Courtney Love, and I were introduced to him in the parking lot after a Butthole Surfers show at the Hollywood Palladium ... We had kept our relationship a secret. Courtney did not want our band to lose its sex appeal. She believed that couple bands were too unavailable. The fact was, for more than a year, we had shared a deep and powerful, if codependent, bond.
I wish [Eric] well. Even more than Dave [Grohl] and [Krist] Novoselic, Eric was family ... I just hope he didn't write that we dated. We had sex, yes, but I don't date.
Without insulting one of my oldest friends who let me use his rehearsal space before I even had a band, therefore I wouldn't even be here without Flea.
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