I was shocked and saddened to discover quite by accident while searching for some rock trivia detail online that Courtney Love officially announced her rock band Hole has called it quits after nearly 13 always tumultuous, intense and dramatic years. Courtney and guitarist Eric Erlandson were the core members of an ever-changing band that saw a host of many female musicians come and go over the course of three albums and an unforgettable decade in which rock and roll erupted from a nearly dormant state, soaring into new extremes of definition and identity and popularity only to have its crowned prince and reluctant figurehead tragically take his own life, leaving behind the Widow Cobain to pick up the pieces and dodge the ones flying at her like accusations and blame and hatred like she was Yoko Ono times ten. Always known as a relentlessly ambitious, driven like a force of nature, social climber who would stop at nothing on her quest for fame and celebrity, when Courtney met Kurt Cobain and they were eventually wed and had a child together it was viewed by many that she finally had her hooks firmly dug into the prize she had always strived for, her ticket to fame and fortune and notoriety. The public always seemed to underestimate Courtney’s artistic abilities and considered her a goldigging manipulator ready for the coattail ride. I always felt that Courtney had her hooks firmly placed on fame with the release of Hole’s first LP Pretty on The Inside, a classic disc that still stands as one of the most dark, frightening and powerful statements of female rock rage ever, and unless I’m mistaken, Hole’s debut disc sold more units than Nirvana’s debut Bleach prior to the sales phenomenon that ensued after the release of Nevermind.
The stormy personal lives of the king and queen of the alt-rock grunge explosion made for lots of news stories and high drama—their child was taken into protective custody shortly after her birth based on alleged drug abuse, they logged an overdose story or two each, a nervous breakdown on stage for Kurt, a few high profile name-calling matches with other rock stars and in Courtney’s case a few physical altercations with old girlfriends of Kurt’s or airline attendants, a trip to rehab, an intervention on Kurt and ultimately his suicide. Approximately a month and a half after Cobains death, Hole’s sophomore release Live Through This hit the stores and was probably the most anxiously awaited record in history. I think people wanted to hate it or wanted to say that Kurt wrote it, but it’s a hard record to hate, seeing as how there wasn’t a weak or bad cut on it. Of course the rumors that Kurt wrote it all began to fly and then two months after it’s release bassist Kristen Pfaff died of a heroin overdose, putting the band’s future on somewhat shaky ground. But the reviews for the record were pouring in and they were unanimously good. The band found a great replacement bassist in Melissa Auf DerMar and decided to hit the road, Courtney choosing to spend her mourning period live onstage, throwing herself into her work as a way of getting through it. The result was one of the greatest rock shows I’ve ever witnessed and Live Through This topped nearly every critics year end list as best record of the year, a unanimous instant classic.
The years that followed found Courtney working diligently on her film career (most notably her great performance as Althea Flynt in The People Vs. Larry Flynt), dating her co-stars (Edward Norton), and very slowly recording the follow-up to Live Through This, the logically titled Celebrity Skin, a very different record than the previous, replete with outstanding production qualities and songs of grand sweeping emotional power, epic and cathartic personal statements easily matched to the events in her life, all she had indeed lived through. Again, people wanted to hate the record, toss it off as a sell-out, but Celebrity Skin was seemingly everything it was meant to be, leaving longtime fans somewhat perplexed with just how good it was, even with it’s unapologetic pop sheen and the studio richness of a larger recording budget. It stood as a departure from certain Hole qualities but it was unmistakably the record they wanted to make and lyrically it was Courtney all the way. It is kind of sad that Celebrity Skin will stand as the final record by Hole, as I sensed that their next one was going to be a return to their harder more caustic side.
As I read the band’s official statement about calling it quits I learned that Courtney is currently writing and recording a new musical project with former Hole drummer Patti Schemel, who left the band during the recording of Celebrity Skin and happens to be one of the best drummers in rock and roll I’ve always thought. It doesn’t surprise me that they would be working together again but what really surprised me was who else they are collaborating with, none other than the currently collaborative-happy Linda Perry, formerly of 4Non-Blondes! For someone without any current working configuration or band of her own, Perry has certainly been keeping busy. However, this pairing up of talents is one I would have never dreamed up in a million years. I would think the two alpha-gals would really butt heads working together. Hopefully we shall hear the fruits of their labor in early 2003.
While Hole is sadly no more, and it does signify an end of an era in many ways to me, Courtney Love won’t just fade away, on this you can depend. Watch for her in the headlines over the next year or so when many of her lawsuits against former members of Nirvana, former record labels, and the entire artist/record label system go to trial. She’ll be busy in the litigious way for some time, when she’s not attending premiere parties for at least three films she has finished that I know of. I must say, perseverance has certainly paid off for Courtney, she’s a big star now and it’s hard not to admire the fact that she is right where she has always wanted to be.
On to other matters, I recently heard the line-up for this year’s Gay Pride Festival main stage and it’s a cavalcade of talents old and new and bizzarre and unexpected. One inclusion that I’m very excited about is Janis Ian, the singer/songwriter who wrote “Society’s Child” about an inter-racial love affair at the ripe age of 15 and was thrust into the limelight as the next big thing, dealing with sudden fame and not knowing quite how to deal with her own gayness until further down the road. I saw her on TV recently and she was in great voice and playing a decidedly blues style and I was very impressed. Also featured on the mainstage in a move I consider completely science fiction is the disco/new romantic act of yesteryear known as Dead or Alive, who brought us one of the more memorable dance hits of the 80’s “You Spin Me Round.” Whenever I think of Dead or Alive I recall watching a live concert video of them in japan at a friends house who kept watching it because it was so fucking hysterically wrong, queer dancers in jockstraps with fake guitars who were listed in the credits as guitarist/dancers, barely hidden pre-recorded vocals and Japan just eating it up. We’d laugh until blue in the face—I hope it’s as good as that. An act in the line-up that I thought would or should never play during the daylight ever is the inimitable Marc Almond—one half of Soft Cell and one whole solo artist who has had a series of brilliant pop moments in his huge catalogue of esoteric and unusual self serious sinister cabaret style music. He’s quite a performer though, causing young men to swoon in his dramatic presence. I’ve witnessed it before. I’m also told he has a 12 inch cock. I’m thoroughly intrigued with what song choices he’ll select for his Serious Daylight appearance. The biggest surprise on the bill was the inclusion of Pansy Division, whom I thought had vowed to never play this city’s pride celebration again after previous years mistreatments by the folks running the stage, getting their sets cut short a lot, never getting paid and discovering that other big name non-local acts did receive monetary compensation for appearances. Well I guess the matter has been smoothed out and I’m glad because who deserves to be featutred for gay day more than the all-gay, uncloset-ed, fag-rocking gay smut pushing Pansy Division? They’re not only lovable and filthy, they’re like family. It should be a Gay Pride Celebration to behold, one that arouses my curiosity fully.
Before I close I wanted to plug a great show coming up at the Eagle Tavern on Thursday June 6. Headlining is a powerful trio who have intrigued me more and more each time I’ve seen them and they are Lost Goat—two girls and a guy who create a nasty wailing thick wall of beauty and terror that leaves me enthralled and trembling and wanting more. Supporting them is an SF based band that seem comfortably poised on the brink of probable rock stardom and that band is Dirty Power. Featuring Patrick the guitarist from Pansy Division and a few other musicians from various configurations like Ing and elswhere, Dirty Power have roared onto the scene with an exciting and fucking HARD sound that can stir the closet metal head in all of us. If you wanna hear for yourself you can visit http://www.saucefaucet.com/DirtyPower/DirtyPowerpage.html and give a listen to the songs from their six song demo. You’ll quickly know why Jack Endino of Sub Pop Records fame just had the band up to seattle to produce their first LP, due for a september release we’re hoping. These songs really dig to the bone and I cant get them out of my head. Witness the magic tonight at the Eagle.