In her mid-20's Courtney Love had been living a nomadic life, immersing herself in numerous music scenes, and living in various cities along the West Coast. After unsuccessful attempts at forming bands in San Francisco and Portland, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she found work as an actress in two Alex Cox films, 'Sid And Nancy' and 'Straight To Hell'. In 1989 she placed an ad in The Recycler saying that she wanted to start a band, and Eric Erlandson answered and was invited to join her in her new band, to be called Sweet Baby Crystal Powered By God, although the name was later changed to Hole instead. Hole's first official rehearsal took place at Fortress Studios in Hollywood with Love, Erlandson and Lisa Roberts on bass, and initially the band had no percussion until Love met drummer Caroline Rue at a Gwar and L7 concert in Long Beach. The band subsequently recruited a third guitarist, Mike Geisbrecht, but by early 1990, Geisbrecht and Roberts had both left the band, which led to the recruitment of bassist Jill Emery. Hole released their no wave-influenced debut single 'Retard Girl' in April 1990 on Sympathy For The Record Industry, and followed it with 'Dicknail' in 1991 on Sub Pop. That year, the band signed with Caroline Records to release their debut album, and Love sought Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth to produce it, sending her copies of the band's early singles and mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work. Gordon was impressed enough to agree to produce the album, and in September 1991 'Pretty On The Inside' was released to positive reception from underground critics, who branded it loud, ugly and deliberately shocking.
The album spawned one single, 'Teenage Whore', which entered the UK Indie Chart at number one, and the band embarked on a European tour in the fall of 1991 supporting Mudhoney. In mid-1991, they began to get the attention of the major labels, but an offer from Madonna's label Maverick was turned down as Love didn't think the label would understand her. Love and Erlandson began writing new material for a second Hole album in 1992, in the midst of Love's pregnancy with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, but her desire to take the band in a more melodic and controlled rock format led bassist Emery to leave the band, followed by drummer Caroline Rue, who was replaced by Patty Schemel after an audition in Los Angeles, although the band spent the remainder of the year without a bassist. Hole signed to Geffen's subsidiary DGC label with an eight-album contract in late 1992, and in the spring of 1993 they released their single 'Beautiful Son', which was recorded in Seattle with producer Jack Endino as a fill-in bass player. It wasn't until the spring of 1993 that Love and Erlandson managed to recruit Janitor Joe bassist Kristen Pfaff, and the band then toured the UK in the summer, mainly performing material from their upcoming major label debut, 'Live Through This'. The album was released on 12 April 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, and spawned several popular singles, including 'Doll Parts', 'Violet', and 'Miss World', going multi-platinum and being hailed as album of the year by Spin magazine. Despite the critical praise for 'Live Through This', rumours circulated that Cobain had actually written the majority of the album, though the band vehemently denies this, and Patty Schemel has confirmed that Love and Erlandson wrote 'Live Through This'.
In 1994, bassist Kristen Pfaff went into a drug treatment facility to treat her heroin addiction, and was contemplating leaving the band for health reasons, but in June 1994 she was found dead of a heroin overdose in the bathroom of her Seattle home. Hole put their impending tour on hold, pulling out of the upcoming Lollapalooza festival, but after recruiting bassist Melissa Auf der Maur over the summer, they commenced their world tour on 26 August at the Reading Festival in England, giving a performance that John Peel described as "teetering on the edge of chaos". In September 1995 the band released their first EP, titled 'Ask For It', which featured 1991 Peel session recordings, as well as covers of songs by Wipers and The Velvet Underground. In 1996 they released a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Gold Dust Woman' for the soundtrack to the film 'The Crow: City of Angels', which was the first studio song to feature Melissa Auf der Maur on bass. In 1997, the band entered Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles after attempts to write new material in Miami, New Orleans, London, and New York, and Hole's third studio album 'Celebrity Skin' was released in 1998. It was a completely new sound for the band, incorporating elements of power pop, and had Love drawing influences from Fleetwood Mac and My Bloody Valentine. According to Erlandson, Love was more focused on song-writing and singing than playing guitar on the record, and also enlisted the help of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan to perfect five of the album's twelve songs. Although Schemel is listed as drummer in the liner notes of the record, her drumming does not actually appear on the record, as she was replaced by session drummer Deen Castronovo, under pressure from producer Michael Beinhorn. This led to her quitting the band, and although Love and Erlandson had agreed to Schemel being replaced on the record, they both expressed regret in retrospect, with Love stating later that Beinhorn was notorious for replacing drummers on sessions.
Schemel was replaced by Samantha Maloney for their upcoming tour and music videos. 'Celebrity Skin' was a critical success, with strong sales and successful singles, including the title track, 'Malibu' and 'Awful', and peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200. In the winter of 1998–99, Hole went on tour to promote 'Celebrity Skin', joining Marilyn Manson, who was promoting his album 'Mechanical Animals', but they dropped out of the tour nine dates in, due in part to the fact that the majority of the fans were Manson's. After leaving Manson's tour, Hole carried on touring, and on 17 June 1999, during Hole's set at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, a 19-year-old girl died after being crushed in the mosh pit behind the mixing board. Hole played its final show at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver on July 14, 1999. In October Auf der Maur quit the band and went on to become a touring bassist for The Smashing Pumpkins, with Samantha Maloney also quitting a few months later. The band's final release was a single for the 1999 movie 'Any Given Sunday', with the 'Celebrity Skin' out-take 'Be A Man' coming out in March 2000. In Spring 2002 Love announced via the band's website that she and Erlandson had officially disbanded Hole. Love began a solo career, releasing her debut, 'America's Sweetheart', in 2004, while Melissa Auf der Maur also embarked on a solo career, and released her self-titled debut album the same year. The twelve years of Hole's existence was a roller-coaster ride for all involved, but they did manage to produce some great music, and as well as their three albums, their singles and b-sides are all worth hearing, so here they all are collected together in one place for you to enjoy.
Track listing
Disc I - 1990-1994
01 Retard Girl (single 1990)
02 Phonebill Song (b-side of 'Retard Girl')
03 Johnnies In The Bathroom (b-side of 'Retard Girl')
04 Turpentine (previously unreleased from the 'Retard Girl' sessions)
05 Drown Soda (b-side of 'Teenage Whore' 1991)
06 Dicknail (single 1991)
07 Burnblack (b-side of 'Dicknail')
08 Beautiful Son (single 1993)
09 20 Years In The Dakota (b-side of 'Beautiful Son')
10 Old Age (b-side of 'Beautiful Son')
11 Do It Clean (b-side of 'Miss World' 1994) live
12 Over The Edge (b-side of 'Miss World' 1994)
Disc II - 1995-1999
01 The Void (BBC Live Version) (b-side of 'Doll Parts' 1995)
02 He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (b-side of 'Violet' 1995)
03 Whose Porno You Burn (Black) (b-side of 'Violet' 1995)
04 Season Of The Witch (bonus track from 'MTV Unplugged' 1995)
05 Pale Blue Eyes (from the 'Ask For It' EP 1995)
06 Forming/Hot Chocolate Boy (from the 'Ask For It' EP 1995
07 Gold Dust Woman (single from the soundtrack of the film 'The Crow' 1996)
08 Best Sunday Dress (b-side of 'Celebrity Skin' 1998)
09 Drag (b-side of 'Malibu' 1999)
10 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (b-side of 'Malibu' 1999)
11 Be A Man (single from the soundtrack of the film 'Any Given Sunday' 1999)
