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Album Of The Week: The 30th Anniversary Of 'Pretty On The Inside' By Hole


Hole Courtney Love

Courtney Love went from Faith No More to Pagan Babies before roles in Sid And Nancy and Straight To Hell propelled her forward to form her seminal band - Hole, in 1989. After bouncing around for years trying to find the best fit, Love took it upon herself to form her own group by placing an ad in a local paper that simply stated, "I want to start a band". 

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After two years, and a step change in the band's attitude as to how seriously they were taking their musical career, Hole had written and recorded their debut record, Pretty On The Inside. The 11 track album, produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, was a riotous introduction to an emerging and, like them or loath them, ultimately influential band.

Continue reading: Album Of The Week: The 30th Anniversary Of 'Pretty On The Inside' By Hole

Our Favourite Songs Inspired By The Words Of Poets [Playlist]


David Bowie Iron Maiden Stevie Nicks Nick Cave Emilie Autumn Joni Mitchell Hole

Poetry and music have always gone hand in hand, and some of the greatest musicians in the world can also be called fantastic poets. But time and time again artists are inspired by iconic poems; either in fleeting lines, entire verses or the subject matter itself. Here are just a few of our favourite songs which have been influenced by universally adored poetry. 

1. The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie

While the title track from his 1970 album reflects Bowie's struggle with self-identity, the opening verse of the track is based on the opening verse of the 1899 poem Antigonish by Hugh Mearns, from his play The Psycho-ed. The poem is about a ghost that wanders a haunted house, which makes for a startlingly profound thematic comparison between the poem and Bowie's song.

Continue reading: Our Favourite Songs Inspired By The Words Of Poets [Playlist]

Album Of The Week: Celebrating The 25th Anniversary Of Hole's Feminist Album Live Through This


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The unforgettable second studio album of Courtney Love's epic riot grrrl band Hole was released 25 years ago today through DGC Records. Live Through This was their best-selling album by far, with more than two million sold worldwide, and it's one of the most important female rock albums of all time.

Hole - Live Through ThisHole - Live Through This

The record came three years after their Pretty on the Inside debut and was a very deliberate transition from noisy punk to more melodic rock. Produced by production duo Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, who previously worked on Radiohead's Pablo Honey, some of the album's themes included body image and beauty standards, motherhood, love, depression and abuse.

Continue reading: Album Of The Week: Celebrating The 25th Anniversary Of Hole's Feminist Album Live Through This

Six Band Reunions We'd Love To See In 2017


White Stripes Hole Led Zeppelin Oasis The Verve The Kinks

The trend of big bands and artists from yesteryear making a comeback and touring old albums showed no sign of slowing down in 2016. Even small-to-medium sized acts have opted to coin it in and perform classic albums to their devotees. Mortgages have to be paid somehow.

And yet, there are a surprising number of huge bands who have thusfar resisted the temptation to get back together. Here are six bands we’d love to announce a reunion in 2017.

The White StripesThe White Stripes performing in Leeds in 2007

Continue reading: Six Band Reunions We'd Love To See In 2017

Hit So Hard Trailer


Patty Schemel is known to many as the drummer in Hole from 1992 to 1996. Born in Seattle, she formed Kill Sybil at the age of fifteen with her brother. Five years later, she joined the all-girl punk group Doll Squad. In 1990, she was the first choice of drummer for Nirvana, after Chad Channing left the band. After Dave Grohl's audition, however, she became the second choice but after that, Kurt and Patty became close friends.

Continue: Hit So Hard Trailer

Hole, Nobody's Daughter Album Review


If you log on to the internet, you don't have to look far to find countless current news reports of Courtney Love making something of a spectacle of herself. I desperately wanted this album to blow my mind - to salvage something from the tabloid wreckage that Courtney has become. It makes me sad to say that instead of the riot that Celebrity Skin and Live Through This delivered, Nobody's Daughter pales in comparison: at worst middle of the road radio rock fodder, and at best nothing more than a storm in a teacup.

Given that this 'reformation' of Hole features none of the original members (or even anybody who has featured on previous Hole records), I automatically find the authenticity of Nobody's Daughter hard to believe. To me, this just seems like a Courtney Love solo album, and the use of the Hole brand comes across as a thinly-veiled, yet deviously calculated way of maintaining or re-establishing an enviable bank balance. How very punk rock.

The problem with Nobody's Daughter is that the music is, for the most part, mindlessly bland. The album's first single - Skinny Little Bitch - seems like it is just trying too hard to deliver a fistful of grunge. It seems fake and put on. It feels like Courtney's bite has truly gone, and only shines through on tracks like Samantha and Loser Dust - and even then it's only a faint glimmer of what once was.

Besides these three tracks, the rest of the album is made up of mid-paced and self-pitying plod-throughs like For Once In Your Life and the album's title track, which opens the album with a whisper rather than a roar. That's not to say that all of these songs are bad - Pacific Coast Highway is like a bang up to date version of Celebrity Skin's Malibu, and Someone Else's Bed has a fantastic chorus.

Courtney's performance on Nobody's Daughter is at times questionable, which isn't so good when she has made herself the centre of attention and can't deliver. Her lyrics are still top quality ("watch her wrap her legs around this world, Can't take the gutter from the girl" is a terrific example from Samantha), but sometimes her voice is not strong enough to deliver them at their full potential. Her delivery of the chorus of pacific Coast Highway certainly detracts from an otherwise great song, which is a huge shame. At the worst of times, the vocals serve as nothing more than a distraction from the radio friendly rock on offer here.

In fairness, Nobody's Daughter is probably the best we could have expected from Courtney Love in 2010 - it's a shambolic reflection of her public persona, and only really serves to remind you how great the first few Hole albums really were. If I were Courtney, I personally would have put together a Hole reunion show with Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf Der Maur and Samantha Maloney and gone on a nostalgia tour, trading off former glories and making an easy buck in the process. As it is, Nobody's Daughter is a disappointing footnote on an otherwise fantastic legacy.

1.5/5

Ben Walton

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Hit So Hard Trailer

Hit So Hard Trailer

Patty Schemel is known to many as the drummer in Hole from 1992 to 1996....

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