1989–1991: Early work and indie success 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 the
Red Hot Chili Peppers; during the day, Love worked as a
stripper to support the band and purchase amplifiers and their
backline for live shows. 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." Initially, the band had no percussion until Love met drummer Caroline Rue 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 mobster
Eddie Nash—with a screwdriver when the club refused to pay them for their performance. Hole released their
no wave-influenced debut single "
Retard Girl" in April 1990, and followed it with "
Dicknail" in 1991, released on
Sympathy for the Record Industry and
Sub Pop, respectively. According to disc jockey
Rodney Bingenheimer, Love would often approach him at a
Denny's on
Sunset Blvd. where he went for coffee in the mornings, and convinced him to give "Retard Girl" airtime on his station
KROQ-FM. In 1991, the band signed onto
Caroline Records to release their debut album, and Love sought
Kim Gordon of
Sonic Youth to produce the record. She sent a letter, a
Hello 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 the
SST record" (either referring to Sonic Youth's album
Sister or
EVOL). Gordon, impressed by the band's singles, agreed to produce the album, with assistance from
Gumball's Don Fleming. The album, titled
Pretty on the Inside, was released in September 1991 to positive reception from underground critics, branded "loud, ugly and deliberately shocking", and earned a spot on
Spins "20 Best Albums of the Year" list. It was also voted album of the year by New York's
Village Voice and peaked at number 59 on the UK albums chart. The album spawned one single, "
Teenage Whore", which entered the UK Indie Chart at number one, 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 and
sludge metal, characterized by overt noise and feedback, chaotic guitar
riffs, contrasting tempos, graphic lyrics, and a variation of Love's vocals ranging from whispers to guttural screaming. In later years, Love referred to the album as "unlistenable", despite its critical accolades and eventual
cult following. The band embarked on a European
tour in the fall of 1991 supporting
Mudhoney. They also toured intermittently in the United States between July and December 1991, playing primarily at hard rock and punk clubs, including
CBGB and the
Whisky a Go Go, where they opened for
the Smashing Pumpkins. In a write-up by the
Los Angeles Times on the band's final show of the tour, it was noted that Love smashed the headstock of her
Rickenbacker guitar onstage. 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 with
Vanity Fair, Love described Madonna's interest as "kind of like Dracula's interest in his latest victim". 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." In April 1992, drummer
Patty 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. In the spring of 1993, Love and Erlandson recruited
Janitor Joe bassist
Kristen Pfaff, 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 in
Marietta, Georgia, in October 1993. in Melbourne, January 1995
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" by
Spin magazine.
NME called the album "a personal but secretive thrash-pop opera of urban nihilism and passionate dumb thinks", and
Rolling Stone said the album "may be the most potent blast of female insurgency ever committed to tape". Despite the critical praise for
Live Through This, rumors circulated insinuating that Cobain had actually written the majority of the album, though the band vehemently denies this. The band put their impending tour on hold, pulling out of the upcoming
Lollapalooza festival. Recruiting bassist
Melissa Auf der Maur over the summer, they commenced their world tour on August 26 at the
Reading Festival in England, giving a performance that
John Peel described as "teetering on the edge of chaos". The band embarked on a worldwide tour throughout late 1994 and for the duration of 1995, with appearances at the
KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas,
Saturday Night Live, the
Big Day Out festival,
MTV Unplugged, the 1995 Reading Festival, Lollapalooza 1995, and at the
MTV Video Music Awards, where they were nominated for the "Doll Parts" music video. Love's reckless stage presence during the tour became a media spectacle, drawing press from MTV and other outlets due to her unpredictable performances. While touring with Sonic Youth, Love got into a physical fight with
Kathleen Hanna backstage at a 1995 Lollapalooza festival and punched her in the face. In an August 1995 band interview with
Rolling Stone, drummer Patty Schemel formally
came out as a
lesbian, 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 being
gay to know that there's other people who are and that it's okay." The band performed its last show of the year on September 3, 1995, at the Molson Polar Beach Party in
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. The concert was a promotional event for the
Molson Brewery, and also featured performances by
Metallica,
Veruca Salt, and
Moist.
1996–1999: Celebrity Skin In 1996, the band recorded and released a cover of
Fleetwood Mac's "
Gold Dust Woman" for
The Crow: City of Angels (1996) soundtrack, the band's first studio song to feature Melissa Auf der Maur on bass, and produced by
Ric Ocasek. Hole released two retrospective albums during this time: firstly, their second EP, titled
The 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. 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. 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. 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 the
California sound" in the L.A. tradition of bands like
The Doors,
The Beach Boys and
The Byrds. Erlandson responded to Corgan's statements in a
Rolling 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." One journalist took note of the controversy when reviewing the album, stating: "Back in 1994, the acclaim for
Live Through This was undercut by whispers that Love's late husband wrote the album. Combine those
conspiracy 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 in
demonology." 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 "a
Nazi". as well as a four-star review from the
Los Angeles Times, calling it a "wild emotional ride" sure to be "one of the most dissected and debated collections of the year". "Malibu", released December 29, 1998, was the album's second single; it charted at number 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks.
1999–2002: Final tour and disbandment In the winter of 1998–99, Hole went on tour to promote
Celebrity Skin, joining
Marilyn Manson, who was promoting his album,
Mechanical Animals (1998) on the
Beautiful Monsters Tour. Manson and Love often mocked one another onstage, and Love attacked Manson's stage antics, which included tearing up a
Bible 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. 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. On June 17, 1999, during Hole's set at the
Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, a 19-year-old girl died after being crushed by the mosh pit behind the mixing board. Samantha Maloney also quit a few months later. The band's final release was a single for the movie
Any Given Sunday (1999). "
Be a Man", released in March 2000, was an outtake from the
Celebrity Skin sessions. In April 2002, Love called
The Howard Stern Show and said she had written nine songs with songwriter
Linda Perry, but less than a month later Love and Erlandson officially disbanded Hole via a message posted on the band's website. 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 group
RRIICCEE with controversial artist
Vincent Gallo. Love began a solo career, releasing her debut, ''
America's Sweetheart, in 2004, featuring several of the songs written with Perry. Melissa Auf der Maur also embarked on a solo career, and released her self-titled debut album in 2004, which included Erlandson performing lead guitar on the track, "Would If I Could". Her second album, Out of Our Minds'', was released in March 2010. Hole's body of work from its inception to its first disbandment includes thirteen singles, three LPs, three EPs, 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. In response, Eric Erlandson stated in an interview with
Spin magazine that a reunion could not take place without his involvement, citing that he and Love "have a contract". Hole launched a new website and various social media pages on January 1, 2010, and performed on
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in February. On February 17, 2010, they played a full set at the
O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, with support from
Little Fish. On March 16, the first Hole single in ten years was released, titled "
Skinny Little Bitch"; it peaked at No. 29 on the
Billboard Rock Chart, and at No. 21 on the
Alternative Singles chart.
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". Love's voice, which had become noticeably raspier, was compared to the likes of
Bob Dylan.
NME gave the album a 6/10 rating, and
Robert Christgau rated it an "A−", saying, "Thing is, I can use some new punk rage in my life, and unless you're a fan of
Goldman Sachs and
BP 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." In support of the release, Hole toured extensively between 2010 and 2012 throughout North America and Europe, and Brazil. On March 28, 2011, Love, Erlandson, Patty Schemel and Auf der Maur appeared at the New York screening of Schemel's documentary
Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Patty Schemel at the
Museum of Modern Art. 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." In May 2011, a music video for "
Samantha" was shot in
Istanbul, although it remained officially unreleased. In September 2011,
Scott Lipps joined the band, replacing drummer
Stu 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 the
Wipers' "Over the Edge", at an after-party for the
Hit So Hard documentary. The performance marked the first time the four members performed together since 1998 after Schemel's departure and the 2002 breakup of the band. On December 29, 2012, Love performed a solo acoustic set in New York City, and in January 2013, performed at the
Sundance Film Festival under her own name. She booked further performances across North America as a solo act, with Larkin, bassist
Shawn Dailey, and Lipps as her backing band.
2014–2016: Second disbandment '' (2012) at the
Museum of Modern Art, New York City On December 28, 2013, Love posted two photos of herself with Erlandson on
Facebook and
Twitter, with a caption reading: "And this just happened ... 2014 going to be a very interesting year." Love also
tagged 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. On April 2, 2014,
Rolling Stone reported that the
Celebrity Skin line-up of the band had reunited (with Patty Schemel in lieu of Samantha Maloney).
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." On May 1, in an interview with
Pitchfork, Love discussed the possibility of a reunion, and also stated it had been "a mistake" releasing ''Nobody'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 put ''Nobody's Daughter'' under my own name." 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 with
Dokken. Eric hasn't flipped—I jammed with him, he's still doing his Thurston [Moore]-crazy tunings, still corresponding with
Kevin Shields. We all get along great. There are bands who reunite and hate each others' guts. In March 2020, Love and Auf der Maur planned a performance at the "Bans Off My Body" event, which was eventually canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Artistry==