Word: erlandson
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Chateau Marmont. Tall, lean, with pale, muscular arms and bare, nicked-up legs. She clears her throat as she strolls in, clearing it in a louder-than-she-needed-to, public-announcement way. Courtney Love: head turner, showstopper, superstar. Her band mates in her group Hole--guitarist Eric Erlandson and bassist Melissa Auf der Maur--have been waiting, relaxing on couches. Hole has a terrific new CD out, Celebrity Skin, the band's third release. The group has gone through many changes since it formed in 1990--musical changes, philosophical changes, personnel changes. The band's last bassist, Kristen Pfaff...
...bleached hair has dark roots. Skin's polite production might win listeners, but Love's displays of rude beauty, of a sad radiance that seems to come from a place beyond contrivance--those are the moments that make this CD spectacular listening. Just hear her morose, lyrical ramble over Erlandson's spare guitar on Northern Star; or the line in the enchanting Malibu when she breaks the song's sweet spell, growling, "And I knew/ Love would tear you apart/ Oh and I knew/ The darkest secret of your heart." This CD has pop skin, but it bleeds punk...
...pressure is getting to the band, which has been through difficult times lately--Love's husband Kurt Cobain committed suicide last April, and the group's bassist, Kristen Pfaff, died of an apparent heroin overdose last June. During rehearsals, Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson snap at each other. "Shut up, Eric," Love says at one point. "You're the one with the girlfriend on the cover of Playboy." (Erlandson is dating actress Drew Barrymore, who recently appeared nude in that magazine.) The testy exchange makes one wonder, Can this band pull it together in time to perform...
...band's ragged sound is perversely charming in this folksy format. They rip through a few songs from their current CD, Live Through This, as well as an unreleased Cobain tune, You Got No Right. The performance is unexpectedly loud, and not completely unplugged--Love and Erlandson gamely pluck away at acoustic guitars and are backed by a harpist, but their instruments are wired to not strictly kosher onstage electric amplifiers. Still, the show has grit and guts. Love, relaxing later at a local club with comic Sandra Bernhard, is upbeat: "I thought it went well." Erlandson is less sure...