Sunday, January 29, 2006

Full Album Friday 6 (Sunday Edition):
Hole Unglued, Unbootlegged

Casey Dorrell

Courtney Love. I can't imagine many indie kids are big fans of the has-been rock star who's had one-too-many plastic surgeries and is now better known for her bare chest and various chemical dependencies than anything else, save for being Kurt Cobain's widow. The mainstream is probably a bit more interested but only for the aforementioned reasons, and certainly not for her music.

Love's band, Hole, began in 1989 but, despite recieving positive reviews for their independent debut, 'Pretty on the Inside', it wasn't until they released their major label (Geffen) sophmore album, 'Live Through This' in 1994 that the band acheived rock stardom. The album was a near-perfect mix of stadium rock agnst, grunge, punk, and riot grrl. The timing was less perfect. Coming on the heels of Nirvana's final album and the death of Nirvana's lead singer and Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, 'Live Through This' was never just an album. It became a pulpit for the opionated public. Already, Love had a long-running quarrel with riot-grrl pioneer Kathleen Hannah (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), and now had to contend with accusations that her popularity relied on her association with Cobain, that Cobain wrote all her songs, and, worse still, that she killed Cobain. On top of this, one of Hole's members had died of an overdose.

Hole went on to record one final album five years later before officially disbanding in 2002, while Love went on to publicly self-destruct. Back in 1995, shortly after the release of 'Live Through This,' Hole performed an MTV Unplugged show, a series MTV began after a popular Bon Jovi acoustic set. MTV Unplugged will probably always be best known for the performances of Nirvana and Eric Clapton, and rightfully so, but Hole's acoustic set was also notable. The songs definately aren't as revelatory as Nirvana's, but it's pretty brilliant nonetheless. Of particular note is the performance of Nirvana's "You Know You're Right," about a decade before it's eventual release, of which Love says,

"All right, this is a song that Kurt wrote. Last, last song almost...um, we worked on it a little bit, we can't do it that well but it's Valentine's Day, and maybe he can hear it, and he'll go, "You know, you really fucked up my song, Courtney. Don't even try it." But if it works, it's dedicated to my mother-in-law," adding afterward, "That wasn't a very good version."



MTV never released the concert, although three tracks from the session do appear on Hole's 1997 B-Side collection, 'My Body, The Hand Grenade.' The album is widely available in about four different incarnations as overpriced bootlegs. Most contain the 11 songs from the show plus additional songs from other venues. Bootlegs of otherwise free material, especially when the bootlegger had nothing to do with the recording, aren't all that much fun. Downloading it for free, well, that is kind of fun. Let's do that.

As always, this will be removed if desired by the band or those who represent them. This album is NOT commercially available.

Download:
Hole MTV Unplugged (Unglued)
1. Hole - Miss World
2. Hole - Best Sunday Dress
3. Hole - Softer, Softest
4. Hole - Drown Soda
5. Hole - He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss)
6. Hole - Asking For It
7. Hole - You Know You're Right (Nirvana Cover)
8. Hole - Old Age
9. Hole - Hungry Like The Wolf
10. Hole - Doll Parts
11. Hole - Sugar Coma
Recorded live at "MTV Unglued" 4/17/95, Brooklyn, NY, Academy Of Music.
----------------------------------------
Bootleg Bonus!
12. Hole - Rockstar
12. Hole - Beautiful Son
13. Hole - Pennyroyal Tea (Nirvana Cover)
14. Hole - Jennifer's Body
15. Hole - Asking For It
16. Hole - Walks Over Me
17. Hole - Gutless
18. Hole - The Void
19. Hole - Credit In The Straight World
20. Hole - Teenage Whore
Recorded live, 1995, Location unknown

Buy:
My Body, the Hand Grenade
Live Through This

Related:
Tribute to Cobain is in Bloom
Full Album Friday 5 (Monday Edition): Illegal Art
Full Album Friday 4 (Sunday Edition): American Edit
Full Album Friday 3 (Saturday Edition): Thrush Hermit - Nobody Famous
Full Album Friday 2 (Saturday Edition): The 8Bits of Christmas
Full Album Friday 1 (Saturday Edition): Sufjan Christmas

5:43 am

Comments on "Full Album Friday 6 (Sunday Edition):
Hole Unglued, Unbootlegged"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (29/1/06 2:19 pm) : 

Definitely not an indie kid (I moved out of my black room long ago, and realized high school wasn't that bad after all) but not necessarily mainstream by any stretch, but intrigued that I first found your site on today's post. I definitely turned "Live Through This" up all the way, though I may never know why. I've always enjoyed an even mixture of the musical creativity (and yes I think she has it; as an example of the "Riot Grrl" approach or whatever, she certainly had more musical staying power than 4 Non Blondes (Linda Perry excluded), Babes in Toyland, and god knows how many 90s era tag-alongs...the entire era was based on aping a style to act cooler yet harder than the next, and Hole was better than most.) and the complete fascination with the tragedy she lives. She would be less of a woman if she lacked either; what is more "punk-rock" tm thank losing it in drugs, abandoned children, suicide, &c. I came to the site today to check on Jennifer's body...a good song, if only for still being memorable ten years later, as well as to see if she destroyed Pennyroyal Tea. I'll let you know how it turns out, but thanks for doing what you're doing. The writing is quite nice.

 

Blogger hazim said ... (30/1/06 12:01 am) : 

Hey. Hazim here. I actually bought America's Sweetheart (can you believe that?). It wasn't as bad as people say. It just takes a while to get used to though. Courtney's still a messed up drunk biatch who sees no difference between mother and slut, so just goes for both.
Hole was a good band. They coulda taken it further though. Nice blog. Might come here more often.

 

Blogger Casey Dorrell said ... (30/1/06 12:09 am) : 

Yeah, I too bought American Sweetheart. It's not that it was terrible, it's just that I'll never listen to it. It's similar to mid-career Hole, yet not nearly as good.

Glad you both like the site. :)

 

Blogger Michele said ... (30/1/06 7:23 pm) : 

Anyone who buys a hole cd has a hole in their head.....from the get go. That whole scene is
phycho drama.There is so much great
music out there. I wouldn't buy their cd if it was at the 99 cent store.

 

Blogger Calum Marsh said ... (30/1/06 7:58 pm) : 

I'd still tap it.

 

Blogger wwjblog said ... (31/1/06 2:59 pm) : 

thanks so much for this. great stuff. i wish she would put out an album like this. im really excited for the new stuff she is working on with that one bald pumpkin guy.

 

Blogger mel said ... (1/2/06 10:29 pm) : 

Before this post went up, I was out with some friends talking about late '90s rock, and Hole came up. In all seriousness I said,

"I've always enjoyed me a little Hole... aw crap."

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (1/3/06 3:20 pm) : 

hey!great music!!
but won't you please add the song "Celebrity Skin" with Hole!?!?
I need it so bad!

 

Blogger Casey Dorrell said ... (1/3/06 3:28 pm) : 

You can buy that CD used on ebay for dirt cheap - Celebrity Skin was about half a decade after these concerts, the second incarnation of Hole.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (26/4/06 8:02 pm) : 

Over the last 12 years it's become pretty obvious Courtney isn't "all there" mentaly, and i wouldn't be at all suprised if she really did have something to do with Kurt's death. Kurt was everything Courtney wanted to be. If he was really planning on leaving her (and possibly taking the kid) I would think that'd be just the kind of thing that would set her off.

 

Blogger Casey Dorrell said ... (26/4/06 10:08 pm) : 

Motive maybe, but means are still suspect to me.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (5/5/06 5:51 pm) : 

The correct date is 2/14/95.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (15/6/06 11:26 pm) : 

this was my favorite mtv unplugged concert. I also love the stone temple pilot mtv unplugged concert. Do you have any idea where I can find it?
aerosmith and oasis also had good unplugged sets.
thanks for the great posting.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (22/10/06 8:50 pm) : 

graet site,thank u.
looked a long time for hole´s "best sunday dress" now i´m happy :) .
live is a shity game,but the graphics,
marvellous!

 

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Anonymous buy cheap rs gold said ... (28/2/12 2:14 am) : 

Superb! Normally I in no way read entire articles but the approach a person authored this information is just amazing and also this held my personal interest in looking at and that i liked the idea.

 

Anonymous Stephanie said ... (10/9/13 2:43 am) : 

The links are not working :( Could you reupload, please??? Thank you.

 

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