Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Courtney Love's Music Career
Courtney Love's first foray into music was as the singer of Faith No More. Roddy Bottum has since stated that Love's personality did not fit in.
When Courtney Love moved to Portland, Oregon, she formed a band with Kat Bjelland (later of Babes in Toyland) and Jennifer Finch (later of L7), called Sugar Baby Doll (or Sugar Babylon). They wore ripped baby doll dresses, and dubbed their style 'Kinderwhore'.
In 1986, Courtney auditioned for the role of Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy. She lost out to Chloe Webb, but played Nancy's friend Gretchen. Sid Vicious was played by Gary Oldman. The following year, Alex Cox cast Courtney in his spaghetti-western, Straight to Hell, along with Joe Strummer, Grace Jones, Kathy Burke and Dennis Hopper.
After recruiting Eric Erlandson on guitar, Courtney Love formed Hole in 1989. Their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, was produced by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, as well as Dom Fleming. She made a number of musician friends in this period of her life, including R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins.
Shortly before the release of Live Through This, their second studio album, the band was hit by tragedy when Courtney's husband, Kurt Cobain died of an apparent suicide. A few months later, the bass player, Kristen Pfaff also died, of a suspected heroin overdose. She was replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur.
In 1996, Courtney Love appeared in Milos Forman's biopic The People Vs. Larry Flynt, playing Larry Flynt's wife, Althea. Larry was played by Woody Harrelson and the film also featured Edward Norton (whom she briefly dated). Love's performance was highly acclaimed and her public perception of her abilities started to shift.
Hole's next album, released in 1998 was another success for Love. Entitled Celebrity Skin, the album featured a more polished sound, that Love dubbed 'Fleetwood Smack'. Drummer Patty Schemel had left the band and was replaced by a session drummer, Samantha Malone.
Hole began a US tour in 1999 supporting Marilyn Manson but dropped out half way through.
In 2001, the future of Hole was uncertain. Love started a 'supergroup' named Bastard, with Louise Post of Veruca Salt and bass player Gina Crosley. Crosley was replaced by Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy, but the project never came to fruition.
2004 saw Courtney Love release a solo album entitled America's Sweetheart. The album received mixed reviews but it did not fare as well commercially as previous releases with Hole.
Courtney's second solo album, Nobody's Daughter, was started in 2005, with Linda Perry (former singer of 4 Non Blondes and songwriter for artists such as Pink, among others) at the helm, producing the album. Billy Corgan is also one of the album's collaborators. Among the musicians playing on the album are Schoo Fisher of Ozric Tentacles, Micko Larkin and Bethia Beadman.
In 2009, it was announced that Hole would be reforming, with Micko Larkin (formerly of Larrikin Love) replacing Eric Erlandson. It was also reported that Melissa Auf Der Maur would be re-joining.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Alex O’Loughlin didn’t want to be an actor because he wanted to be a star
The Aussie star — who appears alongside Jennifer Lopez in new movie The Back-Up Plan — says he loves acting because he sees it as an art form.
“My intention is not to be a famous movie star,” he said. “I became an actor because I love the work. I love being on stage, I love being part of a collaborative art form and seeing what we can create in a film, but fundamentally, the most important thing to me is what comes before that, and that’s life. Your life, your family, your people…I mean, without life experience, you can’t tell stories anyway. You’re a boring actor.
I just do my thing. I’m not that famous, dude. Sometimes I get pointed out or some people shuffle up and ask for an autograph or a photograph, but I’m not at a point where I can’t leave the house, thank God. I think the downsides would be losing your anonymity and not being able to trust people, to tell whether people want to be with you and get to know you because of your celebrity or because of who you are.
“I just try to carry the sense of integrity and authenticity I had in the beginning of my career, because I think that’s what makes people interested in you in the first place. It’s important not to lose that.”
“I just know her as her, you know what I mean?” he said. “I know her as my costar, her husband as my friend Marc, I know Max and Emme as her kids and they’re my own little mates…I just don’t see it in that way. When I step away and look at it from that perspective, yes, she’s a brand, and the machine behind the J.Lo brand informs and creates that. She obviously wanted that, and in that case, she’s a very smart businesswoman because she’s made a lot of money, I presume, and she’s had a lot of success and is very well-known.
“She must be pretty resilient, because I don’t want that. I’m not suggesting I could ever have that, but the other thing you’ve got to realize about Jennifer is that she’s as famous as she is based on her talent. She’s a very talented woman, an incredible singer, dancer and writer who’s very good at what she does, as opposed to these people you see these days who are famous for being famous. There are celebrities in this day and age who really have offered nothing artistically but they’re on the cover of magazines and stuff. That world, I don’t really get it.”
Sunday, April 11, 2010
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