Courtney Love Calls Off Reunion With Hole

Recently, Courtney Love has decided not to follow through with plans to reunite with Hole for a brief tour. If you’re like me, you have no idea how to process that sentence. If you’re also like me, you have no idea why you’re unable to process that sentence.

Courtney Love formed Hole in 1989 and during its thirteen-year run, the group released two albums that are considered to be both stellar and essential: 1994’s Live Through This and 1998’s Celebrity Skin, two albums that made us all realize that Love actually had talent as a musician and could be taken seriously outside of the context of Kurt Cobain. Then Hole disbanded in 2002 and Courtney Love proceeded to get “weird” (for lack of a better word) for the next decade or so.

So, Courtney Love’s initial announcement of the reunion generated both some controversy (she announced it shortly around the 20th Anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s demise), and some genuine enthusiasm (because Hole was actually pretty damn good band), and many crossed their fingers hoping beyond hope that this would actually become a happening. Then, like a flash of lightning, the reunion was no more (at least not until 2015). In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Love laid out a two-fold rationale for holding off on a reunion: (1) they want to reunite in a non-obvious way, and (2) Love specifically wants to record new material with the group. While it could be argued that the first reason seems a bit hipsterish and loaded with balderdash, it is the second reason that is most telling, particularly when Love stated that she “can’t live on the oldies circuit.” Love wants to see Hole reunite again, but she doesn’t want to go the route of a “nostalgia tour.” She’d rather never see Hole perform together again than have the band get paid to perform the same old hits night after night.

While it would seem challenging for a group to suddenly thrust themselves back into the studio scene after a sixteen-year absence, we must remind ourselves that we are part of a generation that has seen groups such as Cream and The Police reunite, two groups that consisted of individuals that seemed loathe to ever work together again in any sort of context. Whenever and however the stars align, one thing can be made abundantly clear: We will see Hole reunite once more, and it’ll be awesome.