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My Body, the Hand Grenade
My Body, the Hand Grenade is the first and only compilation album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on October 28, 1997, through the band's European label, City Slang Records. It was also imported for sale in the United States, where it was released on December 10, 1997. The album was compiled with the intent of tracking the band's progression from their noise rock beginnings to the more melodic songwriting that appeared on their second album, Live Through This (1994).
Made up of various unreleased tracks, B-sides, and singles, the album contains tracks from the band's first recording session in March 1990, as well as recordings sourced from several live performances. As a result, the tracks feature various bassists and drummers from past lineups, including drummers Caroline Rue and Patty Schemel, and bassists Jill Emery and Kristen Pfaff. Frontwoman Courtney Love is also featured playing bass guitar on one of the tracks. The album is dedicated to Pfaff's memory.
Production and mixing of the album was done chiefly by the band's lead guitarist, Eric Erlandson, while Courtney Love designed the album art, which features portraits of, and images referencing, Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Jayne Mansfield, with "decapitated women" being the cohesive theme. The album's title, also conceived by Love, references this as well, with the pulling of the trigger-pin in a hand grenade functioning as a symbol for a body being decapitated. The album received mixed to positive critical reception, with critics addressing the strengths of individual tracks but noting a lack of cohesion. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number 82 on the UK Albums Chart.
My Body, the Hand Grenade is the first and only compilation album to be released by Hole. The liner notes also explain that the compilation was put together to document Hole's progression from the punk-influenced Pretty on the Inside (released in 1991) to their more restrained, alternative rock-based Live Through This (released in 1994). The album was dedicated to former Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff and Kurt Cobain, both of whom died in 1994.
The first four tracks on the album originate from the band's first studio sessions in a "Los Angeles basement" at Rudy's Rising Star studio, where they recorded "Retard Girl", along with the tracks "Phonebill Song", "Johnnie's in the Bathroom", and "Turpentine". These tracks were consolidated and released as an extended play in August 1997, titled The First Session. Additionally, numerous singles, including "Dicknail" and "Beautiful Son", and their respective b-sides appear on the album. Love, who was typically a guitarist, is featured playing bass on "20 Years in the Dakota", a B-side to "Beautiful Son" that Love wrote about Yoko Ono. "Old Age", an outtake from Live Through This, also appears on the record. A formerly unreleased demo version of "Miss World", recorded in Brazil by Love, drummer Patty Schemel, and Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was also included. Cobain, though uncredited, plays bass on the track, which features Love on guitar and Schemel on drums.
A total of five live tracks appear on the album: "Softer, Softest", "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (a cover of The Crystals), and "Season of the Witch" (a Donovan cover) were all recorded from Hole's performance on MTV Unplugged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Valentine's Day 1995. "Drown Soda" and "Asking for It", were recorded at London's Brixton Academy and the Reading Festival on May 4 and August 25, 1995, respectively.
The majority of the songs on the album are credited to Hole, although the official BMI website notes that most of the songs were written solely by Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson, except "Retard Girl", which was written by Love alone; "Old Age", co-written by Kurt Cobain with additional arrangements by Love, "Beautiful Son" and "20 Years In The Dakota", written by Love, Erlandson and Patty Schemel; and "Drown Soda", the only case on the album of a song credited to a full Hole line-up, which at the time of writing was, Love, Erlandson, Jill Emery and Caroline Rue.
As a compilation album, the composition of its songs spans across a period of six years, charting the evolution of the band's alternative rock sound. The opening tracks on the album, which are from the band's first recording session, exhibit the band's early style, noted for its abrasive guitar work (heavily influenced by noise rock, grindcore, and no wave music) and literate, aggressive lyrics, many of which mix derogatory language with cryptic and religious themes. In particular, "Retard Girl" is a narrative of a girl being abused and made fun of on a playground. "Turpentine", as well as "Retard Girl", feature historical and religious references as well: "Turpentine" features lyrics alluding to Christianity ("I know all you devils by your Christian names / And I know all you bitches by your Christian names", "Bless my body and bless my soul / Wrap it in turpentine"), while a line from "Retard Girl", which reads: "As shines the moon among the lesser fires", is directly referenced from Odes, a book of Latin poems by Roman poet Horace.
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My Body, the Hand Grenade
My Body, the Hand Grenade is the first and only compilation album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on October 28, 1997, through the band's European label, City Slang Records. It was also imported for sale in the United States, where it was released on December 10, 1997. The album was compiled with the intent of tracking the band's progression from their noise rock beginnings to the more melodic songwriting that appeared on their second album, Live Through This (1994).
Made up of various unreleased tracks, B-sides, and singles, the album contains tracks from the band's first recording session in March 1990, as well as recordings sourced from several live performances. As a result, the tracks feature various bassists and drummers from past lineups, including drummers Caroline Rue and Patty Schemel, and bassists Jill Emery and Kristen Pfaff. Frontwoman Courtney Love is also featured playing bass guitar on one of the tracks. The album is dedicated to Pfaff's memory.
Production and mixing of the album was done chiefly by the band's lead guitarist, Eric Erlandson, while Courtney Love designed the album art, which features portraits of, and images referencing, Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Jayne Mansfield, with "decapitated women" being the cohesive theme. The album's title, also conceived by Love, references this as well, with the pulling of the trigger-pin in a hand grenade functioning as a symbol for a body being decapitated. The album received mixed to positive critical reception, with critics addressing the strengths of individual tracks but noting a lack of cohesion. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number 82 on the UK Albums Chart.
My Body, the Hand Grenade is the first and only compilation album to be released by Hole. The liner notes also explain that the compilation was put together to document Hole's progression from the punk-influenced Pretty on the Inside (released in 1991) to their more restrained, alternative rock-based Live Through This (released in 1994). The album was dedicated to former Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff and Kurt Cobain, both of whom died in 1994.
The first four tracks on the album originate from the band's first studio sessions in a "Los Angeles basement" at Rudy's Rising Star studio, where they recorded "Retard Girl", along with the tracks "Phonebill Song", "Johnnie's in the Bathroom", and "Turpentine". These tracks were consolidated and released as an extended play in August 1997, titled The First Session. Additionally, numerous singles, including "Dicknail" and "Beautiful Son", and their respective b-sides appear on the album. Love, who was typically a guitarist, is featured playing bass on "20 Years in the Dakota", a B-side to "Beautiful Son" that Love wrote about Yoko Ono. "Old Age", an outtake from Live Through This, also appears on the record. A formerly unreleased demo version of "Miss World", recorded in Brazil by Love, drummer Patty Schemel, and Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was also included. Cobain, though uncredited, plays bass on the track, which features Love on guitar and Schemel on drums.
A total of five live tracks appear on the album: "Softer, Softest", "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (a cover of The Crystals), and "Season of the Witch" (a Donovan cover) were all recorded from Hole's performance on MTV Unplugged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Valentine's Day 1995. "Drown Soda" and "Asking for It", were recorded at London's Brixton Academy and the Reading Festival on May 4 and August 25, 1995, respectively.
The majority of the songs on the album are credited to Hole, although the official BMI website notes that most of the songs were written solely by Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson, except "Retard Girl", which was written by Love alone; "Old Age", co-written by Kurt Cobain with additional arrangements by Love, "Beautiful Son" and "20 Years In The Dakota", written by Love, Erlandson and Patty Schemel; and "Drown Soda", the only case on the album of a song credited to a full Hole line-up, which at the time of writing was, Love, Erlandson, Jill Emery and Caroline Rue.
As a compilation album, the composition of its songs spans across a period of six years, charting the evolution of the band's alternative rock sound. The opening tracks on the album, which are from the band's first recording session, exhibit the band's early style, noted for its abrasive guitar work (heavily influenced by noise rock, grindcore, and no wave music) and literate, aggressive lyrics, many of which mix derogatory language with cryptic and religious themes. In particular, "Retard Girl" is a narrative of a girl being abused and made fun of on a playground. "Turpentine", as well as "Retard Girl", feature historical and religious references as well: "Turpentine" features lyrics alluding to Christianity ("I know all you devils by your Christian names / And I know all you bitches by your Christian names", "Bless my body and bless my soul / Wrap it in turpentine"), while a line from "Retard Girl", which reads: "As shines the moon among the lesser fires", is directly referenced from Odes, a book of Latin poems by Roman poet Horace.