From: Los Angeles, California

Active: 1991–1998

I first heard them: on the tribute album Fourteen Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers.  I’d heard of them before that, of course, given that Courtney Love was married to Kurt Cobain, but “Over the Edge” was the first time I’d actually heard their music.

Sound: I never did buy Hole’s first album.  Their second (Live Through This) is a canonical alternative rock record, which I listened to pretty much on repeat throughout the summer of 1994.  The third (Celebrity Skin) was my favorite album until Jack Off Jill’s Clear Hearts Grey Flowers knocked it out of the top spot.  And… since then, I’d guess that Hole is the band that has fallen in my esteem more than any other.  Largely because after listening to Care Failure, Jessicka Addams, Julie Christmas, and of course Poppy, I have found Courtney Love’s vocal limitations harder for me to ignore.  I put on a Hole song and wish someone else were singing it.

Further listening: That said, while Hole may no longer dominate the upper reaches of my /chart/ page, they do still have three songs in the top 100, which ain’t too shabby.  Here are some more that might well land in the next 100.

		“Teenage Whore” (1991)
		“Over the Edge” (1992)
		“Asking for It” (1994)
		“Celebrity Skin” (1998)
		“Reasons to Be Beautiful” (1998)
		“Boys on the Radio” (1998)