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Hole - The First Session Audio CD

A fair review of the Hole "The First Session" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Hole reviews here, or go back to the Hole tabs.

Hole Band: Hole
Title: The First Session
Rating:
Release Date: 1997-08-26
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Retard Girl 2: Phonebill Song 3: Turpentine [#] 4: Johnnies in the Bathroom

Great EP
Beyond that, it's interesting in Hole's discography for a lot of reasons. This is a great EP and definitely worth getting if you're into Noise and Punk rock. First off, this is the only album where you can see their Mudhoney influence plain and out in the open. It's less dark than the full length that was coming up and has a lot more twisted humor (like the phone sex call in the last song). It's also got one hell of a heavy guitar sound. Not girly music in the least, so it's not surprising that most of their fans can't handle it. This is about the furthest thing away from Celebrity Skin possible and a really good example of the Stooges anger, Germs snottiness, and Sonic Youth experimentalism that made early grunge so good.


4 songs is all it takes ot prove courtney is not a waste of her "celebrity skin"
wonderful. . a little short, but wonderful. courtney rages against the world , screaming in poetry. the first track, retard girl, is a "song for anybody that has ever been picked on" but instead of being slow and sad, it captures both the anger at oneself for being that way, and the anger at the people who treat you that way. . . "don't forget her face" don't throw her away" and it suggests the retard girl will grow up to have her own revenge "i hope she doesn't see me!" phonebill song and turpentine are pure riotgrrl punk, a maenad ripping the flesh from the face of her lover, and the lyrics are so well written you cant hear it and say the girl hasn't got talent. these songs and others are featured on "my body the hand grenade," but this track is enough for a good sample of early hole and "johnnies in the bathroom" is so awesomely weird it is almost worth buying just for that.


Interesting in a way....but not very good.....
This EP is extremely raw and unpolished. . ALL the songs are repetitive,sloppy and dark. Hole would go onto display much greater music and this is really just the band in their beggining days, which makes it an interesting listen for a hole fan. There is creativity here, you can see the hole blueprint. . the ideas are forming,but the band is still trying to come up with the music part(which can be described as a dark, brooding mess of grunge-punk, with disturbing, but not entirely bad lyrics) I would recomend for hole fans to pick this up to hear the band in their earliest incarnation. . . just dont expect to hear great music. . . step back into 1990 with the monster that was courtney and hole!.


Courtney has talent
Maybe not the best musician in the world, but I adore this CD. Her later works do not give justice to how good of a talent she really has. "Retard Girl" is a nasty angry song which i LOVE and it proves that Courtney has a great voice for this kind of music. The other two songs have the same disticnt punch to them, with heavy guitars and even heavier vocals. Everyone keeps complaining about how short this album is, which pisses me off because obviously people don't understand that it is an EP, and it isnt inteanded to be a full CD, its just like a single.


"And I know all you b*tches by your Christian names!"
The EP starts off with 'Retard Girl' which was Hole's very first single. This EP is great, especially if you like earlier Hole from the 'Pretty On The Inside' days. Next is the fast punk of 'Phone Bill Song' which is one of my favorites. After that is 'Turpentine' which was the very first song Hole ever recorded (supposedly in someone's basement in 1990). This is a killer track, and hands down the best track on the EP. It's strange that this song has more melody than a lot of the songs that followed it, though. The last song is 'Johnnies In The Bathroom' which is brilliantly creepy. It's a spoken track like 'Sassy' and 'Starbelly' from 'Pretty On The Inside'. I think it's about young girls being prostituted and lured by the dangers of fame or something like that. I would have given this EP more stars but only problem: it's too short! I know it's an EP and all but it would be nice if it had 'Dicknail' and 'Burn Black' on it. Oh well. Enjoy the interview, which also features Hole's original bassist Jill Emery and original drummer Caroline Rue.


You can see a complete list of all Hole discography, or go back to the Hole tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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