FEATURED SOUNDBYTE: HOLE: THE CELEBRITY SKINNY Would you like to know who really killed JFK? No problem. Curious about the secret formula for Coca-Cola? You got it? Want details about the new Hole record? I'm sorry. Reply hazy. Try again next time. Until this week's ray of light, revealed below, it's been one "no comment" after another since 1995 when the band's now-classic sophomore release, Live Through This, was pronounced unofficially toured out and drained of potential hit singles. Those waiting for new rock'n'roll from Hole have been resigned to the cold shadows of a virtual media blackout. Save a deft Fleetwood Mac cover ("Gold Dust Woman"), a handful of smart Courtney Love film roles (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Basquiat, and the not so smart Feeling Minnesota), some curious fashion magazine covers, and enough backlash to bisect the band's core fan base like a Damien Hirst cow, there hasn't been a crumb of nourishing info. Hole fans could perish from scurvy for all the illuminating confirmations put out. Sure, the British music press have managed to extract some teasing, vague data here and there. If Love's flippant hints were to be believed the record was going to sound like: a. Cheap Trick b. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours c. Echo and the Bunnymen and/or the Smiths All the while, nobody deigned to ask Love if she appreciated, from an informant's perspective, just how radically different each of the above artists' works are from one another? The "Mystery Album" was rumored to be a summer smash--a must for the discerning beach-bag Discman. Then the mid-to-late-summer release was pushed back to early fall. Was Courtney shooting a movie? The indie 200 Cigarettes? Did the record need tweaking? Who can say for sure? A public, but respectful, word war between Love and Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan only confounded the issue. Where was the record? What did it sound like? Did Corgan write all the music? For each piece of information squeezed out, ten more questions arose. It wasn't until early this month that the album's title, Celebrity Skin, was confirmed. And even then it was a "maybe" or a "probably," as opposed to a "yes." It seemed as if Courtney Love would never really return to reclaim her lock on the devotion of the female teenage audience from platinum upstarts like Natalie Imbruglia and Alanis Morissette. Just waiting for the record became the equivalent of waiting for Christmas morning--fans found joy in knowing that someday it was coming. Christmas is coming early this year--September, to be exact. After a near fatal drought, this week saw a virtual monsoon of confirmations--as if the hand of some supreme being flashed a great thumbs up. Courtney Love and her band Hole (guitarist Eric Erlandson, bassist Melissa Auf der Maur and drummer Patty Schemel) will release Celebrity Skin on September 8, 1998. Confirmed! The first single off Celebrity Skin is the title track. Confirmed! The band will shoot a video for the title track, most likely in Los Angeles, most likely this week, most likely with a video camera and some degree of artful finesse. Confirmed! The twelve-song track listing for Celebrity Skin is as follows: "Celebrity Skin" "Awful" "Hits So Hard" "Malibu" "Reasons To Be Beautiful" "Dying" "Use Once And Destroy" "Northern Star" "Boys On The Radio" "Heaven Tonight" "Playing Your Song" "Petals" Confirmed by Geffen Records and all and sundry Supreme Beings. In addition, the band will perform on September 10 at the 15th annual MTV Video Music Awards. A tour in support of Celebrity Skin is in the planning stages. But, as ever, for every piece of information revealed there are a slew of new mysteries. Rumors are swirling about the status and sobriety of drummer Patty Schemel. At press time, the only semi-official comment is that Schemel is "on vacation" and will not appear in the video for "Celebrity Skin." Possible replacement drummers, including Shift's Samantha Maloney, are being auditioned. If Maloney is given the gig, will her role be that of percussive body-double or the band's new, permanent, touring, recording, drummer? We've made the calls and come full circle: Reply hazy. Try again later. - source unknown - - - - - - - - - - - - -