WHOSE HOLE RECORD IS IT, ANYWAY? WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES twelve, will the new Hole record turn into a pumpkin? Billy Corgan seems to think so. In interviews to promote the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Adore, Corgan claimed to be the force behind Hole’s upcoming Celebrity Skin. "I was the Svengali," he told U.K. magazine Select. "There would not be a new Hole album without me.... I got [Courtney Love] off her ass and down to the fucking studio." Still smarting from speculation that Kurt Cobain was largely responsible for Hole’s 1994 breakthrough, Live Through This, Love fired back in a statement defending the work she did with band mates Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur and Patty Schemel. "[We] worked ourselves to the bone to create this record," she said, "and I feel it’s silly and somewhat sexist to credit Billy Corgan with things Billy Corgan did not do." What Corgan did do was spend twelve days co-writing seven songs with Love and Erlandson, five of which made it onto the album. "He helped Courtney with phrasing and taught her how to edit herself," says a source at Hole’s label, Geffen. Overall, the record is catchier and less gritty than Live Through This, and songs like the title track and "Hits So Hard" make Corgan’s influence apparent. The Geffen source added that since the sniping, the two have communicated by fax and seem to be getting along. During a recent interview, Corgan raved about how good the Hole album is. - Matt Hendrickson, Rolling Stone, Augst 6, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - -