Courtney Love Inks Solo Deal
Hole frontwoman Courtney Love has signed a deal with Epitaph Records and is currently putting together a brand new band. While no other members of her “femme punk supergroup” have been announced, Courtney says the project will be “a really fun one-off.”
Love was unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon when the information was revealed on Hole’s official Web site, www.holemusic.com. Late in the day Epitaph label head Brett Gurewitz commented, “I’ve known Courtney since we both used to hang out at punk shows at the Starwood, and I’ve followed her career as a fan ever since. So when she called up and asked about working together, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. I hope everything works out.”
Meanwhile, Love was in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday (February 28th) for a preliminary hearing regarding her contractual dispute with Vivendi Universal. Love is hoping to sever Hole’s ties to the music conglomerate, adamantly challenging Universal’s royalty practices.
Love told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, “I could end up being the music industry’s worst nightmare: a smart gal with a fat bank account who is unafraid to go down in flames fighting for a principle . . . I’m ready to take this thing to the Supreme Court.”
In the front-page story, Love alleged that the music industry’s corrupt accounting practices are designed to hide profits and cheat artists out of royalties. Universal has an ongoing suit with Love seeking damages for five undelivered albums and contends that the contract she “willingly” signed is “a fair industry-standard agreement.”
“I’ve sunk from being marketed by an American label that understood how to sell my music to a huge Canadian corporation that knows nothing but how to sell booze and finally slid down into the sewers of Paris,” Love told the Times.
Love previously rejected a settlement offer in December 1999, advising Universal-owned Interscope Records that she would no longer record for the company.