Erstellt am: 22. 6. 2014 - 14:34 Uhr
All you need is Love
Auch wer, wie der Schreiber dieser Zeilen, die Übertragung des heurigen Life Balls versäumte, hat vielleicht ein Bild von Stargast Courtney Love aufgeschnappt. Wie eine bizarre Erscheinung herabgebeamt vom Planeten Hollywood wirkte die Musikerin und Teilzeitschauspielerin. Zu den regelmäßigen Gesichtskorrekturen, an die man sich beinahe schon gewöhnt hatte, gesellte sich ein monströs aufgepimptes Dekolleté.
Es war einmal vor langer Zeit in einer weit entfernten Galaxis: Einer aalglatten Mainstream-Übermacht standen kleine Fraktionen von Rebellentruppen gegenüber. Durchgeknallte Noiserocker, kompromisslose Filmemacher oder Hard-Boiled-Literaten beispielsweise.
Weil das Internet noch genauso Zukunftsmusik war wie Comickino-Blockbuster und fesselnde HBO-Serien, weil niemand an riesige Rockfestivals hierzulande zu denken wagte, bei denen tatsächlich aufregende Bands auftreten, tauschte man verwaschene VHS-Kassetten von verruchten Horrorfilmen, lauschte kratzigen Vinylplatten oder traf sich in verrauchten Kellern zu rauschhaften Clubgigs.
Euphorisierte einen irgendein Konzert, Album, Film oder Buch ganz besonders, gab es Lichtjahre vor der Erfindung von Blogs, Foren und Facebook nur wenige Möglichkeiten seine Begeisterung kundzutun: Bei hitzigen nächtlichen Bargesprächen mit Freunden etwa. Oder in einem Fanzine, einem oft handkopierten Heftchen voller subkultureller Brandreden.
Diese Serie taucht, hoffentlich ohne nostalgische Verklärung, in jene Ära ein, als die Fronten zwischen Underground und Mainstream noch nicht verwaschen waren, holt Fundstücke aus den Archiven, erzählt von extremen Phänomenen und außergewöhnlichen Charakteren.
Nichts ungewöhnliches im Laufsteg-Kontext für die Scharen der ahnungslosen Beobachter und Berichterstatter, die höchstens noch den Namen Kurt Cobain vage mit Courtney Love assozierten. Ich für meinen Teil, der das Hole-Album "Live Through This" als Indie-Rock-Meilenstein inniger verehrt als Nirvanas "Nevermind", schüttelte dann doch ein wenig fassungslos den Kopf. Und musste angesichts der Fotos der Dame mit dem breiten Collagen-Grinsen an zwei vergangene Treffen mit Courtney denken.
APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER
Begegnung mit der sympathischen Despotin
Die spätere Audienz war unspektakulärer Natur und fand 1998 im Zuge zur Promotion von "Celebrity Skin" statt, dem nur mäßig geglückten Versuch die Band Hole zum Superstarstatus zu katapultieren. Ich musste im Vorfeld einen Vertrag unterschreiben, der jegliche persönliche Fragen untersagte, speziell zum toten Ex-Gatten Kurt. Ein amüsanter Wortaustausch mit einer stylischen Courtney Love, die damals als Skandal-Spezialistin, Hollywood-Diva und Versace-Model durch die Medien geisterte, wurde es trotzdem.
Die wirklich unvergessliche Begegnung mit Madame Love ereignete sich aber im Herbst 1991. Im Backstage des Wiener U4 lümmelte eine damals noch wenig bekannte Noiserock-Band namens Hole herum. Während die Plattencoverfotos eine glamouröse Courtney zeigten, erwartete mich als jungen Teilzeitjournalisten ehrliche Ungeschminktheit im wahrsten Sinn des Wortes.
Die Frau im Bademantel, die ohne Make Up ruinöse Züge trägt, hat den ganzen Raum im Griff. Zwischen Zehennägellackieren und dem Interview kommandiert Courtney Love die restlichen Hole-Mitglieder herum und spielt einmal kurz auf der Akustik-Klampfe. Tratsch, Gerüchte und scharfzüngige Trenddiagnosen wechseln sich ab. Der Eindruck: Eine von Worten übersprudelnde sympathische Despotin.
Die Themen gehen von der Radikaltheoretikerin Camille Paglia zu Sex im Rockbusiness zur neuen Haarfarbe von XY. Zwischendrin beginnt Courtney zu schwärmen, wie cool doch dieser Kurt Cobain von Nirvana sei, den möchte sie jetzt bald wieder treffen. Ein kleines historisches Dokument, für euch von einer Audiokassette transkribiert.
Geffen
Von bösen Majors und Madonna
There seem to be strange times going on, with lots of independent bands being snapped up by the majors...
Everything is going crazy, after the Nirvana thing. The guy from Geffen followed us to Paris saying: "Courtney, we can make some stupid money, right now". It´s getting sad. What´s going to happen is the major labels, which are full of idiots who don't know the difference between mediocre alternative music and good alternative music, are going to sign every fucking thing. Everyone’s going to get money. The Smashing Pumpkins publishing deal is up to $1.5 million, after the Nirvana thing. Every label wants us, it’s strange.
Would you go to a major label?
If we sold 100.000 on our own, then yes, because we would need the distrubution. If not, then why bother. I wouldn't be getting any more money from a major label for selling records. The labels give you only all this stupid fake "upfront" money. It's like gambling with yourself. If we do go to a major, then we're going to make them fight, because then we get to go to lunch a lot. You wanna hear something weird? Madonna called our lawyer because she's starting a label, and we're the band she wants. I don't think it'll work, because I have a real ego thing about Madonna. It's like, you may only sell a 1/100th of the records they sell, but you're bigger than them. I think Madonna just wants us to be her feminist pet project. Madonna getting credibility through me? I don't think so.
But you are not a puristic indie person?
I'm from a real small town. There´s this town nearby called Olympia, where K Records are. K Records are very much in their own world, very unprentious, charming and innocent. I grew up around these people, and I was always very loud. I just wanted more power, so they made fun of me. I never fucking forget who I am, and I will never forget what I am about. I will never fucking forget how bad I want to fuck shit up. My theory about the Corporate Ogre is: why cower from the Corporate Ogre when you can be giving it incurable syphillis. Thats what Nirvana are doing, and I have no fucking problem with it. All the bands we play with are always slagging Nirvana, saying they're pussies, making dumb mediocre pop muisc. The reality is those bands are just fucking jealous of Nirvana, because they had the nerve to say; "fuck Olympia, fuck K, fuck Fugazi, we're gonna go in there and we're gonna destroy everything".
You seem to have a big connection with Nirvana...
It's great. We played with them in Belgium and we destroyed the entire backline. The promoter faxed them a message later saying; "You and Hole are like children. You're wasting your career. You immature babies should not be allowed to play rock music and throw sausages at the audience." It's fun. They were on the cover of Rolling Stone and Nirvana refused to speak with them. If that isn't punk rock, then tell me what is.
Spin
Girls will be boys
How are you affected by this whole girl band hype at the moment?
Everything is ghettoised. Sub Pop, Manchester, guys from Minneapolis in flannel shirts, all is ghettoised. The ghettoisation thing is down to who writes the best songs. We're not competing with those bands. I've been friends with Jennifer from L7 and Kat from Babes in Toyland since we were 12. We went to school with each other. We had a band and we ended up being a really dense pop group, but we really didn’t want to be.
You seem to write always melodic songs with an harder edge?
Fuck, yeah. If I wrote an Abba song, it would come out totally warped.
So you use your music as a release?
In a way. My friend Kat says that alot. But, it's like I'm not having therapy. I'm writing songs because I've always been writing songs. Why does always have to be the girls that have the exorcisms? When we played in Berlin some english journalist said that he really likes Hole, but it's all contrived and an act. Whats all an act? That I'm playing rock music? Then it's about life, being sick, love, hate and everything. Is that an act? Is that I was supposed to of had this terrible life, in order to be valid?
It’s interesting that you concentrate on the lyrics. Most noisy bands today concentrate on the pure musical side of things.
I’m getting more into the riff side of it. It was challenging, because I didn't really know anything when I started this band. I knew how to play normal pop and three chord punk thrash. I wasn't really trying to see the sonic possibilties of what can be done with the guitar. For a little while, I really liked industrial music. I used to tell our drummer Caroline to play that kind of psycho Ministry beat. I don't like it now, I think it's lame. I listened to Nine Inch Nails, it sounds like a Some Bizzare reject from 1983. Like Soft Cell, only Soft Cell were funnier.
Anyway, it must be annoying that so many journalists concentrate only on the female aspects of your art...
Rock is forty years old, and it's always been men writing the songs. It's only been since punk and post-punk that women started to write songs. There was Joni Mitchell, of course, but that was always linguistic. Always concentrating on the words. I think, that women in the process of evolution of rock have never been able to write singles that stand out. The Slits, were a great band, but there’s not one song of theirs that wouldn't sound just as good if a man was singing them. I don't look at my peers as other women. There’s Kim Deal, from Pixies, until Black Francis castrated her. After she wrote "Gigantic", and it went to number one, Black Francis told her she can't write songs anymore.
Geffen
It’s a man’s world
What do you think of all the press hype you've been recieving ?
The british press is just into tabloiding me personally. Saying that I had to be a teenage whore. It's stupid. Was Neil Young a killer? Or did Nirvana really rape Polly? Is a woman not capable of writing a narrative? They have this attitude that if I write a narrative, then I must be contrived. Narrative writing has been a male songwriting tradition for millions
of years. I'm just attracted to writing about women that are fucked over. It's just an attractive subject to me, I don't know why.
Are you writing about female victims or female outcasts?
Both. When we were in Cologne, I went to the cathedral. It's famous for having women hung outside, lot being unmarried at 27 and knowing how to cure the flu. They called them witches. A lot of the things concerning female culture, in the last 2000 years interest me. I'm interested in the acomplishments and sexual personae of women. There’s an amazing book by Camille Paglia. She's totally crazy and out of her mind, but I agree with almost everything she has to say.
Some people over here call her a female fascist...
No, she's great. She's a genius. People tend to see her as someone who is right wing and someone not to like, but she's just totally out of her mind. Her chapters on Dorian Gray and Emily Dickinson are brilliant. I don't think she's a separist. In the whole book, she never mentions seperatism. She barely mentions women. She mentions the sexes equally. She mentions how different sexualties are voicted on different people, through art and literature. She made a really good point, which really inspired me with this pop writing thing, if there hasn't been any female Michaelangelos.
What’s your theory about this?
Her claim is that there can't be, my claim is I agree that there hasn't been - but why not. Why can't women be able to everything? Why not be able understand physics, science, astromony? I started to get into physics and I started to get totally freaked out, that no one had taught me this. I just want to break down certain barriers, without having to get into this mythic, that feminists have to be ugly. If I wasn't a girl I would probably have been a drag queen or a faggot. I wanted to wear high heels, bleach my hair, wear red lipstick and live in the big city and have some glamourous things happen to me. I don't have any problems with that. I'm still going to be fucking anarchy, to a degree, but for the people in my home town it was this puritan thing. Like, if you want to be a feminist you have to be frumpy and slumpy, you have to let your auxiliary hair grow or you can’t like to give anyone a blowjob.
Geffen
Wilted and faded somewhere in Hollywood
Do you think your stuff is feminist?
No. My mother was a real hardcore feminist. I grew up reading this book, "Our Bodies, Ourselves", which is an american feminist book. It'll be full of really unattractive women with really sagging tits, and really fat, naked pictures of your clitoris telling you how to masturbate. I remember reading it and I thought it was vulgar. It really made me hate women. I used to think, why didn’t they just bleach their hair and get some nice clothes. I’ve never been a normal feminist. They always threw me out of the bar, they didn't like me too much. Which is fine by me. I'm more of a feminist, than most of them because I do what the fuck I want. I get to do what I want. Like, we played with The Fuzztones and there were all these groupies. If these girls are so into rock, why don't they get guitars? There has to be a bit of glamour in the world?
Your photos have a lot of glamour in them...
Sure. What's wrong with that? I moved to Hollywood but I hate everybody there. There's no scene there, but I like it. I like the whole idea of Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, these old movie studios, the palm trees. It's ugly and sick, but it's neat at the same time. I moved to Minneapolis with Kat and everything is so hip there. When I lived there, everybody was so unpretentious all the time. Nobody wanted to cause any trouble. At least in Hollywood, the enemy is right out of your front door.
How is it for a band like Hole living in Hollywood?
It's psychotic. Every waitress wants to be a star. Everybody wants to be a star. Like, the last time we played in LA we had Perry Farrell and Axl Rose in our dressing room, saying; "you girls are great". It's really terrifying. At the same time it's cool. Like Axl wears one of our shirts, and he doesn't even know he's wearing the shirt of the enemy. I’m into that.
It’s always difficult for people to figure you out if you’re not fitting into one stereotype...
Was nach dem Interview geschah:
Courtney taumelt beim Konzert, deutlich vom Alkohol und anderen Substanzen gezeichnet, auf der Bühne herum und fällt nach wenigen, windschiefen Lärm-Songs ins Schlagzeug. Eine Frau, die auf Keith Richards vor seiner großen Blutwäsche macht, darüber mokiert sich die maskuline Hälfte des Publikums.
Schon bald nach dem Hole-Auftritt im U4 beginnt sich, nicht zuletzt dank Courtneys zukünftigen Ehemann, das große Musik-Karussell zu drehen. Der Underground erhält mit "Smells like Teen Spirit" seinen Grabgesang und aus der Asche ensteht das erfolgreiche Marketing-Monster "Alternative Rock". Courtney Loves Aufstieg zur Queen dieses Genres ist vieldokumentiert, von ihrer Heirat mit dem Grunge-König bis zum bitteren Ende.
When we played in London, I dived into the audience and they ripped my dress off. I was naked. I was practically raped by english people. Did they think that I deserved that? They can't handle both things at once. They can't handle that I'm playing good rock music and I'm not dressed like a man. Am I supposed to be this little kitten for them? I don't understand it. I'll keep stagediving until I don't get raped. I don't overintellectualize everything otherwise I'll go insane. I threw a TV out the window last month.
Geffen
Postskriptum
Schlagzeilen macht Courtney Love über Jahrzehnte. Von ihrer Heroinsucht ist einerseits die Rede, vom mehrmaligen Entzug, vom Verlust des Sorgerechts für ihre Tochter Frances Bean und gar Mordplänen an Kurt Cobain. Auf der anderen Seite stehen gefeierte Filmauftritte, furiose Interviews, weitere zumindest ziemlich lässige Songs. Je mehr Alternative Rock aber an Bedeutungslosigkeit verliert und zur nostalgischen Projektionsfläche verkommt, desto mehr rückt auch eine seiner zentralsten Protagonistinnen aus dem Scheinwerferlicht.
Eine Tatsache, die Courtney Love sehr zu schaffen macht. Sogar nach einem desaströs geflopptem Soloalbum ("America’s Sweetheart") gibt sie nicht auf. Twittert manisch, vereinigt Hole wieder, auch gegen den Willen und ohne zentrale Bandmitglieder. Von heurigen Liveauftritten erzählt man sich wieder großartige Dinge. In aktuellen Interviews brilliert sie. Gleichzeitig ist da die optische Mutation, die beim Life Ball-Auftritt an chirurgisch deformierte Klatschtanten aus dem Fashionfernsehen erinnert. Ach Courtney, wenn es dich in deiner ganzen wahnwitzigen Widersprüchlichkeit nicht geben würde, man müsste dich erfinden.
Courtney Love