Melissa Auf der Maur returns with first album in 16 years
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Melissa Auf der Maur, the former Hole bassist, has released her first new music in 16 years with the album Bass Womb Room: My '90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings. The record pairs previously unheard demos she recorded at home in the 1990s with eight newly composed interludes made for an accompanying photography exhibition, giving fans a rare window into private material she made while under pressure from major-label expectations during her time with Hole and as a touring member of Smashing Pumpkins.
The album, released digitally and on cassette on 4 September via Envision, comprises 15 tracks, including the new composition "Skip a Beat", with its interludes built partly from old field recordings captured on a handycam placed on her amplifier. The related Bass Womb Room photo exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto on 2 September, and a 240-page photobook of the same name followed on 8 September via DelMonico Books/D.A.P. and the AGO. The release also follows Auf der Maur's March memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A '90s Rock Memoir, and marks her first solo album since 2010's Out of Our Minds.
- Melissa Auf der Maur released her first album in 16 years
- Bass Womb Room mixes 90s demos with new interludes, out 4 September
- Companion photo exhibition and photobook launched in early September
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Melissa Auf der Maur is best known as the bassist who joined Hole in 1994, following the death of Kristen Pfaff, and played on the band's 1998 album Celebrity Skin. She later spent time as a member of Smashing Pumpkins before building a solo career, releasing two albums of her own music since the mid-2000s.
Since stepping back from major-label rock, she has worked across music, writing and photography, including running an arts venue in Montreal and publishing a memoir earlier this year. She has largely stayed away from new solo recordings, with her last album dating back a decade and a half, making any fresh musical output from her notable to fans who have followed her career since the Hole and Smashing Pumpkins years.
The wider context here involves how musicians revisit and repackage archival material, such as old home recordings, alongside new creative work like photography, rather than simply releasing a conventional follow-up record.
More coverage
- Rolling Stone — Melissa Auf der Maur Digs Into Her Archive for First New Music in Over 15 Years
- Stereogum — Melissa Auf Der Maur Announces First New Music In 15 Years, Hole Tease Something For Friday
- Consequence — Melissa Auf der Maur Announces Album BASS WOMB ROOM, Featuring First New Music in Over 15 Years
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Originally published by Pitchfork as “Melissa Auf der Maur Unveils First New Music in 16 Years”.