Background
Hole released its debut studio album, Pretty on the Inside, in 1991 and despite moderate sales, the album was a critical success among English and American press. In March 1992, following the tour to support the album's release, two members of Hole— drummer Caroline Rue and bassist Jill Emery— left the band due to artistic differences. In April 1992, vocalist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson arranged auditions for a drummer at the Jabberjaw in Los Angeles, California and recruited drummer Patty Schemel. Love, Erlandson and Schemel then relocated to Carnation, Washington to a house owned by Love and her husband Kurt Cobain and began rehearsing and writing material for a second album.
Originally signed to Caroline Records in the United States and City Slang in Europe, Hole began record deal negotiations with Geffen Records in early 1992. In February 1992, the band signed with DGC Records, a subsidiary of Geffen, with "an advance of a million dollars and a royalty rate considerably higher than Nirvana's." The final deal reached was a seven-album deal, reported to be over $3 million.
On November 8, 1992, the band recorded "Beautiful Son," "20 Years in the Dakota" and "Old Age" during a recording session at Word of Mouth Recording in Seattle with producer Jack Endino. The three-song session was later released as Hole's fourth single in April 1993 on City Slang. On January 21, 1993, Love and Schemel recorded five demo songs at BMG Ariola Ltda. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Produced by Craig Montgomery, the session was originally a demo session for Nirvana, who were recording material for their upcoming studio album, In Utero (1993). During breaks in Nirvana's session, Love and Schemel recorded a number of songs later featured on Live Through This, including "Miss World," "She Walks on Me," "I Think That I Would Die" and "Softer, Softest." The band relocated back to Los Angeles after the session and recruited former Janitor Joe bassist Kristen Pfaff in early 1993. Erlandson said of Pfaff's membership: "that's when we took off, all of a sudden we became a real band."
With a complete line-up, Hole began performing in March 1993 and went on a short three-date tour of England to support "Beautiful Son"'s release. Following the tour, the band attempted to record Live Through This in Paris, France in May with producer Butch Vig. Featuring Babes in Toyland frontwoman Kat Bjelland, the sessions were unproductive and a second attempt at recording the album was held at Hanzek Audio in Seattle in August with Chris Hanzek, Jack Endino and Craig Montgomery. During these sessions, Hole recorded instrumental versions of a number of songs, including "Jennifer's Body" and the unreleased Nirvana song "Talk To Me," however the session "wasn't very productive" and eventually, the recordings were left in the studio for years before Eric Erlandson reclaimed them.
Read more about this topic: Live Through This
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