Apparently Courtney Love wasn't kidding when she told Howard Stern's listening audience on Dec. 9 that Hole were going to leave their record label. "I didn't like the merger," she explained, referring to Geffen Records' having been subsumed under the Universal Records umbrella. "We're going to release our next album on the Internet."

Geffen Records isn't joking around either. According to the label's lawyer, Russell Frackman, Geffen filed a lawsuit against the band in Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday. Although Frackman wouldn't comment on the contents of the suit, Daily Variety reports that Geffen is claiming breach of contract, saying the band still owes the label five more albums. Originally Hole had agreed to provide Geffen with two albums and give the label the option on five more. Hole released 1994's Live Through This and 1998's Celebrity Skin through Geffen but never provided any other material during the seven-year life span of the contract.

Hole has complained that because California labor law limits personal service contracts to seven years, they should not be compelled to continue recording for Geffen. But the label contends that Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson won't get off that easily, explaining in the suit that recording contracts are not personal service agreements. And even if they were, all the parties extended the agreement in an amendment drafted in 1997.

The suit seeks unspecified damages as well as an injunction that would prevent Love and Erlandson from recording under the Hole name for any other label.

Hole is currently without management, but, according to insiders, the band is days away from signing with former Smashing Pumpkins manager Sharon Osbourne. Calls to Osbourne and Interscope/Geffen Records were not returned by press time.

JAAN UHELSZKI
(January 20, 2000)