''Rock's Graduate Student''
Date: Sunday, June 27 @ 22:12:51 MST
Topic: News Articles
By Paul Denison From the Register-Guard
Her higher education began with a beer bottle.
After a Smashing Pumpkins show in Canada, Montreal bassist Melissa Auf der Maur approached Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan to apologize for a friend who had tossed a beer bottle on stage during the concert. And she made an important friend.
Corgan later recommended Auf der Maur to Courtney Love after the death of Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff, and Auf der Maur joined Love's band on its "Live Through This" world tour. Corgan hooked her up with ex-Cars frontman Ric Ocasek for his 1997 solo release "Troubili- zing." (More...)
By Paul Denison From the Register-Guard
Her higher education began with a beer bottle.
After a Smashing Pumpkins show in Canada, Montreal bassist Melissa Auf der Maur approached Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan to apologize for a friend who had tossed a beer bottle on stage during the concert. And she made an important friend.
Corgan later recommended Auf der Maur to Courtney Love after the death of Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff, and Auf der Maur joined Love's band on its "Live Through This" world tour. Corgan hooked her up with ex-Cars frontman Ric Ocasek for his 1997 solo release "Troubili- zing."
Auf der Maur then rejoined Hole for its tour supporting "Celebrity Skin." After that, Corgan invited her to join Smashing Pumpkins. Auf der Maur made two albums with the Pumpkins before the band split up in 2000.
In her bio, she says that her stints with Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins "were incredible years of my life - educational, like a bachelor's degree in rock followed by a master's." But they also were tiring years.
"I took almost two years off after touring the world nonstop for literally six years," she says. "I needed time to recuperate and figure out what music and life meant to me."
Although she has been involved with a Black Sabbath tribute band called Hand of Doom and an all-star side project called the Virgins (with former Pumpkin James Iha), Auf der Maur has decided she's ready to go solo at age 32.
She just released her first album, "Auf der Maur," and is on tour to support it.
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