In a move certain to arm her critics with more ammunition, Courtney Love has enlisted longtime confrere Billy Corgan to serve as executive producer on Hole's much-anticipated follow-up album to 1994's epochal Live Through This.

Corgan, who has shared production credits on three Smashing Pumpkins records, will bring with him into the studio a team that includes Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Alan Moulder, ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna, and current Frogs Dennis and Jimmy Fleming. "I want to challenge myself, and Billy's the one person who can kick my ass musically," says Love. "I haven't spent enough time as a studio geek to go all the way there."

Love envisions the not-yet-titled record as having a "dark, L.A. vibe - I want to redo [Fleetwood Mac's] Rumours" - and hopes to have it ready for a late fall release.

As for the allegations Love expects to hear concerning her songwriting imprint, or lack thereof - first Kurt wrote the songs, now Billy - Love seems typically unconcerned. "Do I care? Uh-uh. I don't give a f*ck.

-SPIN, May 1997