"Skinny Little Bitch" is a song by the American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

Hole A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

. It is the second track and lead single from the band's fourth studio album, ''

Nobody's Daughter ''Nobody's Daughter'' is the fourth and final studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 23, 2010, by Mercury Records. The album was initially conceived as a solo project and follow-up to the Hole frontwoman Courtn ...

'', and was released on March 12, 2010 on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

. Written by vocalist

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...

and lead guitarist Micko Larkin, "Skinny Little Bitch" was Hole's first single in a decade and first release not to feature founding member

Eric Erlandson Eric Theodore Erlandson (born January 9, 1963) is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical s ...

. The song premiered on the New York radio station WRXP on March 3, 2010 and was released to American radio on March 9. During the first week of its radio release, the song became the most added on alternative radio and the second most added on active rock in the United States. A digital download of the single was officially made available on March 12 and a limited edition colored 10" was released as part of Record Store Day 2010 on April 17. Two official music videos for "Skinny Little Bitch" have been released on Hole's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel—a multi-camera version of the band's performance at SXSW in March 2010 and a shortened video of Love performing the song while getting a tattoo. Other plans for a music video, including an animation by Michael Mouris and a video featuring model

Sasha Pivovarova Aleksandra Igorevna Pivovarova (russian: Александра Игоревна Пивоварова; born 21 January 1985), is a Russian supermodel and actress. She is best known as the longest appearing fashion model for Prada, posed for 19 ad ...

, were considered but never received a greenlight from Mercury Records. "Skinny Little Bitch" was added to the US Active Rock Charts at #32 making it the first song with lead vocals from a female to ever make the chart.

Release and reception

The track was described by

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

as,

"a balls-out, low-down dirty rock song, and as fine a signature tune for the new Hole as you could imagine. Tapping the same lyrical vein as 'Samantha', it's The Stooges fronted by a Joan Jett re-imagined as the Bride Of Frankenstein. And it’s the sound of Courtney having fun."

Promotion

"Skinny Little Bitch" was debuted live during Hole's reunion show at London's

O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire Shepherd's Bush Empire (currently known as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the BBC Television Theatre) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was originally ...

on 17 February 2010. It was also played during two other European dates at Milan's Magazzini Generali, and Amsterdam's Paradiso on 19 February and 21 February 2010 respectively. On February 24, it was played alongside "Samantha" at the ''

NME Awards The ''NME'' Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine '' NME'' (''New Musical Express''). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the ''NME'' Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding ...

'' at London's

O2 Academy Brixton Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Wes ...

. The song was heard on an episode of '' Warehouse 13''.

Music video

Talking about the music video, Love stated, "there will be a stunning video for SLB as long as the only model that you will all fall in love w that the band needs does it!." She later revealed the model to be

, chosen because "shes the only look that can convey what the SLB goes through a lot of self torture." However, Love has since stated that

Mert and Marcus Mert and Marcus is the working name of two fashion photographers, Mert Alaş (born 1971) and Marcus Piggott (born 1971), who work together on a collaborative basis. Their work and style is influenced by photographer Guy Bourdin and, together, t ...

will direct the music video provided that Mercury greenlights the project, while also stating again that Sasha Pivovarova will take on the role of the "Skinny Little Bitch." On 7 April 2010, Hole's official YouTube channel released a multicamera mix of Hole's performance of "Skinny Little Bitch" at the '' SXSW'' music festival.Hole. ''Facebook , Hole: Skinny Little Bitch SXSW Video'' https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=379294974982 Retrieved from ''Facebook.com'' on May 11, 2010. The performance is overdubbed with the single version of the song. Less than three weeks later, on 27 April, Hole released "the least expensive Courtney Love video ever", directed by Casey Neistat. It features Love singing "Skinny Little Bitch" while getting a tattoo and is less than two minutes in length.Hole. ''Hole Official Website :: Nobody’s Daughter'' http://holerock.net/news_d.aspx?nid=6704 Retrieved from ''holerock.net'' on May 11, 2010.

Track listing and formats

;Digital download #"Skinny Little Bitch" – 3:09 ;US 10" single (B0014258-11) #"Skinny Little Bitch" – 3:09 #"Codine" – 3:57

Personnel

All personnel credits adapted from ''

''s liner notes. ;Hole *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

, writing * Micko Larkin - guitar, composition * Shawn Dailey – bass * Stu Fisher – drums ;Guest musician *

Jack Irons Jack Steven Irons (born July 18, 1962) is an American drummer. He is the founding drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and is a former member of Pearl Jam and Eleven. Alongside his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, Irons ...

– drums ;Technical personnel *

Michael Beinhorn Michael Beinhorn is a North American record producer, composer, author and musician. He has produced albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Violent Femmes and Marilyn Manson. Career 1977-1983: Early Years, Material, Herbie Hanco ...

– producer *Owen Lewis – assistant producer *Karl Egsieker –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

*Nico Essig – additional engineer *Tom Syrowski – additional engineer *John O'Mahoney – mixing

Chart positions

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skinny Little Bitch 2010 singles Hole (band) songs Songs written by Courtney Love Songs written by Micko Larkin Song recordings produced by Michael Beinhorn 2010 songs Mercury Records singles