It will be exactly 18 years in April since Kurt Cobain took his own life in the green house of his Seattle home in 1994. Last month he would have turned 45. Marking the occasion, two founding members of Cobain's mostly semi-lucid widow Courtney Love's band Hole will be releasing a book and a film surrounding the relationship with Kurt, the band, and the life style of drugs, and the consequences of rapid fame. Firstly, Eric Erlandson, guitarist for Hole, will will releasing a book, entitled Letters to Kurt, which is a collection of poems and free association reflecting on his suicide and its emotional ramifications. Secondly, Patty Schemel, who helped develop Hole's sound and who lived with Kurt and Courtney during some of the more tumultuous times, is releasing a film about her life. Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death of Patty Schemel is the "portrait of the hell-and-back life of Patty Schemel" and tells the story of her terrible addiction to drugs and how it nearly destroyed her career and life. Schemel is "a true survivor of what we now know was the disaffected 'slacker' generation, Patty found herself, like her friend Kurt Cobain, embraced by the dark side. An unprecedented and unflinching inside look at one of the 90s most crucial and controversial groups." Eric Erlandson's Letters to Kurt will be released April 8th on Akashic Books. Hit So Hard will be premiering this year - first at Cinema Village in New York on April 13, with more dates to follow.
