Here is this week's Luminate Data Market Watch report which features Canadian music stats for the current week and YTD with comparisons to last year. This chart is published every Tuesday. The abbreviation "TEA" is a term used to describe the sale of music downloads or singles. A track equivalent album is equal to 10 tracks, or 10 songs.
Produced by Montreal musician Alex Crow, most of the tracks are built around old field recordings that Auf der Maur created by placing a handycam on her amp during her time with Hole and as a touring member of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Of the Bass Womb Room tracks, Auf der Maur shared that she “wrote these songs in the context of rising pressure” from major labels and her industry peers “to make glossy hit songs to dominate radio airwaves.”
“These songs are the sound of my internal experimentation and a way of keeping the Montreal art girl alive inside,” she continued. “These sounds are the quiet and private side of the girl who joined the big American major label rock band.”
Announcing the album on social media, Auf der Maur revealed that it only made sense to release some of her own music from the ‘90s, following the release of her memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ’90s Rock Memoir, which further details her stints as a rock band bassist.
“I share my most personal stories, my photographs bare behind the scenes, breasts and bloody noses, so no better time to share the quiet shy experimental sounds inside from the time. Early song sketches, sound experiments … inside out,” she wrote.
Bass Womb Room is a companion album to Auf der Maur’s upcoming photography exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Melissa Auf der Maur: My ‘90s Photographs. It’s set to feature over 200 photographs that capture an intimate portrait of the last analogue decade.
Running from September 2026 to spring 2027, the AGO is calling the exhibit “a time capsule of Generation X,” through the lens of the Canadian musician. The public opening of Auf der Maur’s exhibit will be commemorated with the release of the musician’s 240-page photobook My ’90s Rock Photographs.
While this year is shaping up to be a major moment for Auf der Maur on her own, many fans are vying for a Hole reunion, which frontwoman Courtney Love says isn’t happening, but claims she and Auf der Maur will play “some shows” and “new songs” together in the future.
Bass Womb Room: My ’90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings Tracklist:
Listen to a teaser of the closing track, “Skip a Beat,” below:
