Melissa Auf der Maur to Release First Album in 16 Years: '90s 4-Track Demos, Due September 2026
Bassist Melissa Auf der Maur — best known as a touring member of Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins — has announced a new album, Bass Womb Room: My '90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings, out September 4, 2026 on digital and cassette. It's her first full-length in 16 years, following 2010's Out Of Our Minds.
Background
The record is built entirely from unreleased demos Auf der Maur recorded on a 4-track machine in her living room during the '90s, a period she also documented by propping a handheld camera on her amp to film her own musical experiments. Alongside the original demos, the album includes eight newly recorded interludes.
In a statement, she described the songs as private experiments made to protect her creative independence at a time when the mainstream record industry was pushing her toward radio hits — calling them "the quiet, private side of the girl who joined a big American mainstream rock band" (as reported by NME).
Full Tracklist
- "Active Heart"
- "… And the Next Day"
- "Courtney Chimes In"
- "Desire Is Critical"
- "In the Reflection"
- "Water Wars"
- "Flesh Flush"
- "Is She His"
- "Billy Seoul Crowd"
- "Love Is the Drug"
- "Sparkle Bass"
- "Fancy Piece [ft. the Hunger World]"
- "River's Dream"
- "Sea of Tranquility"
- "Skip a Beat"
Photo Exhibition and Photobook
A companion photo exhibition, also titled Bass Womb Room, opens September 2 at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. It features Auf der Maur's photography from the '90s alt-rock scene, including candid shots of Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, and Frances Bean Cobain, as well as documentation of hangouts with Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Beck, plus behind-the-scenes images from Hole's "Celebrity Skin" music video.
A companion 240-page photobook of the same name, featuring roughly 200 photos, will be published September 8 through DelMonico Books/D.A.P. in partnership with the AGO — billed as "a photographic love letter to the last analog era."