A few weeks ago, Courtney Love placed an ad in the Village Voice for a new set of backing musicians. She not unreasonably specified that they had to be able to play their instruments. Not just that, but they had to be female. And not just female -- but "goddesses."

Love obviously feels her new band's look is as important as its sound, if not more so -- which isn't as surprising as it may seem for the rock/movie star whose original band, Hole, emerged in the early '90s when riot grrrls ran riot on the indie charts.

Back then, was lumped in with this punk-feminist movement, but Love wasn't a card-carrying member. In fact, the term "riot grrrl" was coined by Seattle musician Tobi Vail, a one-time girlfriend of Love's late husband, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain. Worse, even, for Love, must be the claim by Cobain biographer Charles Cross that Vail was the sole inspiration for one of the most important rock albums of the decade, Nirvana's 1991 "Nevermind."