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4 of Kristen Pfaff’s Best Bass Lines From Before She Joined Hole

On what would have been Kristen Pfaff’s 59th birthday, here are some personal favorite tracks from her pre-Hole days.

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Kristen Pfaff was a key innovator of the Minneapolis sound of the 90s with her band Janitor Joe. She came from a musical family, studied piano and cello in childhood, and later taught herself to play bass guitar alongside Pixies albums.

She’s most often remembered for her brief tenure as Hole’s bassist, playing on their 1994 album Live Through This before her death that year at age 27.

Pfaff’s story is tragic, as so many of that era are. Young indie musicians with unresolved emotional issues collided with drugs, money, and fame. They either imploded or got extremely close to it, with promising talent often becoming just another statistic.

Today, May 26, would have been Pfaff’s 59th birthday. So, in honor of her talent, here are some of my personal favorite bass lines she........

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