Last week we told you that the glamourous and enigmatic Melissa Auf Der Maur would be doing a handful of Canadian dates in preparation for her full-fledged return to the world of rock stardom. With decent reviews from those Canadian shows in, that means the next step is the long awaited Auf Der Maur album.

While the former Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bass player’s album has been rumoured to be in the can for over a year now, fans will have to wait until mid-2004 to hear the disc. Auf Der Maur’s self-titled debut was originally slated for February of 2004, but it’s now been confirmed that Capitol/EMI will release the album on May 18.

When she swung through Central Canada earlier this month, MADM had a pretty swell band with her, which featured the ever-popular Andrew Rodriguez of Bodega on guitar, but her touring gang has nothing on the list of celebs who appear on the new disc. Auf Der Maur’s guest list reads like some kind of alt.rock’s cool kids club and includes the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson/A Perfect Circle, Paz Lechantin of A Perfect Circle/Zwan/Papa M, Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan, Fu Manchu’s Brant Bjork, James Iha of Smashing Pumkins/A Perfect Circle and Hole’s Eric Erlandson. Unsurprisingly, neither Courtney Love or Billy Corgan are involved with the project.

MADM’s solo album has been much anticipated by fans who’ve been anxious to hear what she’ll be able to do without the presence of an over-bearing boss like Love or Corgan. The closest Auf Der Maur has come to showcasing her own chops thus far has been Hand Of Doom, her Black Sabbath cover band who made an appearance at the 2002 edition of Edgefest in Barrie, Ontario.