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There's Always Another Girl - Digital Release Date
There's Always Another Girl - Digital Release Date

The new album, There's Always Another Girl will be available to download on July 27, 2011 for those of us who have made any of the pledges on the PledgeMusic project.

The vinyl mastering was completed last week, so the physical versions on CD and vinyl should follow shortly for those who picked them as their pledge.

The album remains on schedule as a CD release for non-pledgers on August 30.

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New Album Title - There's Always Another Girl
New Album Title - There's Always Another Girl

Juliana has changed the title of her new album from Speeches Delivered To Animals And Plants to There's Always Another Girl.

"the new title is more succinct and makes sense, somehow, and goes really well with the artwork we are working on. also i was a bit concerned about the absolute legality of the former title as it was sort of borrowed from john irving’s “the world according to garp” (a great book)—it was (almost) the name of the book of poems that the tongueless character ellen james writes and never publishes."

She explains more in her latest PledgeMusic update.

Probably a wise decision on grounds of brevity alone. Even the original press release demoted the original title to "Speeches...", which it would inevitably have become known.

Juliana has also been pondering the track ordering so the previously announced tracklist was premature too.

There's Always Another Girl will be a familiar title to many of us, taken from what will now be the the album's title track. This song originally debuted on Myspace in April 2009 following Juliana tweeting her thoughts on Lindsay Lohan. This home demo version remains available on mp3 at Stereogum.

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New Album - Speeches Delivered To Animals And Plants
New Album - Speeches Delivered To Animals And Plants

The new album has a title. A long one.

Speeches Delivered To Animals And Plants is 'based loosely on the concept of failure' and will be released to the world on August 30th via Juliana's own label, Ye Olde Records and distributed by Junketboy.

UPDATE June 22 - the album is now called There's Always Another Girl

Those of us who have funded the album via PledgeMusic should get it ahead of this with exclusive access to a download version 'when it is ready' and if we've pledged on the CD 'as soon as it is manufactured'. Update June 7 - Juliana hopes to have the album pledgy ready in July.

The tracklist (which is subject to change):

  1. Stray Kids
  2. Taxicab
  3. Vagabond
  4. Sex and Drugs
  5. Failure
  6. Someone Else's Problem
  7. Change The World
  8. Batteries
  9. Don't Wanna Dance
  10. There's Always Another Girl
  11. Candy Wrappers
  12. Thousands Of Guitars
  13. Wasting Time

UPDATE July 13 - Juliana has changed the order of the above and added a track.

From the press release:

Hatfield says, "I really think that PledgeMusic and similar sites are the future of music, especially for people like me who have devoted cultish fanbases but who have never sold a ton of records and don't really fit in anywhere at major labels. Working with this new model, you go straight to the fans, who become your patrons, in a very direct and vital way. They have a special kind of access to you in a way that makes them happy - they see the progress of the album-making in real time with the video and audio updates I post at the PledgeMusic site. And I have total ownership of the music at all stages, present and future. I love working like this."
Speeches... is the follow up to last year's Peace and Love, which Paste Magazine hailed for its "fearless honesty" while SPIN extolled its "affirmations turned narratives that are sharpened rather than softened by their harmonies."
Working at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, Hatfield produced and played all the six-string guitars and keyboards on the new album. Ed Valuaskas played bass and Pete Caldes played drums. The 13 songs feature Hatfield's distinctive but typically underrated guitar stylings-highly emotive but not overly slick, and resonating with a range of human emotions from joy to despondence to goofiness to resignation.
What's with the title? "I think that when people get to the presumed halfway point in their lives, they inevitably look back and assess what they have or have not accomplished. There is an acceptance of one's limitations, a scaling back of goals, a settling into the way things are," observes Hatfield. "I think I have always had a pretty measured perspective-I am always grateful for all the good opportunities I've had but at the same time I'm never really content. I always want to do more, to be better-a better singer, performer, writer, person, friend, sister, daughter, etc. I don't shy away from the dark stuff -without the darkness there would be no light."
Hatfield first came to prominence in her teens as a founding member of the Blake Babies. After four independent albums with the group, she signed to Atlantic as a solo artist and had a string of modern-rock hits (including "My Sister," "Spin The Bottle" and "Universal Heartbeat"). She left the label in 1998, signing to Zoe Records (a Rounder Records imprint) and releasing four well-regarded albums, including 2004's In Exile Deo, named as one of that year's 10 best albums by The New York Times' Jon Pareles. In 2005, Hatfield came full circle, returning to her independent roots and founding Ye Olde Records. Her autobiography, When I Grow Up, was published by Wiley & Sons in 2008.
"I've gotten to a place where I am really proud of the large body of work that I have produced, regardless of how my work is or is not received, or how many records I've sold," she reflects. "I know my weaknesses but I also know that I have gifts and I've made the most of them with this new album."
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PledgeMusic - Updates Roundup

PledgeMusic have announced that Juliana has broken the record for an artist to achieve their target.

As pledgers will know, Juliana has been updating regularly from the studio. A number of song titles have been revealed, random pledger only videos posted (including Juliana shaking it like a Polaroid), lyrics shared, the now obligatory canine photography, and gearhead porn.

She has also revealed that the album could be released as soon as July, or even sooner. Ooh.

Juliana has also been posting other typical offbeat photos via Twitter, and 11 teasing seconds of Pro Toolsian music.

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PledgeMusic - How To Walk Away Demos added
PledgeMusic - How To Walk Away Demos added

Juliana has added several copies of her How To Walk Away demos CD to the PledgeMusic incentives list. 

This limited edition bonus CD was originally available by mail order with initial copies of How To Walk Away, released in 2008. It features a number of home demo versions from the album, many with a basic drum machine backing. The tracklist also includes demos from what became the Sittin' In A Tree EP plus a few previously unreleased songs.

If you missed it first time around, now is your chance. Allez.

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PledgeMusic - Initial Target Reached
PledgeMusic - Initial Target Reached

It would be an understatement to say the PledgeMusic project is going well. 

Juliana reached her main target within hours of launch, with many of the incentives selling out before some of us in Europe had emerged from our slumber.

A look through Juliana's updates suggests she is really enjoying this and genuinely overwhelmed by the response.  

To her fans this will be less of a surprise.  She has a small but remarkably loyal following. The list of pledgers is so familiar it could have been compiled by Keyser Soze.  It looks like some of us have been wanting something like this for a few years.

Juliana has just increased the allocation for some of the previously sold out incentives and added a few new ones, including custom guitar picks, a 20 question email Q&A, signed books and posters, with the promise of more artwork related options to come.  

On the basis of the last couple of days, you might need to be quick.  This is a good time to be a Juliana fan.

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New Album - A PledgeMusic Project
New Album - A PledgeMusic Project

The cat is out of the bag.  This is Juliana's new project.  A new (possibly double) album project. Electric band, baby.

All the details are at Juliana's PledgeMusic project page where she says:

I invite you to participate in the making of my new album. You are the modern Medicis and I need your help to make this happen. Your pledge for any of the items and experiences I am offering will directly support the recording, production, packaging, and marketing of my new album.

Various options are available from pledging to buy the CD, through signed artwork and up to a day in the recording studio(update Apr 8 - the studio offer has now been withdrawn).

Some kooky options are there too, including a 15 minute Skype call which has already been snapped up, and the creeptastic prospect of a 'lock of Juliana's hair'. 

This seems a natural progression from the honor system downloads, running her own record label and selling custom made songs.

Would anyone be surprised if Juliana lost money on How To Walk Away yet turned a small profit on Peace & Love?  This, despite the latter selling far fewer copies? disclaimer: this is 100% uninformed speculation. smiley winking face. 

Without a traditional advance from a record label, can non-stadium filling artists justify the expense of a full studio production and promotion?

In the dying days of the Juliana forum, there was a frequent debate on how artists can earn a living from their work in the digital age, a debate only heightened by Juliana's 'Song For You' custom project.

Often veering into the awkward territory of indirectly telling Juliana what we thought she should do (doubly awkward as she never asked us!), the forum consensus seemed to suggest something similar to Kristin Hersh's CASH Music projects and using some of her Strange Angels ideas without the subscription model.

Basically, most of us seemed to come up with the main principles of PledgeMusic before PledgeMusic existed. Now it does and it seems to make perfect sense for Juliana.

Let's really hope this works out for her, and by consequence for us fans too. 

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