Posts in general
TV Guidance Counselor Podcast - Episode 218: Juliana Hatfield

Juliana appears on episode 218 of Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor Podcast, titled "March 10 - 16, 1979":

Ken and Juliana discuss suburban potholes, garbage collection, the TV room, Six Million Dollar Cliff Hangers, James at 15, market research, Lance Kerwin, After School Specials, Dukes of Hazard, “Southern” TV, Love Boat, Mary Tyler Moore, The Comforting ritual of television, the revelation of the sexy librarian, Vietnam, Law and Order, Iraq War vets, loving Donny & Marie, Coma, The Rockford Files, Father/Son relationships, different actors playing the same character, soap opera understudies, Dirk Benedict, Battlestar Gallactica, dreamy Richard Hatch, In Search Of, Starsky & Hutch, goofy pimps, why the Six Million Dollar man is infinitely boring, The Bionic Woman’s superiority, revisiting your childhood, McMillan and Wife, Rock Hudson, real couples on camera, the Night Stalker, why TV is better when pretty people aren’t on it, Miami Vice, store brand generic music on TV, Bugsy Malone, Foxes, Over the Edge, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, One Day at a Time, the wonders of television hair, Eight is Enough, the Facts of Life theme, The Jeffersons, Farah Fawcett, Charlie’s Angels, Mork & Mindy, Jonathan Winters, Quincy M.E., mustache free Dads, Magnum P.I., The Day My Kid Went Punk, Donna Reed, The Incredible Hulk, shredded indestructible pants, Dallas, aspirational television, and the ritual of Dr. Phil.

You can listen at libsyn.

The podcast is also available at iTunes or via your preferred podcast client, including Overcast .

Louder Than Words : John P. Strohm (Blake Babies / The Lemonheads) Guestlist #20

John P Strohm has selected a number of songs from Boston related artists of the late 80s / early 90s in an article for Louder Than Words.

Here's what he says about his selection of Buffalo Tom:

There was a girl who used to crash with Blake Babies sometimes who came in from the suburbs.  She knew these guys Buffalo Tom and she said she was managing them.  She had a bunch of demo tapes that we ignored.  It just didn’t occur to us that she could be cooler than us.  Then when people around town started talking about Buffalo Tom I made the connection: “Oh, that band that we have, like, 100 tapes of.”  J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. took them under wing and produced their first album, so obviously they’ve got my attention at that point.  We became great friends – and fans of each other’s bands.  For the final Blake Babies tour, we actually chose to open for Buffalo Tom in Europe over a competing offer to open for Nirvana on the Nevermind tour.  And that was before Nevermind was out.  And….I don’t really want to think about that anymore.  We had a great time with our friends overseas while we were in the process of breaking up. 

 

Ebay - Original artwork by Juliana Hatfield | April 2017

An updated collection of Juliana's art including images inspired by the US presidential election is now on auction at ebay for the next week:

ebay.com/cln/hatf_juli/Original-artwork-by-Juliana-Hatfield-April-2017/395662134013

Belly, Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf, and others band together for the ACLU - The Boston Globe

Ahead of this weekend's ACLU benefit show in Boston, David Brusie for the The Boston Globe has spoken to a number of the artists performing including Matthew Caws and Tanya Donelly. Juliana is quoted and mentions Trump, her pride of the city and also the themes of the new album:

[‘Pussycat’] is pro-America, it’s pro-freedom, it’s anti-hatred, anti-lies. That’s what I would say. It’s standing up for the important things that the majority of the people around the world value. That’s what the ACLU is also trying to protect.

Pussycat Cassettes
Lorde’s ‘Green Light’ Sated Juliana Hatfield’s Undying Sweet Tooth - Talkhouse

Juliana, writing for Talkhouse on Lorde's excellent new single Green Light:

I always want music to be a tangible thing that I can wrap my actual arms around (I have hugged my boom box before), but it isn’t. I want what I can’t have. I want to sink my teeth into the sound of that rich, strong, honest voice. I want to drink and drink and gulp it down; that is the magic of a well-built and -performed and -recorded pop song. You get filled up, and sometimes you overflow with cleansing tears and cathartic shouting-along — if only temporarily — until the song is over, and then you play it again. It’s like a drug or a sugar rush. “Green Light” is ear candy.

It's a great read.

talkhouse.com/lordes-green-light-sated-juliana-hatfields-undying-sweet-tooth/

UPDATE Lorde's comments:

New Album - Pussycat - Artwork, Tracklist announced - plus live shows in April 2017

The new album details are here!

It's called Pussycat and is due for release on April 21, 2017 now April 28, 2017.

The press release:

“I wasn’t planning on making a record,” says Juliana Hatfield, of her new “Pussycat” album. In fact, she thought her songwriting career was on hiatus, and that she had nothing left to say in song form; that she had finally said it all after two decades as a recording artist.

But then the presidential election happened. “All of these songs just started pouring out of me. And I felt an urgency to record them, to get them down, and get them out there.” She booked some time at Q Division studios in Somerville, Massachusetts near her home in Cambridge and went in with a drummer (Pete Caldes), an engineer (Pat DiCenso) and fourteen brand-new songs. Hatfield produced and played every instrument other than drums—bass, keyboards, guitars, vocals. From start to finish—recording through mixing—the whole thing took a total of just twelve and a half days to complete.

“It was a blur. It was cathartic,” says Hatfield. “I almost don’t even understand what happened in there, or how it came together so smoothly, so quickly. I was there, directing it all, managing it, getting it all done, but I was being swept along by some force that was driving me. The songs had a will, they forced themselves on me, or out of me, and I did what they told me to do. Even my hands—it felt like they were not my hands. I played bass differently-- looser, more confident, better.”

“Pussycat” comes on the heels of last year’s Hatfield collaboration with Paul Westerberg, the I Don’t Cares’ “Wild Stab” album, and before that, 2015’s Juliana Hatfield Three (“My Sister”, “Spin The Bottle”) reunion/reformation album, “Whatever, My Love”.

“I’ve always been prolific and productive and I have a good solid work ethic but this one happened so fast, I didn’t have time to think or plan,” says Hatfield. “I just went with it, rode the wave. And now it is out of my hands. It feels a little scary.”

”Pussycat” is being released into a very tense, divided and inflamed America. The songs are reflective of that atmosphere—angry (“When You’re A Star”), defiant (“Touch You Again”), disgusted (“Rhinoceros”), but also funny (“Short-Fingered Man”), reflective (“Wonder Why”), righteous (“Heartless”) and even hopeful (“Impossible Song”, with its chorus of ‘What if we tried to get along/and sing an impossible song’).

The artwork:

The tracklist:

  1. I Wanna Be Your Disease
  2. Impossible Song
  3. You're Breaking My Heart
  4. When You're A Star
  5. Good Enough For Me
  6. Short-Fingered Man
  7. Touch You Again
  8. Sex Machine
  9. Wonder Why
  10. Sunny Somewhere
  11. Kellyanne
  12. Heartless
  13. Rhinoceros
  14. Everything Is Forgiven

The pre-order info:

Orders are being taken now for Vinyl, CD and Cassette(!) at American Laundromat Records: alr-music.com/collections/catalog/products/juliana-hatfield-pussycat.

The US Tour in April / May 2017:

April 21 Newport, RI - The Café at Parlor
April 22 New Haven, CT - Cafe Nine
April 23 Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
April 24 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
April 25 Vienna, VA – Jammin Java
April 26 NYC, NY – Mercury Lounge
April 27 NYC, NY - Mercury Lounge
April 29 Lakewood, OH - Mahall's
April 30 Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups
May 1 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall

This page will update if any further shows are announced.

Freda Love Smith (the Blake Babies) Plans to March for ‘I Am Women’ Everywhere - The Talkhouse

On the day of the Women's March events around the world, Freda has written about the issue for The Talkhouse.

Juliana's on board too:

Rough Trade Publishing Unveils Benefit Campaign for Southern Poverty Law Center | Billboard

Lars Brandle, writing for Billboard:

It's been a tough, strange and oft-brutal year by any measure. Rough Trade Publishing is determined to get the New Year off to the right start.

The music publisher today declares “war on complacency” through its music-led, fundraising project "2017: A Song a Day Keeps the Pain Away."

The winter-warming initiative will feature a previously-unreleased song from one of the label’s roster of artists released each day for the first 90 days of 2017 via Bandcamp.

,,,

Subscriptions begin at $20.17 and all proceeds will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and seeking justice for those who need it the most.

Juliana is one of the artists involved.

The project's site is roughtradepublishing.bandcamp.com

Update, Jan 4, 2017 - Juliana's song is titled "Kellyanne" and is available now.

My So-Called Life Cast Interviews - Wilson Cruz, Devon Gummersall and More Reflect on My So-Called Life

Juliana is one of several contributors to Elle's The Agony and the Angst: An Oral History of My So-Called Life:

I remember Jared kind of following me around on set and watching me a lot. I think he was interested in me as a person who made a living in music; he really wanted to make music and I got that sense that he was really serious about it. We kind of became pals after that. He was in my apartment a couple times in New York, just hanging out, and he would pick up my acoustic guitar and start singing and playing, and I would just kind of swat him away. I didn't think his music was going to go anywhere. Like, oh god, another actor with a guitar.

 

Trump’s Recent Comments About Sexual Assault Had Juliana Hatfield Reaching for Her Valium - The Talkhouse

Juliana, writing for The Talkhouse:

A few months ago I tweeted, “All Trump footage should be prefaced by a trigger warning.” I was sort of joking, but sort of not. Trump’s lurid omnipresence has been irritating, but you could kind of laugh it off: “Oh, he’s just a clown, he’ll eventually go away. The country that voted for Barack Obama — twice! — will never elect Trump president.” He was unpalatable, but he was still a clown. A scary clown, but a clown.

But it’s not funny anymore. Since the Trump “pussy grab” tapes were released, I’ve found myself wanting to reach for my emergency supply of valium, which I keep mainly for plane travel to ease my visceral fear of flying. These viscera of mine are currently in a state of constant high anxiety. It’s the Trump effect: the sight of his face and/or the sound of his voice tightens the stomach, the heart, the sphincter. Everything’s clenched. Even — maybe especially — the “pussy.”

The venom-spewing from and around Trump is a black cloud hovering over this country. Trump has re-opened the emotional wounds of millions of people. It’s his special talent, apart from self-propagandizing and con-artistry. He stirs up bitterness, hatred, anger; he brings out the worst in people. He does it to people on both sides — all sides. There’s bile all around.

Trump hits people where it hurts, he feeds on bad blood; he’s a viper. Trump hits people where it hurts, he feeds on bad blood; he’s a viper. (“Everything Trump Touches Dies ” read one recent headline quoting a GOP strategist.) He brings back bad memories — memories that have been safely stored away in the dusty basements of our minds.

Juliana goes on to recount such a memory, dating back to the early Blake Babies days.

Read the whole thing.

thetalkhouse.com/trumps-recent-comments-sexual-assault-juliana-hatfield-reaching-valium

Ye Olde Records selling 7-CD back catalog package

Juliana, at her official site:

I am liquidating the Ye Olde Records CD back catalog, so now is your chance to stock up on my music at a huge discount. I am offering, for a limited time, a 7-CD package for $25 plus $10 shipping (and packaging) to anywhere. There are 83 songs in this package. The titles are “How To Walk Away”, “Made In China”, “Wild Animals”, “Juliana Hatfield” (cover songs), the “How To Walk Away” demos (all solo albums), plus “Whatever, My Love” by The Juliana Hatfield Three and “Sittin’ In A Tree” by Juliana Hatfield and Frank Smith. Get ‘em while they’re hot/before they’re destroyed! 
Take a Peek Inside Juliana Hatfield's '90s Journals - The Talkhouse

Juliana, for the The Talkhouse:

In late 1990, my band the Blake Babies set out on tour. We were young. I kept a diary. We were doing shows with Firehose, Mike Watt’s band at the time. These pages describe the scene one night, from my point of view, after we’d finished our opening set in Northampton, Massachusetts — plus what it was like to talk to Watt.
 
How Boston’s Fort Apache Studios Captured the Sound of an Era | Consequence of Sound

Ryan Bray, for Consequence of Sound:

Boston in the mid-to-late ’80s was a fertile, if underrated, hotbed of musical talent. The city boasted scores of bands that were poised for big things just a few years around the bend, among them the Pixies, The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, Juliana Hatfield, Morphine, Belly, and Throwing Muses. The talent was flowing over the proverbial brim, but it needed a hub, an outlet through which the various sounds coursing through the city’s veins could be heard.

Fort Apache Studios filled that void. When Sean Slade, Jim Fitting, Paul Kolderie, and Joe Harvard officially opened Fort Apache in the spring of 1986, it was a no-frills operation run out of an industrial space in Roxbury — hardly the stuff of legends. But what started as an effort to document the local scene quickly grew into an enterprise that would produce some of the biggest guitar rock records and acts of the ’90s. The Fort Apache story is one steeped in the DIY ethos that defined the American rock underground and helped pave the way for grunge and alternative to explode into the mainstream. More than the story of a studio, this is the story of a largely unsung underground movement that helped define a musical era.

 

It's a lengthy 'oral history' style article, well worth your time with quotes from Fort Apache staff and musicians such as Lou Barlow, Kim Deal and Bill Janovitz.