The most elongated series of audio interviews in internet history has now come to an end. Part 4 of Juliana's interview with Gearwire is now online and includes a discussion on her Martin HD-28V acoustic guitar.
Thanks to Carlos for the link.
From Juliana:
"I will not be accepting any more song orders. I will announce the lottery winner soon. Thank you to everyone."
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
JH: Here. Still here.
Read a new Q&A with Juliana at Tuned-Out.
Juliana never fails to surprise. Today she has announced an unexpected left field idea of offering a customised personal song for $1000. Yes, you have just read that.
The full details in Juliana's own words are at her official site, where orders are being taken. UPDATE - MAY 12 2010 - Juliana is no longer taking orders.
The key points are:
- send some personal info and Juliana will tailor-make a song for you
- songs will be ‘mostly acoustic style’
- songs sent by mail in personalised hand painted cardboard CD sleeve
- $1000 cost on first-come first-served basis, capped at 20
- $10 ‘lottery ticket’ option for one chance to win the same deal
- songs intended solely for recipients, not planned for future release
This offer is intended to help fund two unspecified future projects and a third, which Juliana tantalisingly says...
"..involves gathering together some of my vast unreleased archives."
This idea is a little eccentric and intriguing. It will also no doubt induce panic among the most compulsively voracious of collectors! Nonetheless we now know that a) Juliana is still writing new songs and b) there is a “vast” number of old unheard songs she wants to do something with. Therefore the best news reported on these pages this year.
A solo acoustic tv appearance dating way back to early 1993 (post Hey Babe and pre Become What You Are) can now be viewed on JBTV Online, featuring a snippet of Start Choppin (Dinosaur Jr), plus full versions of He’d Be A Diamond(The Bevis Frond), My Sister, Ugly, It’s A Shame About Ray(The Lemonheads) and Supermodel.
A good quality video, great performance and wonderful nostalgia.
Thanks to Andrew for spotting and sharing this.
UPDATE August 2010 - The videos appear to have been removed from JBTV. Hopefully they will be back.
UDPATE Mar 5, 2012 - As JBTV's Robert Shell points out in the comments they are now back online.
If you want to collaborate with Juliana it helps if your name is Ryan.
Her involvement with that Cardinals fella has been well documented.
This week another Ryan - American singer / songwriter Ryan Star has revealed that Juliana performs backing vocals on his forthcoming album 11:59.
UPDATE: August 3, 2010
The album has now been released and Juliana is not on it.
In an article carried by the Huffington Post, Star says:
“(Juliana) sang on my record. It turned out she was a fan, you know, it goes years back. I saw her (when I / she) was younger, gave her one of my demos, and it turns out she knew who I was and was excited to sing.”
In CWG magazine he says Juliana was his favourite person to collaborate with, describing her as:
“the greatest fucking girl artist in the world.”
It looks like the recording may date back at least a couple of years as the release of 11:59 has been delayed several times and there is currently no firm date. Perhaps Ryan should take note of his label’s history of releasing of songs involving Juliana. Ryan Star is signed to Atlantic Records.
Ryan Schmidt - Black Sheep, Run
And to complete the Ryan theme, a reminder that as reported last year, Juliana performs a duet with Boston singer / songwriter Ryan Schmidt on the track Night The Bells Rang on his new album Black Sheep, Run. The album is due for release on June 1, 2010 November 2, 2010. Listen to the track here:
In her self-deprecating (or just realistic) way Juliana has mentioned her relative musical anonymity in recent interviews. Her withdrawal from touring and promotion inevitably pushes her further under the mainstream radar, something she appears comfortable about. It’s therefore good to see her music continues to be appreciated by contemporary artists.
24 year old British singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis, aka Marina and the Diamonds is a current darling of the music press, and a fan too.
She namechecked Juliana in an interview carried by we7 earlier this year:
“I love artists who are true to themselves and don't follow a particular pattern with trends, what's "in" etc. I love artists who aren't scared to do something new. PJ Harvey, Daniel Johnston, Metric, The Distillers, Juliana Hatfield, Madonna...”
In a widely syndicated article by Bang Showbiz this month, Marina said:
"I think I will have a Juliana Hatfield or PJ Harvey moment one day, where I'll just record in my bedroom with an electric guitar and it'll sell two copies.”
Juliana talks about Gibson guitars and raises the possibility of future live electric shows in the third part of Gearwire's audio interview.
Motown based music site Tuned-Out is due to interview Juliana:
Questions can be submitted via their site or at Facebook and Twitter. 'When will you be playing a show in my backyard?' themed questions should probably be avoided. Thoughts on crimes against confectionary less so.
Update
on 2010-05-08 16:55 by Craig
The interview is now available at Tuned-Out.
When she's not busy saving stray dogs and other 'super secret' non-musical adventures it appears Juliana is also now a consumer champion. Today's blog post addresses the vital matter of the new US 2 piece King Size Snickers bar and the inane brevity of the manufacturers' reply to her complaint.
Such an important issue that liveontomorrow.co.uk has taken to Google to find a more detailed answer from Mars Chocolate North America:
"The size of the product was changed in order to hold the retail price steady. This is also directly related to manufacturing and ingredient costs. When you compare the weight of any product of equally high quality, we are confident our candy would cost less per ounce."
Part 2 of an audio interview, titled "Juliana Hatfield On Vocals, Recording, And Musical Education Of The Higher Sort", is now available to listen at Gearwire.
If you missed Part 1, it's here.
Juliana has written a new article for the Huffington Post on her Save a Sato dog rescue patronage.
She previously mentioned her interest in this project last month.
If you thought the negative review of Peace & Love in Pitchfork was infuriating (and others did), take a deep breath before reading the PopMatters review.
It's OK if a reviewer doesn't like the album and can offer a criticism that explains why but other than an opinion that the lyrics are weak, the gist of the review seems to complain that Juliana has the audacity to still be making music after 20 odd years. The review has been suitably taken to task by 'stever' in the comments on the PopMatters site.
Hopefully this is not a view shared by every writer on PopMatters. Indeed, in 2008 Juliana was described there as a "talented iconic rock star" and How To Walk Away as "a brilliant new album of intensely personal songs"
Ho hum.
Forumites at Juliana's messageboard (which sadly remains unavailable for new members- UPDATE Jun 2010 -the forum is now gone) have spotted a recent upload to the repository of almostcertainlycopyrightinfringement and oftenwrongaspectratiovideo, otherwise known as YouTube. A concert from Gibson's in Tucson, AZ from 1997 is now available in its entirety either from links on the uploader's channel or via the individual links below:
I Got No Idols / Outsider
Fade Away / Dying Proof
Fleur De Lys / Spin The Bottle
What Have I Done To You
My Sister / Supermodel
My Darling
The Unheard Music / Get Off
For The Birds / Live On Tomorrow
Bottles And Flowers
Trying Not To Think About It / Addicted
Get Your Head Off My Shoulder / Dumb Fun
The Unheard Music is a cover of a song by X.
Also, from the same forum thread, Evan Dando covering My Darling from 2009:
More from this Dando show on Moshcam.
Another bunch of Peace & Love mentions from review sites, blogs and the wide world of the web:
Posted today on Twitter:
TMRS is That Modern Rock Show, broadcast on WFDU, Saturdays between 9pm and 1am Eastern Time.
UPDATE Tuesday, March 23:
You can now listen to the interview in the WFDU Archives.
"Every time, I write a song about a break-up, I can’t believe I’m writing about it again. It’s like shut up already. But I think it’s a universal experience and it never gets old."
Juliana talks about Peace & Love, her career and voice, and names her price for a Blake Babies reunion in a Q&A interview at Hear/Say.
Thanks to Allison for sharing this link.
"I don't know what happened with the guitar solo in 'What Is Wrong', I just sort of plugged in and in about three seconds got a kind of nasty sound happening. I pressed 'record' and this gnarly blast fell out. Listening back, I was very amused with myself."
Read more comments from Juliana in a feature on Groupee.