Some Some Girls news:
Heidi Gluck is currently touring the US with Joel Henderson, both as opening act and playing in Joel's band.
thanks to Carlos for the info.
PledgeMusic update for non-pledgies:
In recent days Juliana has posted video of acoustic performances of Blur's Coffee + TV, her own On Your Mind, and a duet with Joe Keefe on Neil Young's Barstool Blues.
You may recall that Juliana recorded the Young song acoustically in 2011, releasing it to pledgers during her previous project.
It's Record Store Day, and this here video is about buying music in a record store. How about that?
Picturebox's rather lovely Juliana Hatfield song, now with added video.
It was filmed in the English city of Canterbury by the songwriter Rob Halcrow, a reader of this site. Excellent stuff. Bonus points for featuring Peanuts characters.
A reminder that you can download the song at bandcamp.
I've been working extensively on the new Juliana Hatfield covers album. It's going to be super cool! Hooray! Songs are top secret. :)
— Peter Adams (@SLightFLight) April 14, 2012
Well, not all the songs are that secret.
If you're a pledger you can now hear what Juliana describes as "a bit of a weird mix" of Liz Phair's Friend Of Mine, in a work in progress update in the covers album project.
Spoiler Alert!
Although Juliana's intention is to keep the songs chosen for the covers project a secret, this doesn't really fit with the PledgeMusic 'updates from the studio' idea. Inevitably, we have been hearing snippets along the way and now some songs as works in progress.
If you really don't want to know their identity, it looks like you'll have to skim the Pledge updates avoiding the songs and the user comments, which isn't really the idea is it! Oh, and don't come to this site either. Smiley winking face emoticon thing.
Having previously uploaded a video snippet of Pete Yorn's Closet, Juliana has now posted a demo.
@peteyorn closet!
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) April 22, 2012
@peteyorn will do
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) April 22, 2012
if i did ever do karaoke i think i would do the theme from the spy who loved me
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) April 12, 2012
Now if Juliana were ever to make a covers album...
UK based pop group Picturebox have this week released a new song titled Juliana Hatfield.
Picturebox:
This is about the thrill of hearing something great on the radio for the first time, trying to find out who it's by and get hold of it in the pre-Internet days. Also saying how great it is when someone you like keeps making great music after such a long time!
Gotta be loving the picture of the cassette.
You can listen to the song below and download (with optional contribution) at bandcamp.
<a href="http://picturebox.bandcamp.com/track/juliana-hatfield">Juliana Hatfield by Picturebox</a>
New pledges have been added to Juliana's Covers Album project at PledgeMusic since the launch earlier this month, including the return of the 20 questions by email thing which she did last year.
Today, she's brought back the offer of a personalised song, which you'll recall was a fundraiser of sorts she did in 2010 before the original PledgeMusic project.
Juliana:
I will write you a personal song! I’ll create an original song exclusively for you, to you, about you... [] ...Think of it as a commissioned sonic portrait. I will send you an mP3 and a CD of your song and will never release it to the public.
This offer is available now for up to 3 potential pledgers for, ahem, $1,000.
But you all know this anyway because you're all pledgers, right?
Thanks to Robert Shell of JBTV for letting us know that Juliana's solo acoustic TV performance is back online.
Dating back to early 1993 (post Hey Babe and pre Become What You Are), the videos can now be viewed again at 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.
While we're in a pledgy, kickstarty, fundy mood, there's this from filmmaker Jarrad Kennedy:
'If It's Catchy, It Means You Stole It' is a feature documentary on Sydney musician/independent record label boss Nic Dalton. Dalton has played in over 65 bands (and counting!), most notably Boston's The Lemonheads during the peak of the grunge movement in the early 1990's.
... Interviews with key figures in the Dalton/HAC story will be interwoven with animation, rare unseen footage and performances.
... Funds generated will be used to cover equipment hire, film transfer, legal clearances and mastering.
We aim to have the film completed by July 2012 to submit for the Boston Film Festival in September.
You can get involved in the project at Pozible.
Juliana is mentioned in the trailer's credits.
In the 90's she performed one of Dalton's songs - Love Went Away - under the pseudonym of Kelly Wilson.
hat tip to Carlos for the info
Here we go again.
Juliana's forthcoming album of other people's songs is another fan funded affair. After the success of last year's There's Always Another Girl album, Juliana is again using PledgeMusic to organise the project.
She is offering her paintings, guitars and other miscellany as well as the music.
Juliana:
Also, a percentage of the money we raise will be donated to IMPACT Boston, which teaches self-defense and self-empowerment to people who really need it (I took a weekend self-defense course there a few years ago and it was really great and I was able to see with my own eyes how much it helped the women who were enrolled.) IMPACT offers scholarships for those who can’t afford the workshops.
The project has launched today. Head over to PledgeMusic to join in.
getting ready to start recording my covers album
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) February 19, 2012
Juliana has today confirmed on Twitter that her new album will be of cover versions.
She first pondered the project in July 2011 after finishing There's Always Another Girl, when she solicited suggestions from PledgeMusic subscribers.
More as and when...
UPDATE - MARCH 2
As expected, it's another pledge thing.
i'm going to be launching the new covers project at/through pledge music really soon--info coming later
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) March 2, 2012
Just kids twitpic.com/8kd4jy
— John P. Strohm (@johnpstrohm) February 15, 2012
Luscious Jackson are returning with a PledgeMusic project.
In an interview with Rolling Stone where you can hear their first new song in a decade, singer / bassist Jill Cunniff cites the success of Juliana's There's Always Another Girl project as an inspiration.
Cunniff:
Juliana Hatfield was really great, and she was sort of our generation and she did a pledge drive and did really well with it. She was really active with it and did a lot of updating and that's what we're going to do.
UPDATE
The LJ PledgeMusic page is now live.
Well this passed us by.
Thanks to Ghosty of WFDU's That Modern Rock Show, we can now hear his interview with Juliana which originally aired back in September.
Given the almost non-existent promotion for There's Always Another Girl this is a rare opportunity to hear Juliana talk about the record, the origins of the PledgeMusic project, and 90's nostalgia.
Juliana:
If I could afford to, I would just paint for the foreseeable future. It’s the way I saw music before. I only wanted to do that. Now I want to paint. That is probably going to sound so pretentious coming from someone who’s been a musician. It’s weird, no one even knows I’m doing this school. None of my quote unquote fans knows that I’m in school. I haven’t really told anyone.
Juliana is interviewed by Middle Mojo - a site focusing on "what happens when creative people get older and older people get creative."
Juliana goes on to indicate that the proceeds from There's Always Another Girl were intended, in part, to fund art school.
The interview also covers why she has previously found it difficult to fulfil her wish to quit performing live, and how her art is proving a different form of expression to her music:
It’s going to be interesting to see. I am starting to see some of the themes from my music in some of my paintings. It’s not really planned, it’s just sort of happening. Look at my past few album covers. It’s naked parts of my body. And I’m painting stuff like that. Body parts with no heads. Fake boobs. I’ve always had these issues with my identity, anxiety about my femininity. I never felt I really expressed it the way I wanted to with music. This is just another way to work through some of the issues I have.
The music side isn't being neglected though. If you've been following Juliana on Twitter in recent days she has, amongst other topics such as complaining about her Wikipedia image (now changed), indicated that new tunes are forthcoming:
that was too many tweets& i'm sorry& & i have to get back to work now but THANK YOU ALL for EMO & TECH SUPPORT and new album coming soon
— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) January 8, 2012
A couple of album reviews that emerged towards the end of last year that you may have missed:
Katie Caroll, mxdwn.com:
There’s Always Another Girl is hit and miss; it tries to bring together the many incarnations of Juliana Hatfield’s impressive career.
Steve Smart, Rabbit Hole Urban Music:
She's the kind of artist you can get very attached to over the years. I know I have - 5/5
Fans of Juliana's art might be interested to see some of the work she produced as a child. She's posted some examples today over at her official blog.