90s College Rock 4 EVA.
Tom Lanham, in a short, oddly themed article for San Francisco Examiner:
Hatfield won’t allow herself a bedroom TV set, and she won’t subscribe to cable. The few free stations she does receive beam in through her rabbit-eared digital converter box. “And a couple of them are really great – one plays obscure old movies, and another plays cool shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I have a DSL line, so I do have the Internet, which I would love to get rid of, because I have fantasies of being off the grid one day. But right now, I’m still trying to make a living, so I kind of need it.”
Shaun Tandon, in a syndicated piece on Juliana for AFP at Yahoo:
She feels similarly about her musical skills. For years, she tried to make her voice raspier -- even taking up smoking -- but has come to terms with her strengths and weaknesses.
"There is nothing I can do about it," she said of her voice. "I don't sound like Courtney Love -- I just don't. I love Courtney Love's voice."
The article is a bit of fluff but has some decent photos by Timothy A Clary taken at the recent Juliana Hatfield Three Bowery Ballroom show in NYC. Larger, higher res versions can be found in the same syndicated piece which appears on the Daily Mail's website. I'm not linking to that publication so search that out if you want to.
The Juliana Hatfield Three tour hit St Paul, MN on Monday.
The Current has a review with a nice photoset.
Also, Vu reviewing at We Heart Music:
Later on in the show, Hatfield wanted to get a bunch of 90s bands together, The Lemonheads, Letter to Cleo, Marcy's Playground, etc., in a music festival called "It Came From the 90s". In her mind, she's got it all sorted out, including the poster artwork and so on.
Chris Kwan, who posted the above set list photo to Instagram, also has a few YouTube things including Push Pin and Dumb Fun.
The Juliana Hatfield Three are scheduled to perform on KEXP this Wednesday (March 11, 2015) at 0930 PDT (1230 EST, 1630 GMT / UTC).
You'll be able to listen at the KEXP site.
The KEXP sessions are often outstanding - Minor Alps' performance in 2013 a case in point.
Update March 11 - They played My Sister, Ordinary Guy, I'm Shy, and a radio friendly Spin The Bottle.
Update March 12 - Don't miss the KEXP photos on Flickr.
Update March 28 - KEXP have now posted video.
The Juliana Hatfield Three played the Black Cat in Washington D.C. on Wednesday night.
There's a brief review and a good set of photos by Matt Condon at Chunky Glasses. Update: Matt's full set is at Flickr.
In addition to the above video feature by BrewersArcade with some highlights of the show, YouTube is also home to other cuts including Spin The Bottle, Nirvana and the Minor Threat cover I Don't Want To Hear It.
There's another brief review at philly.com and for some YouTube stuff there's Supermodel, My Sister and This Is The Sound from night 1 and What A Life (different from the view above) from night 2.
Thanks to Carsten for the video of What A Life above. For more of Carsten's photos head to Flickr.
Facebookers, Twitterers and Instagrammers will have noted that Juliana's official channels have shared photos of the tour merch in recent days:
The Juliana Hatfield Three's show at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC last Sunday was reviewed at Brooklyn Vegan, where you'll find an extensive set of photos by Greg Cristman (who will make them available for purchase on his site from March 15). Update Higher res versions are now up on Flickr.
Carsten Pedersen also has some photos over on Flickr, Update: as does Dave W.
There's several YouTube things too including Nirvana (embedded above) and, from various uploaders,A Dame With A Rod, If I Could, My Sister, Everybody Loves Me But You, Mabel, President Garfield, Little Pieces and Supermodel.
Search out Facebook, Instagram and Twitter stuff out there too if you can't get enough.
An interesting Q&A with Juliana by Keith Valcourt for The Washington Times, despite being festooned with adverts and 'click here to read another two sentences' horrors, ends with talk of projects old and new:
Q: A couple of years back there was an attempt at a Lemonheads reunion CD. Why did that fail?
A: Evan and I went out to LA, and Ben Deily, who was in the original Lemonheads, was there too. We went to Ryan Adams’ studio, [and] he was going to play drums. But we had to pull the plug after the first day because Evan wasn’t in any shape to do it. He wasn’t prepared either. He didn’t have any songs. It was a kind of a disaster.
Q: What else are you working on musically?
A: I’m doing some writing with another songwriter, but I don’t want to name any names right now. But I’m going to try to write some songs with another songwriter [as well].
The Juliana Hatfield Three are featured in the March 2015 edition of Performer Magazine. The article by Vincent Scarpa reveals this nugget about the origin of one of Whatever, My Love's (and Wild Animals') tracks:
"Push Pin," the album's most infectious song, was written by Hatfield for a possible Lemonheads reunion album a few years prior, to be produced by Ryan Adams (a project that never came to fruition).
There's a digital version of the print edition which can be viewed here.
Update - There's now an easier to read conventional web page version of the interview - http://performermag.com/the-juliana-hatfield-three-returns-the-performer-interview/
The second date of the Juliana Hatfield Three US tour was a hometown show for Juliana last night at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA.
Another great set of photos here by David Young.
A little look at the merch in this tweet from Eric Liwanag:
Further to the previously posted photos and set list here's another set from Thursday's opening night at the Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine.
Thanks to David Young for these excellent pictures that capture the performance so well.
The Juliana Hatfield Three commenced their US tour last night at the Port City Music Hall in Portland, ME. Kind of a big deal.
No messing about on the set list - it was straight into the entirety of Become What You Are and a bunch of great choices to end.
Photos and set list (from memory) courtesy of Lieve.
- Supermodel
- My Sister
- This Is The Sound
- For The Birds
- Mabel
- A Dame With A Rod
- Addicted
- Feelin' Massachusetts
- Spin The Bottle
- President Garfield
- Little Pieces
- I Got No Idols
- What A Life
- Fleur de Lys
- Everybody Loves Me But You
- I'm Shy
- Ordinary Guy
- Push Pin
- Wood
- Dumb Fun
- Nirvana (Solo Encore)
Tap / Click to enlarge these pics:
update - see also David's excellent photos from this show
A feature for The Boston Globe ahead of the Sinclair show, including quotes from Dean and the other two of The Three:
“There’s no more three months in LA for us,” says Fisher, comparing these sessions with the ones for “Become What You Are,” which was produced by Scott Litt shortly after he’d helmed R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People.”
“I think it’s good because all of our contemporaries are just finding ways of doing this,” Fisher adds, “being your own small business and making it work. You have to do more jobs, wear more hats to do it, and I think Juliana’s great at doing that.”
Juliana, talking to The Examiner
It was important to me that we didn’t just go on the road as a nostalgia act, and that’s why I wanted to have a new album. Yes, there are people who love that album from 1993. But maybe they’ll like the new album. I’m not gonna force it on them, but I think they might like it. It’s important to me to keep producing new material and I do put out records on my label, just very quietly. I try to put out something every year, and most of them I don’t promote, but I put them out there. I wouldn’t have been comfortable doing the tour of Become What You Are. I needed to have something new just to prove that I can still write songs and I have more to show than just that one album. I’ve been doing this since then, and I still have good stuff. I cannot be summed up by that one album.
The new Juliana Hatfield Three album is now available to stream for Spotify users.
As previously announced it is available on CD from American Laundromat Records and on download from iTunes.
There may be other formats to come:
Another selection of recent reviews for Whatever, My Love:
Whatever, My Love, despite its plainspoken lyrics and shrugging title, doesn’t ignore the complicated in favor of these simple pleasures. In fact, in acknowledging the darkness on “Push Pin” or “If I Could” or “Wood”, the Juliana Hatfield Three argues that simple pleasures might be the hardest to come by and the hardest one. That is the central tension of the record, and one that keeps things taut even when “Invisible” runs through the chorus a few too many times or when songs like “Now That I Have Found You” bury the best elements—the jagged guitar phrasings—under other, sleeker production.
6/10
Matthew Fiander, PopMatters
By marrying her wry, world-weary songs to the brighter, optimistic punch of the JHT, Hatfield winds up with a record that delivers a hard, immediate hit -- particularly on the cynical pop "Ordinary Guy" and grind of "If Only We Were Dogs" -- but leaves a lasting scar that's soothed by the melodies and that ringing, hooky pop that is often labeled as collegiate but now feels deeper and richer in the hands of rockers who never deny their impending middle age. In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.
4.5/5
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic
Throughout her career, Hatfield's strongest work's emerged when she's clicked with her collaborators. She made magic with the Blake Babies. And she made magic with Fisher and Philips. So, for longtime fans, Whatever, My Love gives reason for optimism. And, of the album, Hatfield's said: "We haven’t totally reinvented the wheel or anything." Which is what you want to hear. She goes back to her earlier timeless sound, one that emerged from punk, and skips the saccharine singer-songwriter stuff.
6.1/10
Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork
It more than stands on its own as a wry, uncompromising, unapologetically jangly take on living with the general discomfort that comes along with being a modern human. And it’s reassuring to hear that, 20 years on, Juliana Hatfield still has just as much bite as the dogs she’s been singing about.
Pete Chianca, Wicked Local
The jangle-rock numbers like “I’m Shy”, “Push Pin”, and put-a-smile-on-your-face “If Only We Were Dogs” particularly have catch, but there’s also some sweet sadness in songs such as “Invisible”, “If I Could”, and “I Don’t Know What To Do With My Hands”. There are some relatively not as good tracks – “Now That I Have Found You” is too simply cheery, while the processional rhythm behind “Woods” doesn’t work that well (and the guy described in “Ordinary Guy” seems pretty rare & hard to match…) – but it’s what you wanted from a revived Juliana Hatfield Three.
Ted Chase, QRO
There are one or two missteps, the stuttering tempo of Wood doesn’t really work and the lyrics for Ordinary Guy, I’m Shy and the busy Push Pin are a little hard to listen to coming from a woman in her forties (“oh I want an ordinary guy”, “if only we were dogs it would so easy to be happy”). Much better are the more relaxed, sparser tracks. I Don’t Know What To Do With My Hands has the light charm of late period Lemonheads, and moody closer Parking Lots succeeds by virtue of being a departure from the rest of the album, giving the keyboards prominence with a rather muted vocal from Hatfield.
Whatever, My Love has reminded me how much I enjoy Juliana Hatfield’s music. While her solo material and endeavors with other artists hold their own merit, there is something to be said about the chemistry between Hatfield, Phillips and Fisher. They have been able to step right back into the Juliana Hatfield Three as if they were never apart.
Chris Martin, Examiner
What could have been a tired rehash of past glories is actually quite the opposite. There are memorable moments and songs that last beyond their final note in your memory. When record this loops round on repeat, you are glad that it’s back again.
D R Pautsch, Soundblab