The Pussycat tour stopped off in Juliana's home state last Sunday when Juliana, Todd and Dean (the band formerly known as The Juliana Hatfield Three) played The Sinclair.
The excellent photos here are by David Young.
A 15 minute radio interview with Juliana by Kyle Meredith of Kentucky's WFPK:
wfpk.org/2017/juliana-hatfield-grappling-lot-confusion-anger/
Juliana's response to the query "The song that encouraged me to learn my instrument of choice":
I picked up electric guitar years after acoustic guitar ..I was 9 or 10 when I started acoustic guitar lessons and was about 18 or 19 when I bought my first electric guitar. At that point I was inspired by early REM and the song “Radio Free Europe” was easy enough for me to figure out and that was really exciting…to realize that, “Hey, I can do this, too! I can do what REM is doing!”
You can read more of Juliana's selections including the first single she bought, her first live show, her guilty secret track and more in an interview with Henri Montrose for ARTISTdirect
The promotional text for Pussycat's release suggests that by the end of 2016 Juliana was unsure of her songwriting future - to the extent that she considered that part of her career as "on hiatus." Her recent output tended to support that - 2015's Whatever, My Love record as The Juliana Hatfield Three was almost entirely old songs reworked, 2016's The I Don't Cares album was mainly Paul Westerberg songs with Juliana as muse, and while there's talk of new Blake Babies songs to come, she wouldn't be the only writer in such a project.
That Pussycat exists is however no surprise to those of us following Juliana's Twitter account towards the end of 2016. There were frequent tweets - almost entirely focused on the Republican candidate - in the weeks leading up to the election.
Juliana's disbelief, anger and fear of what seemed to be happening and what ultimately unfolded was clear. (For me and I suspect many other Brits the familiarity to emotions experienced in our EU referendum six months earlier was unavoidable. A different set of circumstances but a shared feeling of unprecedented horror.)
A month prior to the election and in the aftermath of what she described as the Trump "pussy grab" tapes, Juliana wrote for Talkhouse where she articulated her fears and how events brought back memories of men abusing positions of power and privilege.
It seemed inevitable that Juliana needed more than Twitter to act as an outlet for her feelings and in January 2017 she posted photos from a recording studio on Instagram:
“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."
As recounted to Cleveland Scene:
"Some of the music I had lying around, the bits and pieces of chord progressions. When I had these lyrical ideas and when I started to feel like I needed to express these feelings, I went looking for the music and put the songs together very quickly."
Pussycat isn't framed as an anti-Trump record but the fallout of the 2016 US Presidential election is all over this album. There are lyrics and song titles unambiguous in reference to the 45th President.
I Wanna Be Your Disease opens the LP with calls for accountability, a desire to see that the actions of poisonous evil are answerable:
I want to be your disease
a catalyst for reckoning
with all of the harm you have done to the earth
and all of your vile and hateful words
The song hits a high key as Juliana reaches the lines:
I want you to listen to me
I want to make you sorry
This sets the tone for Pussycat. Juliana has plenty to say. In every sense her voice will be heard.
In recent years, Juliana has explored more use of keyboards to harmonize and add melody. This continues on the album, no better than on You're Breaking My Heart which furthers the profound sadness at how society appears to have changed for the worse:
i slept so well
down my quiet street
knowing we all cared about the same things
The anger in Pussycat kicks in further with the dirty blues sound of When You're A Star which recounts the aforementioned "pussy grab" tapes and ties it in with the Bill Cosby case.
when you’re a star they let you
do what you want
whatever the fuck you want to do
when you’re a star they let you
do what you want
buy the silence of your many tragic victims
do what you want
you’re protected by your sycophants and henchmen
Good Enough For Me has Juliana in self-deprecating mood although it seems a bit abstract and maybe at odds with overall direct themes of Pussycat. Cracker of a tune, mind.
It's obvious who Short-fingered Man is aimed at:
short-fingered man
can’t get her off
short-fingered man
best give it up
You can dance to it too:
The fast-paced Touch You Again has Juliana reaching for the high notes in a vocal performance reminiscent of her Blake Babies days. There's yeah yeah yeahs in it, which is never a bad thing. It's empowered. It's gorgeous.
Sex Machine talks of building a "sex machine to satisfy every single need - any time of day or night - you can turn it on an have a good time". As Juliana realises the liberty such a device would bring "finally I'll be free - left alone to sleep in peace..." the song explodes with maxed out multi-layered harmonic vocals, and some of the crunchiest guitar noises we've heard from a JH record in a long time. Juliana's fans are going to go nuts for this.
Wonder Why sees Juliana describe memories from her youth. As she told Consequence of Sound"It’s escapism and lately escapism is more important to me than ever. In my mind I go back there to my childhood and it comforts me."
Sunny Somewhere is driven by a pulsing bass as Juliana looks for an escape from her environment. In the darkness, hope remains.
Kellyanne addresses thoughts towards the Republican campaign manager turned "Counselor to the President." It's pretty much this tweet in musical form:
Heartless observes the erosion of empathy and increasing absence of humanity. Juliana may have one person in mind with this song, but the theme is global:
how can you care if you have no empathy
how can you judge if you have no authority
how can you tell the truth without honesty
and how can you apologize if you’re not sorryhow can you see if you’re not looking
how can you hear if you’re not listening
how can you preach without believing
and how can you teach if you haven’t learned anythingyou’re so heartless
There's hooks, drum fills, a guitar solo, more use of keyboards, and a casual yet somehow urgent and compelling vocal. What a track.
Rhinoceros has a 70s glam rock feel to suit the brutal lyrics and the most instantly catchy chorus on the album. Fair warning - you might find that you're singing to along with "give it up for the rhinoceros. guess who’s getting fucked by the rhinoceros". The song references Melania from Slovenia but the callback of "America" tells us the whole country is getting fucked over.
Everything Is Forgotten is a particularly dark way to end the album and perhaps suitably so. Anger spawns anger. A thirst for revenge, for justice is inevitable in these times. There's luscious guitar noise and then, ultimately, defiance:
i'm not going to die a victim
Pussycat is magnificent.
It's full of lines you'll find yourself singing along with and for days afterwards. There are killer melodies, memorable riffs, exceptional keyboard harmonics, all helping to make some of the most inspired musicianship we've heard from a Juliana record in years. She hasn't sounded quite as energised as this for some time either.
This is all the more remarkable given that drums (Pete Caldes) and engineering (Pat DiCenso) aside (and not to diminish DiCenso's role here in particular), this is a truly solo record. Juliana wrote everything here and plays everything else. Repeat listens reveal more layers. It is an extraordinary work of intense, passionate, and accomplished art.
To this listener, it's a career highlight and the most exciting music Juliana has made since 2008's exceptional How To Walk Away.
Pussycat is also Juliana at her most political since 2005's Made In China. Whereas that album saw her defiant and ultimately empowered, Pussycat is an outlet for anger. Introspection gives way to a more outward looking theme. It's less "what the fuck is going on with me?" and more "what the fuck is wrong with other people?”
There's comfort in the power of music but the subject matter is unavoidably bleak. With this in mind I've deliberately omitted the 2nd song from this review until now, because Impossible Song is the most hopeful track on Pussycat. There's a sense of futility but hope isn't distinguished:
what if we tried to get along
sing an impossible song
figure it out later onwhat if we tried to get along
just for a four-minute song
it’ll be all right
if we harmonize
on this line
what if we tried to get along
na na na na na na na
In 2010, Juliana declared that she wouldn't "give up on Peace and Love."
She hasn't.
We haven't.
We mustn't.
Pussycat is available in various physical formats - vinyl, cd and cassette(!) at American Laundromat Records, and digitally at Bandcamp, iTunes and elsewhere. The vinyl version is also available from UK distributor Cargo Records.
review by Craig Scrogie, April 2017
The incredible Pussycat tour poster by Nicole Anguish is available for purchase now at Daykamp Creative's Etsy store.
You can also see previous work at the site, including some equally fabulous posters for The Juliana Hatfield Three, Blake Babies and Minor Alps.
Juliana, on the new album's title, from an interview with Jeff Niesel for Cleveland Scene:
“Sometimes, someone will talk about a person who appears to be gruff or harsh and say, ‘He’s just a pussycat,’” she says. “I was thinking about the duality of that and how cats can be soft and sweet, but if they don’t like you, their claws will come out. [The title] goes along with my image as well. I think some people hear my sweet little girl voice and think I’m a nice little pop singer, but I’ve always had these protest songs and these angry songs. People don’t always notice it or when they do notice it, they’re surprised and confused by it.”
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 .
Dan Weiss, writing for Stereogum:
Shamir Bailey, the 22-year-old Philly-via-Vegas polymath who goes only by his first name, made one of 2015’s best and brightest albums — and possibly its best debut — with the electro-disco revelation Ratchet. It was released via XL, home to Adele and Radiohead among others, and from his country covers and hip-house rapping, we always knew that the album was merely the tip of the iceberg for Shamir’s considerable talent and wide-ranging taste. That prophecy came true this morning as Shamir self-released a surprise follow-up, Hope, all on his own via SoundCloud.
STEREOGUM: So are you a huge Blake Babies fan, or was the cover [“Rain”] something you were planning to do for a while?
SHAMIR: No, I actually discovered them this weekend. I’ve been listening to a lot of ’90s [music] all weekend, trying to find related artists to Velocity Girl. The [Blake Babies] singer, I think her name’s Julie…Juliana… [Hatfield], I think we kind of sound the same! Which is kind of crazy to me, I heard so much of myself in her. This is my first, full, fleshed-out cover I think! Because even my Lindi Ortega cover [“Lived And Died Alone” from my first EP [2014’s Northtown] was just stripped down and kind of a look into my soul coming out.
STEREOGUM: I know you’re getting blown up all day but has any particular reaction to Hope stuck out to you today so far?
SHAMIR: Just the fact that the guitarist and songwriter of “Rain,” from Blake Babies [John Strohm] tweeted at me today and I got to thank him, and he was so sweet. It’s only been a few hours! And he heard it already somehow! The internet is crazy!
Rain is at 27:38 on the SoundCloud embed above.
You can download the album at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/u0wwrkud56vad/HOPE+MP3S
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.
Juliana's official site has had a makeover in time for the new album.
Among the updates there, you can now view the lyrics for Pussycat, or you can wait for the music. You will not be judged whichever you choose.
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
A new video as premiered today at Stereogum, where Juliana has given a couple of quotes.
The new album's not far away now.
In addition to the previously announced pre-orders for various physical formats at American Laundromat Records, Pussycat is now listed at iTunes, where the track Wonder Why is available immediately.
Also, with shipping costs in mind, Europeans may wish to note that the vinyl version is available from UK distributor Cargo Records.
Photo: David Young
Updates as of April 3:
New dates have been added at New Haven, CT on April 22, Lakewood, OH on April 29, Columbus, OH on April 30, and Chicago, IL on May 1.
Any more will be updated here.
The full list of announced dates is now:
April 21 Newport, RI - The Cafe 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
(*thanks to Andrew on the This is The Sound forum for spotting that the Newport show is no longer listed on Juliana's agent's site)
Juliana was part of the bill at Paradise Rock Club last night, appearing with Nada Surf, Belly, Bill Janovitz, and more, in a benefit show for the ACLU.
Her set featured tracks from next month's Pussycat album. The night also saw the first ever electric performance of Minor Alps.
Maura Johnston has reviewed the show for The Boston Globe, there are photos at Daykamp Music, and inevitably there are bits on YouTube including new song Short-Fingered Man, plus the Minor Alps electric version (yay!) of I Don't Know What To Do With My Hands.
See also Stacee Sledge's compilation of short clips from the entire show including bits of the other artists. Here's Stacee's alternative view of the Minor Alps track:
Thanks to regular contributor David Young for these great photos:
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.
American Laundromat Records on Instagram:
Lorde, responding to Juliana's words at Talkhouse.