Juliana appeared on stage for an encore at Liz Phair's show at Royale Boston last night (Oct 8, 2018.)
She performed Olivia Newton-John's Please Mr. Please with Liz and Speedy Ortiz's Sadie Dupuis.
Juliana appeared on stage for an encore at Liz Phair's show at Royale Boston last night (Oct 8, 2018.)
She performed Olivia Newton-John's Please Mr. Please with Liz and Speedy Ortiz's Sadie Dupuis.
Liz, Juliana and Sadie sing ONJ! đ« pic.twitter.com/1Tfygswu0P
â Andrea Feldman (@visaforviolet) October 9, 2018
The truth is, this is the first night Juliana and I ever met. The old industry separated female artists, almost pitted them against each other in the press. Now weâre sewing up the gaps. I love you @julianahatfield thank you so much https://t.co/Aa6pciJCCl
â Liz Phair (@PhizLair) October 9, 2018
New covers of Juliana's Universal Heart-beat and I See You are now available to order.
American Laundromat Records:
Chicago's The Safes are thrilled to release a 2-song, 7â tribute to Juliana Hatfield; one of their favorite artists. The Safes tracked this single with the one and only Steve Albini and, to turn this up to 11, The Safes asked their friends Ted Ansani and Mike Zelenko of legendary power pop trio Material Issue to be the rhythm section for this recording. Give it listen. These songs are as good as songs get -- The Safes saw no reason in trying to improve upon perfection and just had fun rockin' these classics.
Exclusive pressing on red vinyl. Original artwork by Nicole Anguish at Daykamp Creative. Only 500 copies exist. All 45's include a digital download card.
Juliana:
I'm so tickled by The Safes' joyful, lovable versions of my two songs! I think they really captured the essence of what the songs were and still are trying to say which is that there is always hope to be had
Order at American Laundromat Records:
UK live appearance alert!
On a bill including Echo & The Bunnymen, The Wonder Stuff, and The Bluetones, Juliana will appear at Manchester Academy on Saturday May 25, 2019 as part of Gigantic Vol.5.
Unexpected!
hello, manchester (UK)! i will be coming to your town on the 25th of may! pic.twitter.com/67wSXOrNR2
â Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) September 18, 2018
Juliana, writing on her official site:
I would like to share the home demos I made for the songs on my 2017 Pussycat album. I am making them available for the completists and for the curious and for, well, anyone and everyone else. You can download them below and if you want you can pay for them; you can donate however much or little you desire (or not). Much of the money that comes in will go right back into more music-making (studio recording, etc.)
For more info and the download / donation links head to:
Juliana played at the Wicked Good Festival on Boston Common yesterday (Aug 18, 2018) on a bill that included Buffalo Tom and Bleachers.
She played:
Set list info via Charlie P.
Thanks to David Young of Dry Eye Photography for these excellent photos:
Uploaded to YouTube this week.
Broadcast on Tonight Live in Australia, 25 years ago.
Stacy Buchanan, for WGBH:
Juliana Hatfield Threeâs Become What You Are just turned 25. It's hard to believe that one of Boston's most beloved albums is all grown up (and old enough to rent its own car). Reliving our own summers of '93 through the album sent us down the rabbit hole â and right to Ms. Hatfield's door.Juliana Hatfield grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Berklee. By the time she formed the Juliana Hatfield Three with bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Phillips, she had already been musically involved with the Blake Babies and the Lemonheads, as well as having a solo career. But the Juliana Hatfield Three birthed Become What You Are â and with a little help from some of the best (you just had to be there) minutes from the 90s, it charted on the Billboard 200, and its single, âSpin the Bottle," charted on the Mainstream Top 40. The album also turned Hatfield into a cultural icon, a hero for a generation of women that didnât always see a place for themselves in the alt-rock boom of the early 90s.
It's 2018, and Hatfield is still at it. She just released her 15th studio album, Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, and will be performing at the WERS Wicked Good Festival on Saturday, August 18. We caught up with her to recall the memorable Gen X moments that came from that first studio album â and the difficulties of being thrust into the limelight as a female artist, where commercial success did not connote respect.
Released on SoundCloud today and previously only available on a 7 inch bonus single sold with the Olivia Newton-John covers album, here's Juliana's version of Deeper Than The Night.
Juliana, interviewed primarily about the Olivia album, by Warren Kurtz for Goldmine:
GM: You also taught me a few songs I didnât know. Because of you, I finally bought the Xanadu soundtrack so that I could hear the original version of âSuspended in Time.â I also must have missed âMake a Move on Meâ in 1982 on the radio, when I was listening to Quarterflash, Joan Jett and The Go-Goâs instead.JH: âSuspended in Timeâ is most like a song I would have written. I love the chord progression and it felt most natural. âMake a Move on Meâ was a big hit from the Physical album. You know, the album cover photo with short hair and a bandana. I changed it up to be a 4/4 rock song.
Juliana played The Burren in Somerville on Monday (May 7, 2018) for the 20th anniversary of 1998's Bed album, which she played in full from the start, followed by some bangers from Hey Babe, BWYA, Pussycat, and the Olivia Newton-John covers LP.
Set list and lineup info courtesy of Charlie P:
Magen Tracy: keyboard, percussion backing vocals.
Todd Philips: drums (and unmic'd backing vocals)
Ed Valauskas: bass and backing vocals
Photos courtesy of David Young of Dry Eye Photography
YouTube is home to a bunch of clips. Thanks to spiketop for getting in touch about his playlist from the event and Carlos for other links.
Via WERS.org:
88.9 WERS is proud to present a Wicked Good Festival, featuring FREE performances from Bleachers, Buffalo Tom, Juliana Hatfield, and Air Traffic Controller with even more still to be announced! Free and open to the public, this community event on Boston Common will be fun for the whole family. So plan to join us on August 18th for our first ever and totally FREE Wicked Good Festival â make sure to check back regularly for festival updates and additions to the lineup.
Juliana, interviewed by Cryptic Rock, with some new album news:
CrypticRock.com â You have this new album, and you have continued to keep yourself busy through the years. Just in 2017 you released Pussycat, which was another really wonderful selection of original songs balancing youth and maturity. You mentioned you always have new ideas popping up, that in mind, are you working on any new music?
Juliana Hatfield â I am. I have already recorded some tracks with drums. I started work on my next album, I am writing it, recording it, and going to go back to the studio in early May to keep working on it. Itâs all originals.
CrypticRock.com â Excellent! That is a very quick turn over between album. Is it safe to say creative inspiration is flowing freely for you?
Juliana Hatfield â Yea, I feel good about the creative part of me, itâs in really healthy shape. If I want to be a working musician, I have to work, like anyone else. Thatâs how I survive, that is how I make a living. I have to keep working; just because I had a record come out recently, doesnât mean I should just sit around and toss myself with champagne. I have to keep working, thatâs what people do.
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20 years on! A gig announcement via The Burren, in Somerville, MA:
Juliana Hatfield celebrates the 20th Anniversary of her Bed LP by playing the record start to finish with drummer Todd Phillips who played on the recording. Sheâll also be playing material from her Hey Babe LP (which turns 25 this year), as well as some stuff off her new critically acclaimed Juliana Hatfield sings Olivia Newton-John LP. Special guest Ed Valauskas on bass.
Another batch of reviews for Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, with thanks again to Carlos Lopez for many of these links:
Jim Fusilli, The Wall Street Journal:
At its best moments, the album finds Ms. Hatfield paying respect, but not fealty, to Ms. Newton-Johnâs familiar versions. Its best cutsâincluding âDancinâ âRound and âRoundâ and âA Little More Love,â both from âTotally Hotââcall to mind not the originator, but the bright side of Ms. Hatfield, thus liberating the recording from the glum responsibilities of a nostalgia exercise.
Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone:
Pop supernova Olivia Newton-John and alt-pop heroine Juliana Hatfield both possess winsome sopranos, and this delightful album filters Newton-John's biggest hits through Hatfield's slightly grungier sensibility. Hatfield's obvious affinity for the source material is evident throughout, with her coy take on the late-Seventies smash "A Little More Love" and her heartfelt version of the Grease showstopper "Hopelessly Devoted to You" being particular highlights.
Robert Peacock, The Wee Review:
This albumâs niche, then, but not pure gimmick. You might need to love both women to truly love this album, but you wouldnât be disappointed if you were a fan of either, or even a curious bystander. Respect to Hatfield for being so hopelessly devoted to Newton-John and full marks for the cover art which does a good job of capturing the vibe.
Grant Walters, Albumism (5/5):
If youâre a fan of Newton-Johnâs or Hatfieldâs, there are plenty of reasons youâll want to put this record on and bask in its thoughtfulness. If youâre not familiar with either but appreciate an intuitive, talented artist giving voice to a batch of compelling compositions, this albumâs for you too.
Jeff Rogers, saukvalley.com:
That new take on old songs works best where you might least expect it. Hatfieldâs version of âPhysicalâ is fun, where the original was kind of annoying. A reworking of âXanaduâ dials down the gloss just enough to let the subtle, fuzzy guitar give the undeniable earworm of a song an interesting twist. Same with âHopelessly Devoted to Youâ and âA Little More Love.â
Hyperbolium, No Depression:
Hatfield has internalized these songs and their artist in a thousand bedroom and car singalongs, and filters them through the original artistry they helped inspire. The contentment of âHave You Never Been Mellowâ retains its optimistic mid-70s introspection while being deepened by Hatfieldâs additional decades of life experience, and âHopelessly Devoted to Youâ could just as easily be Hatfield singing about Newton-John as it was Sandy singing about Danny. This is a treat for fans of both Newton-John and Hatfield, and the only thing missing are some Grease photo cards to stick inside your locker.
Ian Rushbury, Under The Radar:
There's a great mix of reverence and alt-rock on this record, which moves Sings Olivia Newton-John from an idea that was better in planning than in practice onto a different level. About two or three songs into the album, you'll forget that it's a "concept" album and just enjoy it for what it isâa really strong collection of songs that just happen to come from an unlikely source. Now all we have to do is wait for the Olivia Newton John Sings Juliana Hatfield album.
Juilana, interviewed by Allyson McCabe for an excellent article in The Rumpus:
Rumpus: I think you can even see it at the end of Grease, in her transformation from Sandra Dee to Sandy, although it takes the form of a makeover and a cigarette and some spandex pants.Â
Hatfield: I choose to look at the end of Grease in a different way. Itâs too depressing to think, Oh, you just have to whore it up and youâll get everything. Youâll get the man. Youâll get the happiness. I think at the end of Grease itâs more like sheâs acknowledging that this is just a role that girls play, it was a wink, and just playful. And I think thatâs what saves the ending of Grease. Itâs a role sheâs playing, but weâre all in the know.
Having said that, I think another part of why I have such an affinity for Olivia Newton-John is because I have had my own struggles with being perceived as a âgood girl.â Sheâs really seen as someone whoâs cute and sweet, and people have put her in that box, and I feel like some people have wanted to put me in that same kind of box. Sometimes I also feel like Iâm limited by my own sense of right and wrong.
Rumpus: Tell me more.
Hatfield: Sandyâs character was kind of cursed to be a good girl, not just being perceived that way, but actually that is her nature, and she canât escape it. And I felt that way too, like I was an outcast in high school because my peers were drinking, and having sex, and doing drugs, and I wasnât and I couldnât. I still wanted to hang out with these people, and they were my friends, but I felt like an outcast because I was not breaking the rules.
If you read just one of the interviews Juliana has given on the Olivia Newton-John covers album, make it this one.
This is marvellous.
I'm breaking my Twitter silence in the name of ART. I love @julianahatfield's new album of @olivianj covers. Here is a 50/50 mix of Juliana and Olivia performing "Xanadu" together as a duet. I fear NO ONE ELSE would do this and the world needed to have it. https://t.co/tURWfnHK43 pic.twitter.com/NawCW0G3kl
â Jake Fogelnest (@jakefogelnest) April 14, 2018
Endorsed by jh too:
ohmygod i love this thank you...i'm so glad i did these songs in the original keys https://t.co/Kj3LrO8Naq
â Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) April 14, 2018
JG: Do you think that your fans listening might reassess your catalog as well, listening to it alongside these Olivia Newton-John songs?Â
JH: Maybe they will discover, as I am, that I have been more influenced by her musically than I ever realized. I thought I just loved her music, but, now when I go back and listen to my stuff, I can see similarities in some of the ways that I layer vocal harmonies against melody, and the way I orchestrate some of the backing keyboards and guitars and things. I think theres a Olivia Newton-John influence in some of my music. Just melodically, I love really pretty, melodious tunes and thatâs something I love about her. I love the kind of melodies that move a lot. Yeah, I think there are similarities between us.
Â