An outstanding solo electric session recorded on February 13, 2020 at WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio.
Juliana plays Sunny Somewhere, Everything's For Sale, and Lost Ship.
Recorded earlier in the year during her tour, here's Juliana performing 3 acoustic covers for WUWM at the Lake Effect Performance Studios in Milwaukee. You can hear the original broadcast including an interview at wuwm.com.
Nicole Anguish's poster for Juliana's recent show at ONCE Ballroom in Somerville is available for sale at Daykamp Creative. There are three designs to choose from.
It's catching up with all the news day here. So, a little later than planned (due to being on the road and then the liveontomorrow laptop in for repair!), here are some highlights from the last bunch of shows on the US tour which came to an end last Friday in Brooklyn.
Firstly, a stunning solo encore of Roxanne from Seattle:
There's a review by John Oakes plus a photoset at Twin Cities Media, and a flickr gallery by Adam Bubolz, both from the St Paul show.
Bryan Lansky's photos of the ONCE Somerville show are at We All Want Someone To Shout For.
Going back to earlier in the tour, a review of the LA show by Harriet Kaplan for Live Music News & Review.
Also, an outstanding set of official photos by Renata Steiner from Juliana's visit to KEXP last month.
Michael Lello, interviewing Juliana for Highway 81 Revisited on the Police covers album:
[Juliana]...quickly dismisses the notion that performing songs written and originally sung by a man had any impact on her approach to them.
“No, not at all. I don’t think gender matters at all in these songs,” she says. “I did not change the gender because I think sometimes when a woman sings a man’s song, sometimes they change the gender and I always find that very jarring. It disturbs the song. It takes you out of the trance of song. I don’t think it matters what pronouns I sing. Plus it changes my perspective too. With ‘Roxanne,’ when Sting sings about it it’s a different story, it’s about a streetwalker, being in this agonized love affair with a streetwalker. When I sing ‘Roxanne’ I’m singing about a friend who’s a streetwalker.”
Sunshine Boys (Freda Love Smith's band) perform live in the studios of KDHX in St. Louis, February 8, 2020.
Juliana's US tour headed west this week. Ignore that the above video is from the week before and enjoy some of the highlights from this week:
The LA show at Echoplex has been reviewed with great photosets at buzzbands.la, with another photoset at relix.
More video of the Blake Babies reunion at the weekend, this time with improved audio. Thanks to Stacee Sledge for posting this to YouTube and via the Juliana Hatfield Three Facebook page.
Image from spiketop / YouTube
Juliana's US tour began last week in Evanston, IL and continues through to the east coast in February.
As trailed, fans at the Nashville show at the weekend were treated to a Blake Babies reunion.
Here's that moment and other highlights from some of your posts at the first week of shows:
Thanks to spike for getting in touch with video of this moment. There's more from Juliana's set on spike's YouTube page.
Here's Juliana interviewed by Gregory Druker Day for The Portland Podcast, talking about the Police album and the current tour.
Also, if you missed it there's another audio interview with Juliana at wbhm.
From an interview by Brent Thompson for Birmingham Stages ahead of the upcoming US tour:
Birmingham Stages: You have a large catalog of music at this point in your career. With that said, how do you comprise your set lists these days?
Hatfield: It can be really random. I made an album of covers called Juliana Hatfield – it was self-titled and kind of an obnoxious name for an album of covers [laughs] and I made it seven or eight years ago. Someone reminded me of the song I recorded by Teenage Fanclub called “Cells” which I hadn’t thought of for a long time. And I thought, “Oh, maybe I’ll play that one in the set” because I remember how much I liked it. There’s no real system. I’m trying to pull things from lots of of different years – doing a bunch from the last few albums and then going back to the first and second albums.
Sunshine Boys - the three-piece Chicago band which includes Freda Love Smith on drums, have announced their second album with a new single Infinity Girl and a crowdfunder at Indiegogo.
The band will also be opening for Juliana at the Evanston, IL (Jan 16), Indianapolis, TN (Jan 17), Nashville, TN (Jan 18), Birmingham, AL (Jan 19) dates on Juliana's upcoming US Tour.
Also of note for that Nashville show:
Update: Juliana has confirmed who will be opening on some of the other shows:
Juliana is interviewed by Craig Rosen, talking about her Olivia Newton-John and Police projects as part of a feature at Tidal on the subject of covers:
Hatfield admits that she has done at least one ironic cover, in her earlier days. Earwig, a 1989 album by Hatfield’s band the Blake Babies, featured a cover of the Stooges’ highly sexualized anthem “Loose.” “That was a little ironic,” she says. “It was also kind of a joke, because I was a virgin at that time and I was singing this cock-rock song.”
These days, Hatfield says she’s no longer interested in being ironic. “What’s the point in belittling anything that was made with love?” she says. “Music is really precious, but it’s complicated because it’s all caught up in commerce. You have to be careful. If you’re going to knock something publicly, there has to be a real reason for it.”
New official video!
Directed and Edited by Rachel Lichtman.
This is wonderful.
Here's a couple of 1993 TV interviews that have appeared on YouTube in recent weeks, both of which I don't think I've seen before.
There's Gary Crowley giving it a big British "JuliARNER" pronounciation in his London interview (which also has an acoustic version of My Sister), and a Japanese TV interview from earlier in the year previewing Become What You Are.
Thanks to Carlos for the info.
New shows have been added to Juliana's US tour in early 2020.
In addition to previously announced dates, the tour continues in February heading back east with shows at St Paul, Milwaukee, St Louis, Annapolis, Sellersville, Somerville, and Northampton. update - Brooklyn too
Juliana's band for these dates is Dean Fisher (bass), Mike Oram (2nd guitar), and Chris Anzalone (drums).
The updated list:
Jan 16 Evanston, IL - SPACE
Jan 17 Indianapolis, IN - HI-FI
Jan 18 Nashville, TN - The Basement East
Jan 19 Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay
Jan 21 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
Jan 22 Austin, TX - 3TEN Austin City Limits Live
Jan 24 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
Jan 25 Pioneertown, CA - Pappy & Harriet's
Jan 27 Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
Jan 28 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
Jan 30 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
Feb 1 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
Feb 5 St Paul, MN - Turf Club
Feb 6 Milwaukee, WI - Shank Hall
Feb 7 St Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill Duck Club
Feb 10 Annapolis, MD - Rams Head On Stage
Feb 11 Sellersville, PA - Sellersville Theater 1894
Feb 12 Somerville, MA - ONCE
Feb 13 Northampton, MA - The Parlor Room
Feb 14 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Juliana is interviewed by Dan Alleva for The Aquarian to talk about the Police covers album:
[DA] I think a perfect example of that on the record is your rendition of “Roxanne.” You completely deconstructed and reinterpreted it in much darker context. It sounds as though you were really trying to underscore those lyrics and the narrative as well as you could.
[JH] Well, actually I think I didn’t really have a clear concept when I went to record that. I was thinking that I can’t do reggae. I’m not a person who can play reggae authentically or anything like it. I’m not going to even attempt to go there, because it would seem false and poser-ish. I was just thinking like, ‘Oh, take away the band and just make it really stark and it’ll be like me talking to my friend, the prostitute, and trying to help her out of the life of the street.’ And really, that’s the whole concept. Just break it down so it’s like me pleading in a way with her, like, ‘Come on, you can have a better life.’ It’s sort of supposed to be like a conversation between me and my friend, Roxanne, the prostitute. It’s very raw. The situation is very raw, and to me—I don’t want to make a big thing about it, because I think that sex workers have a right to do that kind of work—but when I do think about prostitution, I just think like, ‘Ugh… what a harsh life that must be.’
[DA] It’s an interesting construct because with the original version, it’s a man speaking to a woman, and with your interpretation, it’s two women having a conversation with each other. I don’t know what the right word for it is, but it seems—I don’t want to say that Sting was disingenuous—but the patriarchal nature in which Roxanne’s plight is narrated by a man is different than how you presented the theme.
[JH] I think it’s more sympathetic coming from me. Because in the Police version, it is certainly a john who’s in love with a prostitute, and he’s just really selfish and jealous. Like, he doesn’t want this person that he’s in love with to do it with any other men. And it’s really selfish, I think. My version is not selfish; I’m trying to help my sister out of that life rather than just be like, ‘I don’t ever want you to [see] any other men.’ It’s about being better to yourself.