From the latest edition of Paul Myers’ Record Store Day podcast:

Stars' Torquil Campbell looks into the rear view mirror at the events leading up to Stars' lovely and melancholic new album, From Capleton Hill.

All three Blake Babies - Juliana Hatfield, Freda Love Smith, and John Strohm celebrate a new reissue of their 1990 indie classic,Sunburn.

Bill Kopp talks about his new book Disturbing The Peace, which provides the 411 on legendary SF indie label, 415 Records.

Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton praises a new RSD reissue of Linda Martell's Color Me Country.

The 30 minutes Blake Babies section begins at around 25:30.

As posted by Chris Anzalone on Instagram, here’s Chris (and Freda!) on drums, together with Ed Valauskas, Kay Hanley, Scott Luck, a horn section and more soundchecking before the Hot Stove Cool Music event in Chicago over the weekend.

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A post shared by Chris Anzalone (@chrisanz4)

And here’s a bit from the show with even more on stage:

Don’t Bring Me Down (ELO) -Hot Stove Cool Music Chicago @MetroChicago …
Kay Hanley @kayhanley …
Jennifer Hall …
Juliana Hatfield @julianahatfield …
Scott Lucas @LocalH …
Ed Valaskus @qdivisionstudio pic.twitter.com/8Log2ErQsN

— Great Lake Jumper (@TheRealDtox) July 2, 2022

Other things of note you may have missed from Juliana’s shows this week:

• A preview feature on the Chicago event by Jim Ryan for Forbes including comments from Juliana:

  “Art, music and sports are all really important to children and adolescents. They were all really crucial and interconnected for me. I had access to all of these things while I was in school and I made use of all of them. And I really feel like without them, I would’ve been completely lost,” she said. “I was a very shy adolescent. I didn’t really know how to communicate. But I was able to be with my peers while playing music or sports or in art classes. And I think it’s a tragedy when those things are taken away from kids. Because there are kids who have no place to go or their home environment is bad. So having a place to go to play music or draw or kick a soccer ball around, that’s crucial. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think it’s tragic,” said Hatfield.

• Vicky Salipande’s photos and set list from The Burren show in Somerville as posted to the JH Fan Facebook Group and elsewhere.

• Juliana performed 2 ELO songs - the aforementioned Don’t Bring Me Down plus Can’t Get It Out Of My Head.

Freda performing with the Blake Babies in Allston, MA, 2016. Photography by David Young.

This week has seen Freda perform on drums for the last time.

If you missed her retirement announcement on the Sunshine Boys’ Facebook back in April here’s a snippet:

Lately I’ve been saying to the folks around me that baseball players don’t play forever. Bodies change. And mine is just about finished playing drums. I’m speaking here on behalf of my wrists, back, elbows, shoulder, knees, and hips, among other parts. And speaking on behalf, too, of the writer and teacher in me. I’m currently writing two books and teaching writing more than I ever have, and I feel strongly compelled to make more space in my life for these endeavors.

Freda performed her last show with Sunshine Boys a couple of weeks back. This last weekend saw her final drumming appearance at the Hot Stove Cool Music event in Chicago where she guested with several artists which included playing Some Girls songs in Juliana’s set.

Freda has given us so much joy over the years in her various projects. For many of us it is the music she made with Blake Babies that will be the most special legacy from her brilliant career.

Best wishes for the future Freda and thanks for everything.

Freda Love Smith performing on drums with the Blake Babies in Allston, MA 2016. Photography by David Young

JPS, writing for Talkhouse on the legacy of Sunburn and “what it was like to be a “college rock” band on the verge in 1990”:

Happily, Freda, Juliana, and I have rekindled our friendship several times over, and we made what I personally consider our best album, God Bless the Blake Babies, in 2001. We’ve periodically done shows together and supported one another in all of our mostly successful post-band pursuits. It’s wild to think that was over 30 years ago. It’s even wilder to listen to the music with the knowledge of what indie music sounds like today, and realize it still sounds contemporary. With the exception of a few dated production touches, Sunburn could fit in with what we call Indie Pop today.

An excerpt from Juliana, John, and Freda interviewed by Warren Kurtz for Goldmine Magazine:

GM: That vocal blend is also on “Train” which I really enjoy and reminds me a bit of R.E.M.

JH: They have train songs too, “Driver 8” for example. It is an American tradition.

JS: I think with that song it was a dual lead vocal. I was struggling as a new singer, trying to find my voice. I was learning how to sing in front of a microphone in a studio, which is not the best place to learn. It is the quickest way to improve but most people who sing in a studio have sung in a school choir, at least.

JH: I was also a bit new. I studied piano at Berklee and then started studying voice, so I was also learning techniques on how to strengthen my voice.

JS: Juliana had already sung on two albums before this, so she had great experience, compared to me. “Train” has a pretty demanding vocal with an active melody. Juliana’s guide vocal helped me to nail the pitch. The lyrics were ambiguous, so having the male and female vocal was not a conflict.

JH: While this song doesn’t sound like the band X, John and my voice are so different that it reminds me of John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s voices being different in X. When we sing together it is a cool tension that blends well.

Peter Chianca, writing for Boston.com:

You’ve heard about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities? This is one of those. Coming off arguably the most prolific and creatively productive stint in her long career, Duxbury native and Berklee grad Juliana Hatfield has scheduled “A Last Minute Local Tour Kick Off Show,” complete with her band, in the intimate confines of The Burren in Somerville.

The show is on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Ticket info:

24hourconcerts.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=313

From Freda, John, and Juliana’s interview with Dave Rayburn for Alliance Entertainment to mark this month’s vinyl reissue of Sunburn:

JOHN: We have a couple more albums to reissue in the future, EARWIG and GOD BLESS THE BLAKE BABIES. We also have a set of demos for SUNBURN that are really strong. I don’t see why we wouldn’t make those available at some point as well.

JULIANA: There is one demo-ed song called “Radiator”, from the way early days, and there are maybe some live things we could share. As for other unreleased songs, I do remember one long multi-sectioned prog rock song we created and practiced, and I recorded us playing it live into a boom box in our rehearsal space in I think 1987 and I think I still have that cassette.

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Juliana will play a Hot Stove Cool Music benefit show at Metro in Chicago, IL on July 1 2022, appearing on a bill with Mavis Staples, Ted Leo, Kay Hanley, and many more.

Foundation To Be Named Later - ftnbl.org

Juliana will appear at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI on the afternoon of Thursday, June 30, 2022.

summerfest.com

American Laundromat Records:

We are stoked to reissue "Sunburn" on vinyl for the first time in over 30 years! This exclusive reissue is limited to 2,000 units worldwide.

Reissue artwork prepared by Aaron Tanner at Melodic Virtue from the original Mammoth art. Our good friend Sean Glonek at SRG studios handled remastering, Levi Seitz cut metal, and the fine folks at Furnace pressed the vinyl. It looks and sounds amazing! We are very proud of this reissue and hope you enjoy it.

For further info on colour variants and test pressing options head to American Laundromat Records order page.

John P. Strohm posted on Twitter yesterday about finding a Blake Babies tour diary he kept from 1989-1990, and which he’s now transcribing.

I’ll keep this post updated with links to John’s Wordpress as he publishes in parts.

A snippet from Part 1 (November - December 1989) :

12/7/89

Athens GA did not disappoint. Tuesday night we played the 40-Watt. We played an hour and two encores. It felt a little lackluster because Juliana is getting a cold. The staff at the 40-Watt are as nice as any club people I’ve met. The sound guy kept offering Juliana various cold remedies including slugs of brandy (which she declined – she never drinks and in fact none of us are drinking at all on this tour). Wednesday we drove to Sparta to a junk store and I bought some shitkickin’ boots and some hats. Freda got these amazing red cowboy boots, which she’s wearing with pride.

Updates:

Part 2 (January 1990) published April 3, 2022

Part 3 (February 1990) published April 4, 2022

Part 4 (February 1990) published April 5, 2022

Part 5 (March 1990) published April 6, 2022 (final part)

Erika Wolf, writing for Albumism on the 30th anniversary of Hey Babe:

Obviously, I liked Hatfield because she was wry. But on Hey Babe, her debut solo album sandwiched between the Blake Babies and her fame-fanning Become What You Are, she was vulnerable, too. Radically so. In 1992, she appeared on MTV’s 120 Minutes to promote the video for “Everybody Loves Me But You,” Hey Babe’s first single. I’m not sure if I saw it back then. Every summer, my family would fly to the states to visit my grandparents in Minnesota, and my brother and I would lounge around the basement rec room, bingeing on MTV for hours.

The LIFERS Podcast · 54. LIFERS - Juliana Hatfield 2: The Quickening

Local H, on Juliana’s return to their LIFERS podcast:

Second chances are rare, man. And you ought to take advantage of them. On the one year anniversary of our first episode(s), we get a second chance with our first guest — Juliana Hatfield. On this episode we try to truly nail down what makes Juliana the quintessential LIFER. It’s also just an opportunity to catch up and hang out. We tried really hard not to mess it up this time. Topics include: ELO, the crippling nature of being your own point AND counterpoint, Scott finally watches “Wolf Like Me”, sharing plumbers with Damon from Galaxie 500, colonoscopies, acting on “My So-Called Life”, Dinosaur Jr., Scott’s Evan Dando story, “Breaking Away”, and Ben wins the game of “Iron Maiden vs. The Replacements” once and for all. So let it be written — so let it be done.

As with Juliana’s appearance last year, this is highly recommended.

Among plenty of other discussion Juliana confirms that work has begun on a new album.

Put on the spot about songs from her career she’s most proud of, Juliana picks a couple you probably won’t be able to guess!

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or via the SoundCloud embed above.

Albumism recently ran a readers’ poll for all time fave Juliana albums. All 19 solo LPs (including JH3 and Juliana’s Pony) were eligible.

The results are now in with nearly 3,000 votes cast of readers’ top 5 picks.

I won’t spoil it here so head to the post at Albumism to find out the choices.

I’m not too surprised at the ‘winners’ (the 5 I voted for are in the top 6), but there’s a few unexpected rankings in the middle (e.g. I wouldn’t have thought that #9 would get almost double the votes of #13.)

Coming in March 2022, Fire Records have announced a new edition:

Lemonheads’ seminal album ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’, lovingly reissued for it’s 30th Anniversary. The long overdue reissue includes a slew of extra material, including an unreleased ‘My Drug Buddy’ KCRW session track from 1992 featuring Juliana Hatfield, B-sides from singles ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Confetti’, a track from the ‘Mrs. Robinson/Being Round’ EP, alongside demos that will be released for the first time on vinyl. This reissue celebrates their prestigious fifth album, these deluxe bookback editions feature new liner notes and unseen photos.

Pre-orders are now being taken at your local indie store or via Fire in the US, and the UK.

The KCRW track featuring Evan and Juliana (but mostly Evan!) is out now on the usual streaming services.

Kyle Meredith’s Consequence interview this week with Susanna Hoffs about her newly released covers album Bright Lights touches on Susanna’s collaborations with other artists. Towards the end (at the 24:13 mark) they discuss Susanna working with Juliana 30 years ago on her When You’re A Boy album, where Juliana performed backing vocals and has a songwriting credit on the track That’s Why Girls Cry.

JPS has added more background on Twitter as to how that came about:

Nice interview. To fill in the story, David Kahne wanted to sign our band Blake Babies to Columbia and we cut a demos w/ him on a tour stop in LA (Club Lingerie in 1990). Then later DK brought JH out to work with you, but we didn’t end up signing. We broke up instead!

— John P. Strohm (@johnpstrohm) November 18, 2021

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Available to order now from American Laundromat Records.

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promotional image by Stacee Sledge / julianahatfield.com

Livestream show! With a band! This month!

Juliana returns to her internet concerts on Wednesday October 20, 2021 at at 6pm EDT (that’s 11pm BST, midnight CEST 😬) on Q Division’s YouTube channel.

Writing on her official site:

I will play electric guitar and sing, Chris Anzalone will play drums, and Mike Oram will play bass and sing some harmonies. This is the lineup that was set to go on the road before we had to pull out of the tour with Soul Asylum and Local H.

We are all fine (thanks for asking!) and we will be playing an assortment of songs chosen from the buffet of my vast, decades-spanning repertoire.

So no full album show this time, but the pay what you want deal remains with donations being accepted at julianahatfield.com