Posts tagged blake babies

Juliana has announced that she will be appearing with Wesley Stace over three nights on October, performing "mostly solo and acoustic." One is as support and the other two are multi artist "Cabinet of Wonders" variety shows which have previously seen Juliana perform maybe a couple of songs.

Also, there's three Blake Babies shows coming up in November, opening for Letters to Cleo at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Yay!

"Mostly Solo Acoustic" Performances
October 2017
11 Hudson, NY - Club Helsinki (Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders - appearing with Charles Bock, Tracy Bonham, Dave Hill, Stephen Merritt, Suzzy Roche)
12 Ardmore, PA - The Ardmore Music Hall (opening for Wesley Stace)
13 New York City, NY - City Winery (Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders - appearing with Eric Andersen, Dave Hill, Stephen Merritt, Eugene Mirman, David Myles, Aparna Nancherla, Annalee Newitz)

Blake Babies Performances
November 2017
16 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club (opening for Letters to Cleo)
17 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club (opening for Letters to Cleo)
18 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club (opening for Letters to Cleo)

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.

Missed this from a couple of weeks ago (Oct 14, 2016). A radio session / interview with two thirds of Blake Babies. Lightning 100, Nashville:

Juliana Hatfield and John Strohm stopped by the ONErpm studio to catch up with Ana Lee before their show at The Basement East. John gives a personal shout out to Phoebe Bridgers, the history of Blake Babies, and their reunion show. Blake Babies perform an acoustic version of “Waiting For Heaven” and “Lament” live in the studio.

Listen at Lightning 100.

Nashville Scene has a short article ahead of this weekend's Blake Babies shows:

“There’s an ease to playing with them, John and Freda,” Hatfield explains. “A chemistry that I don’t have with any other things that I’ve done. So it’s not just going back and getting together and playing the old songs — it’s really trying to use our present energy, who we’ve become as people, taking this new, older, richer, experienced energy and bringing that to the old songs and seeing how they mix together.”

There's also an interview with John at weld for Birmingham.

Furthermore, did we know that there are Blake Babies fans in R.E.M.?

A reminder of the shows this weekend:

Saturday, October 15, 2016 - The Basement East, Nashville, TN Sunday, October 16, 2016 - Saturn, Birmingham, AL

Blake Babies played an outdoor event yesterday for Allston's Awesome Christmas. It looks like it was a lot of fun.

Thanks as ever to David Young for these excellent photos of the show.

1. Cesspool
2. Take Me
3. Julius Fast Body
4. Look Away
5. I'm Not Your Mother
6. Her
7. Downtime
8. Your Way Or The Highway
9. Out There
10. From Here To Burma
11. Loose
12. Nothing Ever Happens
13. Wipe It Up
14. Rain
15. Lament
16. Star
17. Sanctify
18. On

Juliana, for the The Talkhouse:

In late 1990, my band the Blake Babies set out on tour. We were young. I kept a diary. We were doing shows with Firehose, Mike Watt’s band at the time. These pages describe the scene one night, from my point of view, after we’d finished our opening set in Northampton, Massachusetts — plus what it was like to talk to Watt.

Blake Babies have been announced as headliners for Do617's Allston's Awesome Christmas event at Pop Allston, 89 Brighton Avenue, Allston, MA which, despite the name, is scheduled for Saturday September 10, 2016.

The event is free to attend via RSVP on Do617's site.

I think we can call it a bona fide reunion now.

After the release of the 1980s Earwig demos and the semi-private shows last month for PledgeMusic subscribers, Blake Babies today announced a couple more shows in John’s “hometowns”:

October 15, 2016 - The Basement East, Nashville, TN October 16, 2016 - Saturn, Birmingham, AL

Support at both shows is Phoebe Bridgers.

Tickets are on sale Friday, August 5, 2016 at 10am CDT.

Magnificent.

With thanks to spiketop, here's the set list from the 2 Blake Babies shows on July 9, 2016:

July 9, 2016 - Q Division Studios (Somerville, Massachusetts, USA - First Show)

1. Lament
2. Her
3. Steamy Gregg
4. Your Way Or The Highway
5. Rain
6. Grateful
7. From Here To Burma
8. Severed Lips
9. Baby Gets High
10. Out There
11. Cesspool
12. Star
13. Downtime
14. Sanctify
15. Take Me
16. On
17. Girl In A Box
18. Nirvana

July 9, 2016 - Q Division Studios (Somerville, Massachusetts, USA - Second Show)

1. Lament
2. Julius Fast Body
3. Your Way Or The Highway
4. Rain
5. Her
6. Grateful
7. From Here To Burma
8. Wall Of Death (Richard Thompson)
9. Baby Gets High
10. Out There
11. Cesspool
12. Nothing Ever Happens
13. Downtime
14. A Million Years
15. Star
16. Sanctify
17. Take Me
18. On
19. Girl In A Box
20. Nirvana

From a Blake Babies interview at chicagoist on the subject of future plans:

STROHM: Nothing specific, but we’re generally feeling good about the way things are going. I can only speak for myself, but I would love to find a way to do more with Freda and Juliana.

LOVE: Not yet, but I hope we play a few more shows. We are also discussing the possibility of reissuing our back catalogue.

HATFIELD: As far as the Blake Babies go, we are not really looking past this Chicago thing. We have no solid plans for anything else but the Boston shows were fun and I hope that at some point we can maybe try and do some more.