Juliana Hatfield News

(12/4/00, 10 a.m. ET) - Indie-rock cult favorite Juliana Hatfield has reunited with her former band the Blake Babies and will issue a new album, titled God Bless The Blake Babies, in February, according to the website blakebabies.com. Extensive touring is also planned for 2001, although no label affiliation is currently known.

Hatfield recently told the fanzine Action Attack Helicopter that the new songs were "more relaxed and more mellow, but we still kind of sound like ourselves only just older."

Recording sessions for the album included guest appearances by longtime associate and Lemonheads leader Evan Dando, according to the fanzine. "He played bass on some songs, hung out," drummer Frida Love told the publication. "We did one of his songs that he sang on, and he sang back-up on some stuff. He added a lot to it, actually. He's a really great musician."

The album's complete track listing is: "Disappear," "Nothing Ever Happens," "Baby Gets High," "Waiting for Heaven," "Until I Almost Died," "Picture Perfect," "When I See His Face," "What Did I Do," "Brain Damage," "Civil War," "Invisible World," and "On."

The Blake Babies, also featuring John P. Strohm, formed in Boston in the mid-'80s. Their stripped-down guitar-pop made them college-radio heroes, although they were never able to break through to the mainstream. Hatfield pursued a solo career for much of the '90s, as well as playing bass on the Lemonheads' 1992 album It's A Shame About Ray. Her 1993 effort, Become What You Are, included the minor hits, "My Sister" and "Spin The Bottle."

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

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