Without any doubt, I believe that if Juliana Hatfield had a penis, she would be a bigger star than she is today. Formerly of the Blake Babies, she went solo in 1992, with the album Hey Babe. A year later, she released Become What You Are, which I believe is one of the best teen-angst albums of the last ten years. Where else can you find a song that begins with the line "I hate my sister, she's such a bitch."
Unfortunately, things began to fall apart after this. She went "major label" two years later, releasing Only Everything. A fine album, but commercially disappointing, largely because she refused to play the label game - no bare midriffs, (well, okay, maybe just a little bit of her cute belly), she's never photographed in a seductive manner.Her videos had a rather hard edge to them. To make a long, ugly story short, she experienced major problems with her label, and is going independent again. Reflecting on her misfortune, she recently released a six-song EP, Please Do Not Disturb, with the title song "Sellout." I love the chorus: "It's not a sellout if nobody buys it."
Anyway, I was fortunate to catch her show at the Agenda Lounge two weeks ago. She's one hell of a guitar player. This woman can rock! In true puck fashion, this classically trained musician sang just a little off-key, and opened her set with a ferocious version of "I Got No Idols." Ouch! Neither do I.......
On a sadder note, I recall seeing her escorted to the Best Western down First Street from the Agenda Lounge. One of the chicanos I had seen collecting empty beer bottles around the club was assigned to walk her to her hotel. I can still see them tugging on a locked gate leading into the parking lot, and looking quite bummed when they realized they would have to walk around the block to an open door on Second Street.
Three years ago, Juliana would have been driven by her record company, and probably to one of the better hotels in San Jose. It's incredible to think how cruel this flavor-of-the-month music market is the talented musicians lucky enough to get record contracts. Que sad........
For more info on Julianna Hatfield, check out this link:
desperately seeking julianna
On another note, I also recently witnessed the resurrection of the 80's group Bow Wow Wow. In the early days of MTV and commercial music video, it was almost impossible to see any people of color on MTV, at least until Michael Jackson was forced down MTV's throats by his label. Into this virtual apartheid walked Myant Myant Aye, stage name Annabella Lwin, later Annabella. What was a poor brown child from East LA to do? It was instant love.
Bow Wow Wow lasted three years (1981-1983) and they barely made a dent on the pop music charts in the U.S. Their greatest hit was a remake of the 1960's song I Want Candy. Most of their lyrics were mindless with intent, capitalizing on Annabella's underage sexual prowess. In fact, some of the album art for this group bordered on child pornography. Generally, Bow Wow Wow could be found sporting mohawks, using "tribal" beats allegedly borrowed from the Burundi tribe of Africa.
Which wasn't bad if you were a high school teenager with a hormone overdose. Bow Wow Wow was safe punk - a Phil Spectoresque Wall-of-Sound babefest - but wasn't punk at all, not really, in the same way Phil Spector never really produced Rock and Roll. Bow Wow Wow was the creation of Malcolm McLaren, former Sex Pistols manager. Bow Wow Wow was an artificial group, created from Adam's Ants and a young immigrant woman found working in a local laundromat. Kind of like an 80's version of the Monkees.
Just like the Monkees, The members of Bow Wow Wow were talented musicians who eventually outgrew their management. By 1983, they had cut themselves loose from McLaren, but were frustrated with their lack of commercial success. They soon disbanded. The muscians formed The Chiefs of Relief, while Annabella went solo.
Annabella eventually released a solo album in 1986 with a moderately successful remake of the Peggy Lee hit, "Fever." The rest of the album was truly wretched, a textbook example of 80's overproduction, with enough synthesizer mush and sampled drum beats to make Mister Mister blush. Since then, she released one cd single through Sony, but then disappeared.
I caught a Bow Wow Wow show at Slim's in San Francisco last December, and again in March at the Edge in Palo Alto. According to news reports, they have done quite well, filling up small venues around the country. Seeing Annabella on stage with Bow Wow Wow was an adolescent fantasy come true. Their set lasted nearly 75 minutes, exhausting all their major hits, including two(!) performances of I Want Candy. The definite weak link in their latest incarnation was their new guitarist, who simply wasn't up to their relatively simple material. I was simply blown away by LeRoy Gorman's bass work. Gorman was a member of the original band, and can teach this generation a thing or two on how to play a bass.
I was fortunate to meet the members of the band after their show at the Edge. They are quite kind to their fans, and seem to be really happy with the tour. I think I unintentionally insulted their guitarist by asking him how old he was. When he told me he was 28, I was shocked.
"Wait, you were 11 years old when these guys first started?"
He looked kind of embarrassed, and assured me he was a big fan, even back then. I looked at the guy next to me. I guess we both had that "yeah, right" look on our face, and the conversation quickly died. Oops....
For more information on Bow Wow Wow, including their discography, please visit this link:
Bow Wow Wow
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