April 1, 2008

Juliana Hatfield Still Blogging About TV, Streaming New Song "Shining On"

Juliana's The Hills takedown was just a precursor to an even deeper, more self-revealing post on her relationship with television. If you love her, it's a must-read. Alternatively if you love My So-Called Life, it is also a must-read. Therein J regales us with the backstory of that one time she played a singer-songwriter-specter on the MTV show that introduced us to Claire Danes and that other douchebag.

The post is long, detailed, and a good look at how she was approached originally just to write a song for the show (and how she wound up being cast as the homeless singing ghost), her decision making process in taking the gig, the haircut she got before filming which upset the directors (they put extensions and "gunk" in there to make her look more authentically homeless), and her thoughts on Jared Leto (even then, "Leto had obviously thought long and hard about the music thing, and was serious about it ... He seemed like a pretty intense guy and I'll bet he is a pretty intense frontman").

It's a good read, so head over. But for now, here's some vid of the ghost of Juliana past.

To aid your remembrance, she's posted the full version of the song, "Make It Home," at MySpace.

In less nostalgic Hatfield news, Juliana's new record How To Walk Away is out 6/10 on Ye Olde Records. It features vocal support from Nada Surf's Matthew Caws and Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs, along with guitar work from Fountains Of Wayne's Jody Porter, amongst others. Since you've got her MySpace open already, click the top track in the player for a listen of sailing, stringed "Shining On." Here's the album art...

And a tracklist:
01 "The Fact Remains"
02 "Shining On"
03 "This Lonely Love"
04 "My Baby..."
05 "Just Lust"
06 "Now I'm Gone"
07 "Remember November"
08 "So Alone"
09 "Such A Beautiful Girl"
10 "Law Of Nature"

"Such A Beautiful Girl." Sounds about right.