Juliana Hatfield Plays Bowery Ballroom Tomorrow and Housing Works Bookstore in October

Juliana Hatfield has just released her 10th CD, How To Walk Away, which reviewers are calling new best disc in years. Village Voice recently did an in-depth write-up/review on Juliana and her new CD, which they describe as "her best".

The new disc is produced by Andy Chase (from Ivy) and (according to the Voice article) "he pushed her to focus on writing stuff where each song reveals an onion layer of who Juliana is." This is a mature and personal album which is also marked by Juliana singing in a lower register than what she typically has done over her career.

Juliana kicked off a tour a few days ago and is playing Bowery Ballroom tomorrow night with Hayden. Juliana is back in town for a CMJ Show at Housing Works Bookstore on October 23rd. Tickets for tomorrow night's show are still available and are $18 at the door.

Links:
Juliana Hatfield's MySpace Profile
Juliana Hatfield's Website

Frank Smith Plays Union Hall in Brooklyn on June 4th

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of the forthcoming CD by Frank Smith. The band released their new CD last week and also released a split CD EP with Juliana Hatfield. The band is coming to town next week for two shows:

Monday, June 4 - Union Hall, Brooklyn (w/ Mother Mother & AA Bondy)
Tuesday, June 5 - Mercury Lounge, NYC (w/ Mother Mother)

I really enjoyed the new CD Heavy Handed Peace and Love and the band has been getting great reviews.

“Front man Aaron Sinclair is at the top of his game”...”Frank Smith is a fairly unclassifiable group, unless indie-honky-tonk is a genre that I've yet to see listed anywhere. Their combination of old school country and indie rock helped form a truly great album, one that fans of everything from The Shins to Golden Smog should make a point to check out.”
- Tripwire

“They draw you in, like the smell of a hot pie left to cool on the windowsill.
Influenced by Gram Parsons, like everybody else in the alt.-country game, but caught between the Wilco of A.M. and Being There, Frank Smith sets itself apart with its cock-eyed storytelling, the honesty of its songwriting, and the beguiling interplay of slide-guitar, delicately plucked banjo and acoustic strum on slower tracks.”
- Goldmine

I haven't heard the entirety of the split EP but I have enjoyed the tracks that are streaming on Frank Smith's and Juliana Hatfield's MySpace pages (links below).

Links:
Frank Smith's MySpace page (link)
Juliana Hatfield's MySpace page (link)

Frank Smith - Heavy Handed Peace and Love CD Review

Frank Smith is a band, not a man is the quote that starts off the band's website. Frank Smith is the brainchild of Aaron Sinclair and is the first band signed to Juliana Hatfield's Ye Old Records. The songs on this disc are predominately alt-country and a point of comparison would be Ryan Adams.

The songs are all driven by Sinclair's strong voice and very tight backing vocal harmonies. The musical arrangements are complex and give a fitting ambiance to Sinclair's voice. In addition to the typical instruments, I can hear a slide guitar, banjo, pedal steel and harmonica throughout a number of songs. I haven't quite figured out the band's lyrics (the evils of listening to a pre-release) but I did catch the murder ballad lyrics on the song Lovesick Cynics.

Frank Smith is backing Juliana Hatfield on the upcoming EP "sittin' in a tree..." which is due to be released on May 29th. You can click on the EP cover to go to Juliana's site and pre-order.

Heavy Handed Peace and Love will be released May 29th on Ye Olde Records.

Links:
Frank Smith's MySpace page (link)