By the time Juliana Hatfield had reached her mid-20s, she’d become the poster girl for ’90s indie rock. She was looked upon as the thinking person’s alternative to the riot-grrrl phenomenon, and the future seemed rosy. Hatfield had formed revered combo the Blake Babies, launched a red-hot solo career, played bass on the breakthrough Lemonheads album and gained national attention when she told Interview magazine she was still a virgin and wasn’t too worried about it. The backlash from those without much of an attention span was inevitable. In the ensuing years, Hatfield has honed her art and produced a wealth of stirring, self-confident albums. Peace & Love, out next week on her Ye Olde label, is an utterly sincere revelation that proves well worth the wait. Hatfield will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our exclusive excerpt from her 2008 memoir and our brand new Q&A with her.
Hatfield: Mark Tobey was an abstract expressionist painter based in Seattle. His work is sometimes really dense and involves lots and lots of little lines and squiggles and curves; he once characterized his own stuff as “a whirling mass.” It’s sort of like Jackson Pollock but more controlled, to my mind. I never really liked Pollock and didn’t get what the big deal was about him; anyone can fling paint on a canvas, right? Tobey’s work seems more deliberate and methodical and reminds me of some of the intricate, repetitive-line abstract drawings I do to soothe myself and my frenzied, unquiet mind. I’m kind of autistic, and Tobey’s paintings are kind of autistic (or “artistic,” spoken with a Boston accent), and I guess that’s why I like his stuff so much. Video after the jump.
