Biography
Although the Blake Babies issued multiple captivating albums across the final years of the 1980s and the initial years of the 1990s, they stayed confined to the collegiate rock scenes that embraced them. Recognition for Juliana Hatfield as a songwriter reached broader mainstream outlets only in 1992, after the band had already disbanded. Across their four albums the group’s post-R.E.M. alternative pop gained strength and weight while Hatfield’s songwriting and delicate, youthful vocals advanced sharply, with each release extending into both more aggressive punk directions and gentler folk terrain. On the final full-length release, the 1990 album Sunburn, guitarist John Strohm began to establish himself as a notable songwriter. Following a closing EP in 1991 the group disbanded, after which Hatfield rose to alternative prominence and Strohm joined drummer Freda Love in the well-regarded guitar-pop outfit Antenna.
The Blake Babies ended a decade-long hiatus in 2000 to make the album God Bless the Blake Babies, issued on March 6, 2001, by Rounder Records. Freda Love originated the reunion by persuading the two other founding members to reconvene, and she received the additional distinction of having her first Blake Babies song, “Nothing Ever Happens,” chosen as the lead single. Performing as more seasoned musicians, the reunited lineup traded the appeal of their earlier amateur indie pop for a sharper, more deliberate style that continued the band’s natural evolution. Individual side projects and solo work had transformed the members into seasoned music-industry professionals, lending the new songs a substance absent from their prior recordings. Throughout spring 2001 the band toured familiar venues such as Chapel Hill, NC’s Cat’s Cradle along with updated incarnations of Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club and New York City’s Knitting Factory, where audiences responded warmly. John Strohm called it the best the Blake Babies ever sounded.
The Blake Babies ended a decade-long hiatus in 2000 to make the album God Bless the Blake Babies, issued on March 6, 2001, by Rounder Records. Freda Love originated the reunion by persuading the two other founding members to reconvene, and she received the additional distinction of having her first Blake Babies song, “Nothing Ever Happens,” chosen as the lead single. Performing as more seasoned musicians, the reunited lineup traded the appeal of their earlier amateur indie pop for a sharper, more deliberate style that continued the band’s natural evolution. Individual side projects and solo work had transformed the members into seasoned music-industry professionals, lending the new songs a substance absent from their prior recordings. Throughout spring 2001 the band toured familiar venues such as Chapel Hill, NC’s Cat’s Cradle along with updated incarnations of Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club and New York City’s Knitting Factory, where audiences responded warmly. John Strohm called it the best the Blake Babies ever sounded.
Albums
