Bloomington welcomes an old friend

Juliana Hatfield will roll into Bloomington at 10:30 p.m. today to play at Second Story, 201 S. College Ave. With ties to Bloomington via former band mates, Blake Babies, John Strohm and Freda Love, Hatfield's show at Second Story is a significant stop on her current tour. Old fans will see how far Hatfield has progressed musically, and new fans will see her two distinct musical personas. \nHatfield's career has spanned more than a decade. She has been heralded as an "alt-rock queen," yet has dealt with Atlantic's refusal to release the yet unheard God's Foot. Her new home, Zoe/Rounder, also put out 1998's Bed, as well as her latest double disc set. With her latest releases, Beautiful Creature and Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure, Hatfield proves she can hold her own, with or without a contract.\nCMJ magazine lauded Hatfield's albums, saying, "Beautiful Creature is a collection of sweet ballads, marked by her gently wilting voice and tender word play. Total System Failure is the Hyde to Beautiful Creature's Jekyllan album steeped in monster guitar grooves and biting lyrics."\nHatfield's fans may be surprised by Total System Failure because its loudness and rawness was only hinted at in Bed.\n"Total System Failure is unromantic, cynical, vitrolic and sometimes downright humorous," according to Zoe/Rounder.\nTotal System Failure and Bed's sound are strongly influenced by Hatfield's listening tastes. Hatfield has often mentioned the band Verbena, sometimes labeled the next Nirvana, as one of her influences.\n"I had just been listening to things that were very raw and dry -- I guess I was feeling raw, and I didn't want to pretty it up or put anything on top if it," Hatfield said in a Rolling Stone interview.\nWhile releasing two simultaneous albums wasn't planned, Hatfield said she feels the albums capture the mirror aspects of her personality. \n"I feel I definitely have more than one personality. It gets frustrating when you make an album and you capture one side," Hatfield said in the interview. "But then you leave the whole other side of you unexpressed."\nThose unfamiliar with Hatfield's work may recognize her song "Spin the Bottle" from the Reality Bites soundtrack, or her other 1994 radio hit "My Sister." Fans well-acquainted with her music have known her college days and watched Hatfield enter her 30s. Boston's Blake Babies, in which she played bass, launched Hatfield's career. Later, she went solo, releasing Hey Babe in 1992. \nShe played bass with friends and fellow Bostonians the Lemonheads on their breakthrough album It's a Shame About Ray. 1994 and 1995 found Hatfield uncomfortably in the spotlight after the release of the Juliana Hatfield Three's Become What You Are, placed her on the cover of Spin. National attention continued after her next solo release Only Everything, earning the video for "Universal Heartbeat" a spot on Beavis and Butthead.\nIt was after the release of this album that things changed. After recording God's Foot for Mammoth/Atlantic, the label decided not to release it, and Hatfield left the label. Hatfield said she is happy with her situation now, deciding where to go from album to album, free to develop her artistic ability wherever it might lead. \nThis freedom has allowed her to get back to her independent roots. \nTickets for tonight's show are $10 at the door.