Around 1991 an old friend made a mixtape for me to introduce me to new music. This tape contained songs from bands from The Pixies to the Lemonheads, and many others.
It contained this tune called ‘Downtime’ from the Blake Babies which I became quite fond of. I still have this mixtape in my car that still has a cassette player and 6-disc changer. (Both hardly ever get used now that I installed a bluetooth adapter.)
The Blake Babies were a 3-piece with Juliana Hatfield, John Strohm, and Freda Love.
This leads me to the announcement from American Laundromat Records that they are re-issuing the Blake Babies compilation, Innocence And Experience, on vinyl.
It’s up for pre-order now. There are several color choices and you can also get a test pressing. It’s been remastered by Sean Glonek.
It contains other great Blake Babies tunes such as Lament, Cesspool, and Girl In A Box.
American Laundromat has also recently released Juliana’s latest solo album and an album covering Olivia Newton-John songs.
Downward is Heavenward was released nearly 21 years ago on January 27, 1998 and made it to #6 on the US Indie charts. In 1999, Pitchfork placed the album at #81 on their top 100 albums of the 1990s.