Some Girls Just Feel It

They're a rock band. A raw, groovy, rockin' power trio -- and they just happen to be chicks. Think Avril Lavigne meets The Rolling Stones, or the older, purer, "I don't have to wear a see-through miniskirt to sell records" Liz Phair.\nThe group, Some Girls, grew out of a lasting relationship between former Blake Babies members Freda Love Smith and Juliana Hatfield. The Blake Babies, the indie rock band notorious in the post-punk scene of the '80s, split in 1991. And although the band members remained friends, they didn't work together for nearly a decade. \nHatfield, a graduate of the Berkley School of Music, went solo with Mammoth Records after the break in 1992 and managed to become one of the most popular women in rock. Love kept on keepin' on as well, playing drums for the critically acclaimed bands Antenna and the Mysteries of Life with bandmate and current husband Jake Smith (Mysteries of Life frontman and bassist for The Vulgar Boatmen) who produced Some Girls' debut album, Feel It, released Sept. 9.\nBrought together again in March of 2001 to release God Bless the Blake Babies, the reunion of the cult-favorite sparked the beginning of Some Girls, named after the Rolling Stones album. While in the studio, the engineering technician said their songs sounded "very Some Girl." The girls, who were still looking for a name at the time, dug it.\n"It was just kind of a moment of inspiration. I don't think it's so much a tribute as just a moment of inspiration," Love says. "It wasn't something so consciously like, 'We're trying to be like The Rolling Stones.' It just seemed to fit."\nThe name clicked -- and so did the girls.\nLove, a native of Bloomington and current yoga instructor at IU and the YMCA, collaborated with Boston-based Hatfield by sending lyrics and music through the mail.\n"It was very collaborative, and for both of us it was kind of a first. I've been playing songs for many years, but haven't written much," Love says.\nHatfield, often associated with Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, had toyed with the idea of reuniting with Love to see what they could come up with post-Blake Babies. What they came up with was more than they could've imagined. \n"It's really just the way that the songs that turn out that's a surprise," Hatfield says. "When I do my own music I usually kind of know how I want them to sound. But with Freda it's exciting to see how the arrangements come out."\nBut there's a third wheel to this story, one that Love calls "multi-talented." Heidi Gluck, bassist of the Indianapolis band The Pieces, was asked to join Love and Hatfield out of the blue.\n"We thought it would be fun to get somebody to come in and play bass just so we could kind of have the live band feeling. And I knew of Heidi and I'm a fan of her band and I knew that she was very, very talented person and that she would be an asset in the studio," Love remembers.\nGluck, Love says, is the "young-genius one," the fresh face. Hatfield fills the artistic shoes as the creative one and Love says she's the details girl, the organized one.\nThe trio "just clicked" and signed a contract with Koch Records, an independent label, for two albums.\nSmith, working on his doctorate in communication and culture, teaches the history of recording and a debut song writing class in the school of music. \n"In today's music scene there's a lot of women artists, but so much of it, so much of what is presented is Britney and Christina Aguilera," Smith says. "And that stuff is fine for what it is, but you know that's why Some Girls is great because they're real, they're a real rock band."\nBut commercialization of the industry has managed to evade the souls of these particular songbirds, as Hatfield especially, has received recognition from the critics, but not the consumers. And although the band says they love their new 11-track compilation, they have realistic expectations about how well it will fare in the market.\nHatfield, who says her motivation for making the album was simply for the fun of it, doesn't anticipate huge sales. \n"It would be great to make some money, but I'm really not expecting it," she says. "In the climate of today there is no chance it will sell. That's not why we did it."\nLove agrees, noting that although she's proud of all the records she's put out, her biggest success came just recently when Disney used the song "Nothing Ever Happens" from the Blake Babies reunion album in the movie Freaky Friday. \n"I have realistic expectations just based on my experience, that's all," Love says. "I know that it costs a million dollars just to get a song on the radio because that's the way things are structured in the music business. My record label isn't going to spend that much money," she explains.\nAnd as far as downloading music, the girls say they can't blame the downloaders; it's the recording industry that's at fault.\n"It's not a money thing with me. I don't really care how people get my records," Hatfield says. "As long as people get my music, I'm happy."\nBut she does take issue when people trade music that the artist hasn't approved. \n"There have been recordings of mine that somehow got out and I didn't want them to be out," she says.\nHatfield, who is still working on her solo career separate from Some Girls, says she expects to release another album in early 2004. As for Feel It, she says she wants people to have open minds when listening to the record so they can have original responses.\n"We aren't the Blake Babies anymore," she says. "I don't know why anyone would expect that."\nAs for lyrical inspiration, Love and Hatfield work from two different worlds -- literally. Writing is a bit like role-playing for Love, the 36-year-old mother of two. \n"I feel like if I try to write really, really directly about my own experience, it's like too personal and too difficult and you can end up writing something that's like a journal entry," she says.\nThe song on the album Love says she had the most fun writing was "The Getaway," a fictional story about lost love and promises that has absolutely nothing to do with her real life.\nConversely, Hatfield takes issue with consumerism and issues in her personal life.\n"Robot City," Hatfield says, was inspired by American culture. \n"Everything comes down to buying and selling -- even the political system," she says. Track nine, "On My Back," describes her standard point of view on life, which she admits is generally always conflicted.\n"It's about my life and really enjoying the solitude in my life ... about how being alone isn't necessarily a bad thing," she says.\nAnd after the release of Feel It this week, the three prepare for a nationwide tour starting at Rhino's Sunday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. The five-week tour will wrap up in mid-October, but not before the girls hit both coasts, playing with Gluck's The Pieces on the West Coast and The Unbusted, young guys from Martha's Vineyard, on the East. For tour dates and more information about Some Girls, check out www.some-girls.com.