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Liz Phair relives the 1990sIn 1993, Beavis and Butthead was a new show on MTV, Conan O’Brien got his very own late night slot, and the feel-good movie of the year, Schindler’s List, was released. It was also the year we heard of a new singer/songwriter from Chicago named Liz Phair. She was ballsy, and her debut album Exile in Guyville was forwardly feminist, mocking of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. and also of her position as a female in the music industry. She had attitude, and sang songs like “F--- and Run” about being sick of one night stands.
Exile in Guyville is still on the top of “Best Albums Ever” lists everywhere, but Phair was never quite able to create an album as loved since. Her second (Whip-Smart) and third (whitechocolatespaceegg) were fan favorites, but not as well received by critics. After a short hiatus, she did the unthinkable in the judgmental land of indie rock — she hired the songwriting trio, The Matrix, and put out a major label self-titled album of radio ready songs like “Why Can’t I?” and “Extraordinary.” There was a Liz Phair backlash, and she’s been the poster child for being a sell out since the early 2000s.
But now Liz Phair is back on the radar in the best of ways – it’s the 15th anniversary of Exile in Guyville and Phair is reissuing the album complete with a “making-of” documentary DVD on June 24. She’s also playing the entire album live and acoustic in New York City on June 25, and is announcing similar dates in Chicago and San Francisco in the near future.
Phair-fans: get pumped. Isn’t this what we’ve been waiting for? As a child of the ‘90s, I nostalgically look back on the time when Phair was the queen of alternative rock and she reigned amongst the dudes of the Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. She was a more accessible version of riot grrrl that was more easily discovered at the time, which meant a lot to little girls like me living in the Midwest. Liz, I forgive you for working with songwriters and recording a song that ended up playing on a commercial for a Hilary Duff movie — just please write another song like “Girls!Girls!Girls!”: “You been around enough to know / That if I want to leave you better let me go / … I get away almost every day / With what the girls call murder.” Submitted by on May 20, 2008 - 1:00pm. |
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Can't wait
I heart Liz Phair. Or at least, I heart that Exile in Guyville album.
It must suck to realize you will never be able to top your first album.
Like hm4her, I can't believe it's been 15 years already....
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-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Who doesn't blog these days?
Liz Phair...
Is awesome, and I can't wait for her new stuff to come out. I wonder if it will be just as sex filled as her old stuff!? (I.e. Rock me all night, and Flower)
But, for me personally, Juliana Hatfield will always be the most awesome solo musician of the 90's :)
<>Love, Crayon <>
So much fucking love for
nyc show
Good to know, I had no idea.
exile in guyville
whitechocolatespaceegg
i only know whitechocolatespaceegg. & i love it. i guess i gotta go figure out what i missed with exile. i don't know....you say sellout like it's a bad thing. she made some cash & now she can do whatever she wants, like re-release her first album with a DVD. it's not like she churned out cheese album after album or became the face of American Girl cosmetics. she was born in '67...the indie rock scene money along can only last so long - girl's gotta eat & pay her rent. & she likely got boned on her deals with the record company's on her first couple of albums...
From her myspace:
Phair recently signed with the independent label ATO Records, which will release a special 15th anniversary edition of her landmark debut album on June 24th and her new studio album in the fall.
Exile in Guyville, which was out of print, will be available on CD, vinyl and - for the first time ever - in digital format. The special reissue package will include four never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: “Ant in Alaska,” with Phair simply accompanying herself on guitar, “Wild Thing,” wherein she uses the melody and central line of The Troggs’ 1966 1 hit as a jumping off point for an otherwise all-original song, “Say You,” which features Phair and a full band, and an untitled instrumental with Liz on guitar. Phair has also just completed a new, 60-minute DVD, “Guyville Redux,” for the reissue.
In “Guyville Redux” - which features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records - Liz and the “guys” of Guyville take us back to the making of the album, the male-dominated, Chicago independent music scene of the early 1990’s (which included Urge Overkill, Material Issue, and Smashing Pumpkins), and the Wicker Park neighborhood where it all happened. Phair interviews Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi of Matador Records, which originally released the record, famed indie producer Steve Albini, Ira Glass of NPR’s “This American Life,” John Henderson of the elusive indie label Feel Good All Over, Brad Wood (producer of Exile In Guyville), John Cusack (who founded the Chicago avant-garde theater group New Crime Productions), Urge Overkill, and more.