“I met myself back in that record, at a moment where I’d lost myself.”

September 29, 2024 5:13 AM

Last summer, the 30th anniversary of Guyville was attended by retrospectives, special reissues, and a celebratory tour. This month, Whip-Smart’s anniversary came and went without fanfare. But it’s a remarkable album full of expertly crafted songs, and I’d argue that its story is as important, when considering the alternative rock explosion of the 1990s, as that of its more-lauded predecessor. I spoke to Phair, her bandmates, and label execs about how Whip-Smart was recorded, why it didn’t make her a star, and why it sounds so good now, three decades after its release.

–Indie-Rock Supernova by Dan Kois [archive].
posted by Kattullus (6 comments total)

The article linked in “retrospectives” is by Kay Hanley.
posted by Kattullus at 5:13 AM on September 29

Supernova

(Apparently it really was mastered to sound like it was coming from inside a shoebox, according to every version I can stream. Haven't dug out the CD. I remember it sounding more dynamic.)


Chopsticks
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:36 AM on September 29

For about a year in 93-94, the tape cassette stuck in the deck of my car had Guyville on one side and Lush's "Gala" on the other. Which, for a stuck cassette could have been way worse.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:37 AM on September 29 [5 favorites]

doing the double dutch :)
posted by HearHere at 5:38 AM on September 29 [2 favorites]

Recently on a road trip in a car with only a cd player in the dash, I grabbed a stack of CDs and one was Exile in Guyville - and I was struck by how GOOD it is, like "why is this not like on everyone's top list of all time album" (but I think it generally IS, it just isn't super radio friendly) . I mean I bought it when it came out and I liked it then, but having a different perspective now, than as a 20 year old male kid who hadn't yet learned that bad relationships weren't "tragically romantic", makes them hit differently.

I don't think I've ever listened to Whip Smart, I may have to now, also with my current lived-in perspective.
posted by AzraelBrown at 5:44 AM on September 29 [1 favorite]

double dutch
I didn't know (until this Kois article) that she wanted to title the album Jump Rope Songs! I like that a lot but imagine things would have gone even worse for her if she had. I always find it so stressful to read about the morass of music industry crap & misogyny she got mired in--so much dismissiveness and impossible expectation, simultaneously.

...her performances were often interrupted by bros in the crowd shouting, “Nice ass!” In a metaphor that stopped me short when I read it, she compared Liz Phair with a hand puppet—one she often wears herself, but that “everybody gets to stick their hand up there and go at it for a while” too.

I still love Whip-Smart's melancholy songs (esp. Alice Springs). Also "hayseeds" and "May Queen" is still a fine, surprising rhyme.
posted by miles per flower at 6:34 AM on September 29 [3 favorites]