Post and run, post and run -- even when I was seventeen
July 8, 2008 4:15 PM Subscribe
Guyville Redux, the DVD included with the 15th anniversary reissue of Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, is available for viewing (for one week only) on Pitchfork.tv
Love that album. I know she gets regularly skewered, but the lyrics are just top notch.
posted by Ironmouth at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by Ironmouth at 4:42 PM on July 8, 2008
I know she gets regularly skewered
Well, that was kind of the attraction of Guyville -- an indie-rocker chick who wasn't afraid to sing about her sexual activities fearlessly the way her male counterparts were doing.
Which is great. It's a fantastic album, as was Whip-Smart. But man, her song-writing fell to shite in a hurry.
I mean, I can understand how there was so much pressure for her to keep doing the lo-fi thing and stay away from mainstream success, and if anyone deserved to make a few bucks it was her, but everything after Whitechololatespacegg was just so awful. She'd have you believe that it's because rockist male chauvinist asshole music-obssesives like me just can't deal with her making it big but no, sorry Liz -- whatever magic you had going for those first two albums just completely left you.
posted by bardic at 4:57 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
Well, that was kind of the attraction of Guyville -- an indie-rocker chick who wasn't afraid to sing about her sexual activities fearlessly the way her male counterparts were doing.
Which is great. It's a fantastic album, as was Whip-Smart. But man, her song-writing fell to shite in a hurry.
I mean, I can understand how there was so much pressure for her to keep doing the lo-fi thing and stay away from mainstream success, and if anyone deserved to make a few bucks it was her, but everything after Whitechololatespacegg was just so awful. She'd have you believe that it's because rockist male chauvinist asshole music-obssesives like me just can't deal with her making it big but no, sorry Liz -- whatever magic you had going for those first two albums just completely left you.
posted by bardic at 4:57 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
Funny that she's worked this deal out with Pitchfork, seeing as they're probably the most virulently anti-Phair site out there.
Does this mean she is trying to make nice with the indie kids? Does she want back into Guyville?
posted by Weebot at 5:09 PM on July 8, 2008
Does this mean she is trying to make nice with the indie kids? Does she want back into Guyville?
posted by Weebot at 5:09 PM on July 8, 2008
The 'fork gave her glossy self-titled record from 2003 a 0.0, now that I think of it. Funny how she'd give them a recent interview and this video.
posted by porn in the woods at 5:12 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by porn in the woods at 5:12 PM on July 8, 2008
Not sure what's strange about it -- if you're putting something new out, musically, PFM is a good place for people to hear about it. And even if you hate PFM, the site can shift your units.
Beyond that, PFM is based in Chicago and Liz is an important part of that city's musical heritage. Guess they like to play nice sometimes.
posted by bardic at 5:18 PM on July 8, 2008
Beyond that, PFM is based in Chicago and Liz is an important part of that city's musical heritage. Guess they like to play nice sometimes.
posted by bardic at 5:18 PM on July 8, 2008
Weebot: "Funny that she's worked this deal out with Pitchfork, seeing as they're probably the most virulently anti-Phair site out there.
Does this mean she is trying to make nice with the indie kids? Does she want back into Guyville?"
Pitchfork stopped being indie when I heard about it.
posted by Science! at 5:19 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
Does this mean she is trying to make nice with the indie kids? Does she want back into Guyville?"
Pitchfork stopped being indie when I heard about it.
posted by Science! at 5:19 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
I saw her 'anniversary concert tour' stop at the Fillmore - great great songs, less than exciting stage presence. She must have a painting in the attic, though, that looks wizened and terrible...
posted by twsf at 5:20 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by twsf at 5:20 PM on July 8, 2008
Actually, her beauty secret is "Hot White Cum." (Warning: Annoying lyric site with pop-ups.)
posted by bardic at 5:24 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by bardic at 5:24 PM on July 8, 2008
I love Guyville too, but man, those home videos are terrible. (Maybe they get better; I bailed out early.)
posted by languagehat at 5:29 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by languagehat at 5:29 PM on July 8, 2008
I just always liked that she was a pretty girl who said 'fuck' a lot.
posted by jonmc at 5:29 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 5:29 PM on July 8, 2008 [2 favorites]
DVD included...is available for viewing (for one week only) on Pitchfork.tv
I'm assuming this is being marketed to people my age (mid-thirties and older) who were around when Liz Phair was originally a big sensation back in the early 90s.
The one thing I've noticed about getting older (older than, say, the age of 25 or so), is just how goddamn difficult it is to sit through a music video, or a low-fi documentary about the making of a hit record (Wilco and Bob Dylan, in my case, are exceptions to the rule). It all seems so high school.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:49 PM on July 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
I'm assuming this is being marketed to people my age (mid-thirties and older) who were around when Liz Phair was originally a big sensation back in the early 90s.
The one thing I've noticed about getting older (older than, say, the age of 25 or so), is just how goddamn difficult it is to sit through a music video, or a low-fi documentary about the making of a hit record (Wilco and Bob Dylan, in my case, are exceptions to the rule). It all seems so high school.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:49 PM on July 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
Such an amazing, aching, innovative and vibrant album. I think it's a true heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Whenever I listen to her (or Bjork's) early work, I can't help but sigh and think, what happened?
posted by Auden at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by Auden at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2008
That album defines most of the first year of residency for me. I couldn't begin to try and explain what I love so much about it but after 14 years I've got nothing else in my collection that resembles it. To this day if Explain It To Me comes up on my iPod I get chills.
posted by docpops at 7:04 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by docpops at 7:04 PM on July 8, 2008
Liz's "Stratford-On-Guy", Hüsker Dü's "Dead Set on Destruction" and Eno's Music For Airports has long been my airport and airplane music picks.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:11 PM on July 8, 2008
posted by porn in the woods at 7:11 PM on July 8, 2008
This is supposed to make me want to buy Guyville again?
They're doing it wrong.
I mean, I loved the album the first time, and the promise of outtakes makes it conceivable that I might be persuaded... but if this is the "bonus" DVD they're including to induce me to buy it again... well, then, I'm sure glad I got to see it for free beforehand.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:36 PM on July 8, 2008
They're doing it wrong.
I mean, I loved the album the first time, and the promise of outtakes makes it conceivable that I might be persuaded... but if this is the "bonus" DVD they're including to induce me to buy it again... well, then, I'm sure glad I got to see it for free beforehand.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 8:36 PM on July 8, 2008
Here's an idea: write another decent album instead.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:09 PM on July 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by jimmythefish at 9:09 PM on July 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
I remember hearing some of her music and seeing the album and reviews of it everywhere. But, perhaps out of laziness, I never picked it up then. Just today I watched four of the chapters of this video and was enthralled by most of it before it lost momentum with Ira Glass and John Cusack (love their work, don't care for their opinion on this record.) I take it "John the producer" is the bad guy? The dudes from Urge Overkill are, well, the dudes? The Matador guys are as cunning and wily as Steve Albini (!) makes them out to be? The story of her super fan, the guy who made a hundred tapes of her demo (?), and thus possibly launched her career, will stay with me for a while.
She comes across as confident and curious and genuine. Oh, and, there's a great moment in the red (Matador) room where Phair & Co. have animated one of the paintings of an archer resting on the floor and made it shoot an arrow through a zebra in the wallpaper. I watched the clip four or five times to make sure it wasn't a hiccup. A very clever way of saying, I think: "Yeah, it's lo-fi. Bite me. We know what we're doing."
posted by noway at 10:28 PM on July 8, 2008
She comes across as confident and curious and genuine. Oh, and, there's a great moment in the red (Matador) room where Phair & Co. have animated one of the paintings of an archer resting on the floor and made it shoot an arrow through a zebra in the wallpaper. I watched the clip four or five times to make sure it wasn't a hiccup. A very clever way of saying, I think: "Yeah, it's lo-fi. Bite me. We know what we're doing."
posted by noway at 10:28 PM on July 8, 2008
Without really trying to be a jerk, I'm going to throw some Steve Albini vitriol on this post and not look back.
posted by electronslave at 5:53 AM on July 9, 2008
posted by electronslave at 5:53 AM on July 9, 2008
I adore Liz. Guyville and Whipsmart are classics, whitechocolatespaceegg is mostly meh with a few good numbers,
I actually love Liz Phair (the album), even though all the indie snobs scoffed at it. Fact is, she couldn't sell out because she never really bought in to the whole indie scene, my impression is that she always thought it was kind of lame. What's so wrong with writing poppy songs that can get radio play, while still maintaining your potty mouth on songs like HWC and Rock Me?
(Side note, I have a Liz Phair demo bootleg called Party Mouth. Guess some bootleggers' translation skills aren't up to snuff).
The less said about her last album, Somebody's Miracle, the better though.
posted by yellowbinder at 8:16 AM on July 9, 2008
I actually love Liz Phair (the album), even though all the indie snobs scoffed at it. Fact is, she couldn't sell out because she never really bought in to the whole indie scene, my impression is that she always thought it was kind of lame. What's so wrong with writing poppy songs that can get radio play, while still maintaining your potty mouth on songs like HWC and Rock Me?
(Side note, I have a Liz Phair demo bootleg called Party Mouth. Guess some bootleggers' translation skills aren't up to snuff).
The less said about her last album, Somebody's Miracle, the better though.
posted by yellowbinder at 8:16 AM on July 9, 2008
I, too, had wished her a wistful farewell when "Liz Phair" came out, but recently discovered a 5 song internet-download-only companion to the album called "Come and Get It" which is more like her old signature style. (Really only 4 song because one of them's "Hurricane Cindy" again).
posted by whuppy at 7:34 AM on July 10, 2008
posted by whuppy at 7:34 AM on July 10, 2008
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same as in town
posted by porn in the woods at 4:30 PM on July 8, 2008