Photo reblogged from Still a Weirdo with 19 notes
Anybody else psyched? @TheRyanAdams pic.twitter.com/89k4pWEx
NEW LIZ PHAIR ALBUM
So out of this list of recorded songs for the next Liz Phair album, I’m most interested in “Officer, Arrest Me”, “Rejoin the Odyssey”, and “Run, Dolly, Run” off of just titles alone. I also have this ridiculous hope that Blah Blah Blah is a Ke$ha cover, but after Funstyle it’s more fear than hope. I don’t know what Ryan Adams’ involvement is here besides providing a studio, but he’s been on an upswing in quality for the last few years, so that should lead to good things too.
(Don’t get me wrong, Funstyle was amusing and enjoyable for what it was: tossed-off craziness with a few fully-developed ideas, but I’m just hoping Liz will at least get back up to whitechocolatespaceegg levels of quality here.)
Source: fuckyeahlizphair
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Liz Phair- Canary
I know Divorce Song, Flower, and Fuck and Run get all the attention but Canary and Shatter are the real heart of Exile in Guyville. The dissatisfaction and loneliness caused from living up to everyone else’s expectations and wishes is expressed in a devastating way here, and it’s one of the best examples of how Liz’s limited vocal range can work to her advantage.
Source: dustoffvarnya
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auditorylove asked: Here's a loaded question: what would you pick for your ten "desert island discs?"
Hmm, this is hard but actually not as hard as I thought it would be. They’re not in order because trying to figure that one out would probably give me a brain aneurysm.
- Tori Amos, From The Choirgirl Hotel
- Tori Amos, Boys For Pele
- Fiona Apple, When The Pawn…
- Ani Difranco, Dilate
- Ryan Adams, Heartbreaker
- Donna Summer, The Donna Summer Anthology (This is two discs, so if that’s cheating, I’ll just take disc 1)
- Madonna, Celebration (This is two discs as well, but you’ll just have to let me cheat a little because The Immaculate Collection doesn’t have Dress You Up or Burning Up.)
- Hole, Live Through This
- Liz Phair, Exile In Guyville
- Neutral Milk Hotel, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Runners-up include: Patti Smith, Horses; Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (which used to be my 3rd favorite album ever, but which has tumbled in rankings as I’ve gotten older even though I still love it); PJ Harvey- Is This Desire?; Radiohead- The Bends; Emmylou Harris- Wrecking Ball
It’s kinda weird that 7 of these albums are from the 90’s and the most recent album came out in 2000, since I do listen to a lot that isn’t from that relatively small time period. The most recent album to even come close to making it was Ys by Joanna Newsom, and only Joni Michell’s Blue and Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks were even close to getting on the list as far as pre-1980’s albums go.
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In Other Liz Phair News…
“Phair’s first new album in five years – Funstyle – enters the music marketplace Oct. 19. Bundled with the new release will be a second CD, Girlysound, a collection of demos and obscure tracks predating Phair’s 1993 debut, Exile In Guyville.”- Pollstar
WHAT? Damn, Liz just made sure all her pretentious indie fans (are any of those left these days?) and all the Exile-only lovers have to get Funstyle. A CD collection of Girlysound is loooooooooong overdue. I’m wondering if the rumored final two tracks on the 3rd tape that have never resurfaced will be on there. I can hope, right?
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Apropos of nothing, I was invited to be a part of an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoring midwestern artists, and I had to dig through my storage space which I haven’t looked through since I moved to LA for interesting old artifacts and found all these old DAT tapes circa WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg that very well could have a Girly Sound worthy repository of unreleased songs on them… I think that could be cool to circulate for free.
- Liz Phair, Interview with MesmerizingToo.com
Umm…How has this not been a bigger deal? I know we already have a lot of demos from WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg, but this sounds like it would be something different and completely unheard. WCSE is a vastly underrated album, and everyone knows Liz doesn’t always pick the best material for her albums (see: Liz Phair LP vs. comeandgetit EP and even some of the Girlysound tracks not on Guyville)
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Liz Phair- Ant In Alaska (Studio version)
Call me when you think the coast is clear
I’ve been hiding out almost a year
Is there something wrong?
What’s taking you so long?
And yeah, I know it’s not easy
When The Awl did a Listicle Without Commentary: Selected Liz Phair Songs, Presented in Order of Ratio of Elation to Despair a while back and picked this as the number 1 song, part of me wanted to be like “Oh come on guys, picking an obscure Girlysound track, how hipster douchebag of you” except a bigger part of me was like “YES! That is the exact right answer.” Ant in Alaska is possibly the saddest song ever. Seriously, it made me cry when I first heard it a couple years ago, and I’ve cried like 5 times in the last 8 years. The lyrics are brutal in their simplicity and honesty, and although the lyrics are obviously intensely personal, they’re general enough to be applicable to a wide range of experiences. (It’s the perfect song if you’re frustrated with a closet case you’re dating, just for a COMPLETELY non-personal example) The weary vocal and lonely sound of just the guitar as accompaniment add to the desolate and abandoned feeling of the song, and when the bitterness gets amped up for this part:
Well, I look at the stars and I know you’re under them
I look at the books and things people are reading
I know that you’ve written them too
You’ve got so many little things to do
But then I look at my life and I know you’ve forgotten
The promise you made to me
I think that’s rotten
I’m hopelessly lost and there’s hardly a sound anymore
Coming through that can show me around
As I’m endlessly, endlessly searching the crowd
Looking for something from you
Just one fucking measly clue
Any shitty little tip-off would doBut I’m just an ant in Alaska to you
Her anger, it’s palpable, and you can tell that even as she lets loose with “Just one fucking measly clue” that Liz still has so much more rage bottled up inside that she can’t even express, but she’s covered the gamut of emotions with this guy from sympathy to insecurity to sadness to anger, and the repetitions of the final line have a sense of acceptance to them, giving at least some sense of resolution to the song.
Photo reblogged from Tyler Coates with 24 notes
The Words Are Written in the Air (download here!)
- Donna Summer - “I Feel Love”
- Bat For Lashes - “Daniel”
- Wilco - “Heavy Metal Drummer”
- Mirah - “Generosity”
- Architecture in Helsinki - “Do the Whirlwind”
- Liz Phair - “Ride”
- Broken Social Scene - “Romancing to the Grave”
- De La Soul - “Eye Know”
- Nina Simone - “See Line Woman”
- Neko Case - “Knock Loud”
- Belle & Sebastian - “A Summer Wasting”
- The Specials - “Pressure Drop”
- Lykke Li - “Dance. Dance. Dance.”
- Hot Chip - “No Fit State”
- Galaxie 500 - “Fourth of July”
Any mix that starts at Donna Summer and ends at Galaxie 500 is a hit in my book. And Knock Loud is the best Neko Case track no one knows about.
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Liz Phair - “Uncle Alvarez”
Rather than write a lengthy post about her new album in context of her career, I’ll just be here to remind you that sometimes Liz was at her best when she didn’t just write about herself.
Most of whitechocolatespaceegg and the comeandgetit EP are excellent examples of this! And Uncle Alvarez is a pretty great song, although I prefer the iTunes Originals live version to the studio cut, which is one of the few times where Liz is better live than on record.
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Liz Phair- And He Slayed Her
Liz Phair’s new album, released yesterday, is called Funstyle and that’s an apt title, since for the first time since the Girlysound demos, she sounds like she’s actually having a lot of fun playing music. There’s lots of goofy beats, random voices, Liz rapping, details of all her record label drama, and that’s just in the first three songs! She branches out into several different styles on this record, with not every experiment working, but it’s certainly better and more interesting than the bland Somebody’s Miracle (Everyone rags on the self-titled album, but at least there are some great pop songs on there. Somebody’s Miracle has such awful production that it managed to ruin one of the old Girlysound songs and suck out all the good from any of the new compositions.)
And He Slayed Her is a song that first debuted a couple years back at the Exile In Guyville anniversary shows. It’s nice to see that it didn’t get fucked up in the studio, and the production gives Liz some nice cover on the higher vocals that aren’t exactly her specialty. The lyrics are comedic at times (the chorus obviously) but there’s real weight and bitterness at other times, which is understandable since it’s about her former bosses at Capitol Records who Phair had a…contentious… relationship with.
People on the Internet just need to have way more respect for Liz Phair is all I’m saying. Imagine Liz reading your tweet, people. Would you say that to Liz? Your respect for Liz should be inexhaustible. Put yourself in her shoes, really, would you have done things differently? Okay, could you have?
I guess this is directed at me, but I don’t really see what was so disrespectful about my post. There’s a big difference between criticism and disrespect. All I talk about is her work, which she puts out there to the public. Disrespect would’ve been personal attacks, comments on her personal life/appearance, basically things that don’t relate to what she releases and wants people to buy and discuss. No artist should be immune to criticism, no matter how many amazing albums they’ve made. I love Liz, Exile is one of my top 10 albums, I have all the other albums and b-sides purchased legally, listen to her catalog frequently, have seen her live, etc. but the greatness of Exile doesn’t make Somebody’s Miracle automatically great. I didn’t have a problem with her “selling out” (Ugh to that phrase) as long as she continued to make good music under the pop gloss, which she did at points on the self-titled record and on the comeandgetit EP (which if you don’t have go get it right now!), but the songwriting on Somebody’s Miracle was mostly subpar and the production (which to be fair was not Liz’s responsibility, so those criticisms aren’t even really criticisms of her) destroyed the songs that were good, making for a shitty album.
In terms of “Would you say that to Liz?”, sure. In comparison to most of what’s out there, my criticisms are pretty mild and she’s a big girl. Obviously it wouldn’t be the first words out of my mouth (which would probably be some babbling, a thank you, and fanboy nonsense about the first few albums) but if we were to sit down and have a discussion about her entire career over coffee or something, I wouldn’t act like her shit doesn’t stink. Would I have done things differently? Well, since none of us actually know all that went down, it’s hard to say, but I probably would’ve done similar things. I also wouldn’t’ve expected people to not call me out on those decisions if what I produced after wasn’t up to the usual lofty standards of my previous work.
ETA: And to prove that I really will say the things I write on the internet to the people I’m talking about, good and bad, here’s my comments on And The Heart Says Whatever from when I read it last month: http://bit.ly/b6gB1U
Anyways, the new album is a lot of fun and well worth downloading, for anyone still on the fence.
Geeeeez, sensitive! To be clear, I was not talking about your post when I said “people on the internet!” I reblogged your post cause I liked it. I don’t reblog people’s posts unless I like them, as a matter of policy. I had just done a quick Tumblr and Twitter search and everyone was being such dicks. No matter what she does now, she still is the person who wrote ‘Stuck on an Island’ etc etc and should be treated accordingly.
Ah, ok. I did overreact a bit, but once I get going on a rant, it’s hard to stop me, and feeling like I’m being told I’m disrespectful and that I wouldn’t say something to a person’s face are two things that really set me off. Glad you liked the post, and am glad to have been wrong about your post being directed at me. I agree that Liz deserves eternal respect for the strength and genius of her previous output, like most of my favorite 90’s artists who have declined somewhat from their peaks in the last few years (Tori Amos, Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, Billy Corgan, etc. etc.). And good call on “Stuck On An Island”, that’s an unjustly forgotten gem.
Source: hveasey
Audio post reblogged from Things I Ate That I Love with 22 notes - Played 1,192 times
Liz Phair- And He Slayed Her
Liz Phair’s new album, released yesterday, is called Funstyle and that’s an apt title, since for the first time since the Girlysound demos, she sounds like she’s actually having a lot of fun playing music. There’s lots of goofy beats, random voices, Liz rapping, details of all her record label drama, and that’s just in the first three songs! She branches out into several different styles on this record, with not every experiment working, but it’s certainly better and more interesting than the bland Somebody’s Miracle (Everyone rags on the self-titled album, but at least there are some great pop songs on there. Somebody’s Miracle has such awful production that it managed to ruin one of the old Girlysound songs and suck out all the good from any of the new compositions.)
And He Slayed Her is a song that first debuted a couple years back at the Exile In Guyville anniversary shows. It’s nice to see that it didn’t get fucked up in the studio, and the production gives Liz some nice cover on the higher vocals that aren’t exactly her specialty. The lyrics are comedic at times (the chorus obviously) but there’s real weight and bitterness at other times, which is understandable since it’s about her former bosses at Capitol Records who Phair had a…contentious… relationship with.
People on the Internet just need to have way more respect for Liz Phair is all I’m saying. Imagine Liz reading your tweet, people. Would you say that to Liz? Your respect for Liz should be inexhaustible. Put yourself in her shoes, really, would you have done things differently? Okay, could you have?
I guess this is directed at me, but I don’t really see what was so disrespectful about my post. There’s a big difference between criticism and disrespect. All I talk about is her work, which she puts out there to the public. Disrespect would’ve been personal attacks, comments on her personal life/appearance, basically things that don’t relate to what she releases and wants people to buy and discuss. No artist should be immune to criticism, no matter how many amazing albums they’ve made. I love Liz, Exile is one of my top 10 albums, I have all the other albums and b-sides purchased legally, listen to her catalog frequently, have seen her live, etc. but the greatness of Exile doesn’t make Somebody’s Miracle automatically great. I didn’t have a problem with her “selling out” (Ugh to that phrase) as long as she continued to make good music under the pop gloss, which she did at points on the self-titled record and on the comeandgetit EP (which if you don’t have go get it right now!), but the songwriting on Somebody’s Miracle was mostly subpar and the production (which to be fair was not Liz’s responsibility, so those criticisms aren’t even really criticisms of her) destroyed the songs that were good, making for a shitty album.
In terms of “Would you say that to Liz?”, sure. In comparison to most of what’s out there, my criticisms are pretty mild and she’s a big girl. Obviously it wouldn’t be the first words out of my mouth (which would probably be some babbling, a thank you, and fanboy nonsense about the first few albums) but if we were to sit down and have a discussion about her entire career over coffee or something, I wouldn’t act like her shit doesn’t stink. Would I have done things differently? Well, since none of us actually know all that went down, it’s hard to say, but I probably would’ve done similar things. I also wouldn’t’ve expected people to not call me out on those decisions if what I produced after wasn’t up to the usual lofty standards of my previous work.
ETA: And to prove that I really will say the things I write on the internet to the people I’m talking about, good and bad, here’s my comments on And The Heart Says Whatever from when I read it last month: http://bit.ly/b6gB1U
Anyways, the new album is a lot of fun and well worth downloading, for anyone still on the fence.
Source: hveasey
Audio post with 22 notes - Played 1,192 times
Liz Phair- And He Slayed Her
Liz Phair’s new album, released yesterday, is called Funstyle and that’s an apt title, since for the first time since the Girlysound demos, she sounds like she’s actually having a lot of fun playing music. There’s lots of goofy beats, random voices, Liz rapping, details of all her record label drama, and that’s just in the first three songs! She branches out into several different styles on this record, with not every experiment working, but it’s certainly better and more interesting than the bland Somebody’s Miracle (Everyone rags on the self-titled album, but at least there are some great pop songs on there. Somebody’s Miracle has such awful production that it managed to ruin one of the old Girlysound songs and suck out all the good from any of the new compositions.)
And He Slayed Her is a song that first debuted a couple years back at the Exile In Guyville anniversary shows. It’s nice to see that it didn’t get fucked up in the studio, and the production gives Liz some nice cover on the higher vocals that aren’t exactly her specialty. The lyrics are comedic at times (the chorus obviously) but there’s real weight and bitterness at other times, which is understandable since it’s about her former bosses at Capitol Records who Phair had a…contentious… relationship with.
Photo reblogged from Tyler Coates with 97 notes
OH MY GOD. (via Loudersoft)
This looks amazing. Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle and Sebastian, Cat Power, New Pornographers, Ted Leo, and plenty of other bands that are great but that I never got that into. I don’t get why Liz Phair has such low billing, she belongs on the mid-tier, but whatever, since I saw her do all of “Exile In Guyville” live a few years ago I wouldn’t really need to see her play much. There are just way too many cool concerts happening in early October, I’d consider going to this if I wasn’t already spending every dime I have (and probably quite a few I don’t) on going to Amsterdam to see Tori Amos with the world’s largest pop and jazz orchestra October 8th.
Link reblogged from contra natura. with 20 notes
125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years | Spin Magazine Online →
I was talking to my dad in the car about how there’s no room for women in alternative rock anymore, since the alt-rock station plays literally no women except for occasionally Paramore and old No Doubt. I think this list of the 125 Best Albums of the Last 25 Years also proves my point, since there are literally 4 albums by women in the top 50, and 1 in the top 30. There’s:
8. PJ Harvey- Rid of Me (I love this album, but there are at least 3 better PJ Harvey albums)
33. Bjork- Debut (A great record, but like PJ, she’s got at least 3 better albums)
37. Liz Phair- Exile In Guyville (This album not being ranked higher is just ridiculous, I think the entire writing class of the internet and every girl or gay boy to pick up a guitar after has been influenced by it.)
47. Portishead- Dummy (Finally a placement I agree with.)
Don’t even get me started on the shit like U2 at 1 or Spin’s sad attempts to act like they know rap. I know these lists are designed to cause fights and make people pay attention to the magazines, but for some reason I still expected better. At least having “The Queen Is Dead” at #3 was a good call.
Source: blackcatalystrecords
