Liz Phair

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Liz Phair

Background information
Born April 17, 1967 (1967-04-17) (age 41)
New Haven, Connecticut
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Indie rock
Lo-Fi
Pop rock
Occupation(s) Singer - songwriter
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active 1991 - present
Label(s) Matador, Capitol, ATO Records
Website http://www.lizphair.com

Liz Phair (born Elizabeth Clark Phair on April 17, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her signature guitar, which she is often seen playing (and is prominent upon the cover of her self-titled fourth album), is a Fender Duo-Sonic II. Her album Exile in Guyville was chosen as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Phair was born in Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois. Phair was adopted, as was her older brother Philip. She graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and majored in art history.

[edit] Career

[edit] Origins of music career

Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw was visiting her San Francisco loft-mate Nora Maccoby when he heard Phair's songs, and encouraged her to record them.

After moving back to Chicago, Phair began writing songs and recording homemade tapes under the name Girly Sound, and supported herself by selling her drawings on the streets of Chicago. She became part of the alternative music scene in Chicago and became friends with Material Issue and Urge Overkill, two of Chicago's upstart bands to go national in the early 1990s, as well as Brad Wood and John Henderson, head of Feel Good All Over, an independent label in Chicago. (A later attempt at re-recording the Girly Sound tapes failed after arguments between Henderson and Phair.)

[edit] Recordings with Matador Records

After asking Wood who the "coolest" indie label was, Phair called up Gerard Cosloy, co-president of Matador Records, in 1992 and asked him if he would put out her record. Coincidentally, Cosloy had just read a review of Girly Sound in Chemical Imbalance that very day and told Phair to send him a tape. Phair sent him a tape of six Girly Sound songs. Cosloy recalls: "The songs were amazing. It was a fairly primitive recording, especially compared to the resulting album. The songs were really smart, really funny, and really harrowing, sometimes all at the same time. . . . I liked it a lot and played it for everybody else. We usually don't sign people we haven't met, or heard other records by, or seen as performers. But I had a hunch, and I called her back and said O.K."

Cosloy offered a $3,000 advance, and Phair began working on a single, which turned into the 18 songs of Exile in Guyville.

Exile in Guyville was produced by Phair and Brad Wood, and released in 1993. The album received uniformly excellent reviews. The album received significant critical acclaim for its blunt, honest lyrics and for the music itself, a hybrid of indie rock and pop. The album established Phair's penchant for exploring sexually explicit lyrics such as in the song "Flower": "I want to be your blow job queen/...I'll fuck you and your minions too." By contrast, her trademark low, vibrato-less voice gave many of her songs a slightly detached, almost deadpan character. The combination of these factors won Phair many dedicated fans. She also had several detractors, especially in her hometown of Chicago; in particular, veteran producer Steve Albini was involved in a war of words reflected in Chicago's free newsweekly, the Chicago Reader. Albini wrote an angry response to an article by Billy Wyman (Hitsville), entitled "Not From the Underground: 1993 in Review", that discussed how Phair and several other artists had given an "explicit rejection of much of the insularity that increasingly characterizes underground music". Albini identified the aforementioned artists as "pandering sluts" and said Phair was the modern Rickie Lee Jones, "more talked about than heard, a persona completely unrooted in substance, and a fucking chore to listen to".[1]

Hoping to capitalize on the acclaim for her debut album, the release of Phair's second album received substantial media attention and an advertising blitz. Whip-Smart debuted at #27 in 1994 and "Supernova", the first single, became a Top Ten modern rock hit, and the video was frequently featured on MTV. Phair also landed the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine with the headline "A Rock Star is Born." Nonetheless, the album received mixed reviews, and although it was certified Gold (shipments of at least 500,000 units), it ultimately did not sell as well as expected, as it was hoped the album would introduce Phair to a wider, more mainstream audience. Following Whip-Smart, Phair released Juvenilia, a collection of some early Girly Sound tracks and several B-sides, including her cover of the 1980s classic by The Vapors, "Turning Japanese".

Phair's third album, titled whitechocolatespaceegg, was finally released in 1998 after some delays, which included a disagreement about content; at one point, the label rejected the album as submitted, and asked Phair to write a few additional radio-friendly songs for the set.[2] The album displayed a more mature Phair, and reflected some of the ways marriage and motherhood affected her. The single "Polyester Bride" received some airplay, but the album was no more successful than her previous records. To promote the record Phair joined the now legendary Lilith Fair. Phair performed on the main stage along with acts like Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Missy Elliott.

[edit] Recordings with Capitol Records

In 2003, her self-titled fourth album was released on her new label, Capitol Records. Phair had not released an album in several years; she had been working on her record, as well as making guest appearances on other tracks (she lent backing vocals to the Sheryl Crow hit "Soak Up the Sun").[3]

Initially, Phair worked on several album tracks with songwriter Michael Penn as the producer. When she submitted the finished Penn-produced album to Capitol, the label gave it a lukewarm reception. Having already exhausted her recording budget, label president Andy Slater offered Phair more money to record only if Phair agreed to work with the production team known as The Matrix to come up with some singles for the album. Phair's collaboration with the Matrix resulted in only four songs, but much of the media attention focused solely on the Matrix-produced tracks, which were a departure from her earlier work. The album received many negative reviews, especially from the independent music press, who accused Phair of "selling out" by making the record very pop-oriented.[4]

Liz Phair garnered some commercial attention and seemed to propel Phair out of the "alternative-chick" category and closer to the pop charts. The debut single "Why Can't I?", co-written by The Matrix, did reach the Top 40 charts in North America, and its follow-up, "Extraordinary," was also somewhat successful: it appeared on the soundtrack to the 2004 movie Raising Helen and was the promotional theme for the 2004 Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament; in March 2007, the song began appearing in Gatorade television advertisements. Phair continued to flirt with sexually explicit themes, however, as was most evident in a track called "H.W.C.", standing for "Hot White Cum".

Somebody's Miracle, Phair's fifth album (and final album with Capitol Records), was released on October 4, 2005. The album returned to a more traditional rock sound, mixing the mood of Phair's earlier work with a more mellow sound.[5] The album received mixed reviews, and was not a chart success.

[edit] Exile in Guyville Reissue

Phair signed with ATO Records in early 2008 and is planning to re-release Exile in Guyville on June 24, 2008.[6] Exile in Guyville, which is currently out of print, will be reissued on CD, vinyl, and 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 Phair on guitar. Phair has also completed a new, 60-minute DVD, "Guyville Redux," for the reissue.[7]

In “Guyville Redux” – which features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records – Phair and the “guys” of Guyville take viewers 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, famed indie producer Steve Albini, Ira Glass of public radio’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.

“Exile in Guyville is miles more complex than the porn-star manifesto it was often considered,” says Alan Light (former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe, and Tracks) in an essay penned especially for the reissue. “Phair spoke for the uncertainties facing a new generation of women, struggling to find a balance between sexual confidence and romance, between independence and isolation. . . . Exile in Guyville sat at the center of a culture in transition.”[8]

[edit] Untitled ATO Records Project

Phair is currently working on an untitled project to be released Fall 2008.[9]

[edit] Other Recordings

  • In 1993 Phair released a 7" single called "Carnivore", which featured the song entitled "Carnivore" on side A, and a different recording of the same song entitled "Carnivore (raw)" on side B. The 7" single was released by the Chicago independent label Minty Fresh.
  • In 1994 Phair contributed a song called "Don't Have Time" to the soundtrack of Higher Learning. The soundtrack is notable for mixing hip-hop artists with indie rock artists, mirroring the cross-cultural aspects of the movie.
  • In 2001, Phair recorded a song called "Down" in response to her divorce. A quasi-stop-motion animation video using photographs was created for it by filmmaker Rodney Ascher (he shot fifty rolls of still photographs in L.A.'s Chinatown), and posted on her official website LizPhair.com.[1] The song was never officially released on any of her albums, but the video can still be seen on her website, as well as Ascher's website.
  • In 2005, she recorded the track "Chemistry" with Canadian artist Kyle Riabko.
  • Phair also collaborated with singer/songwriter and actress Minnie Driver on a track called "Sorry Baby" on Driver's second album Seastories, which was released in summer of 2007.
  • The summer 2007 movie Nancy Drew featured a new song by Phair, called "Perfect Misfit." A 30-second preview of the track can be heard on the film's official soundtrack's website.[10]
  • Another summer 2007 movie No Reservations features her song Count on My Love.
  • Phair currently composes the original score for CBS' Swingtown.[11]

[edit] Film

In addition to making appearances on television shows and in films portraying herself, Phair has been billed as an actress in several roles, including the film Cherish. She also played 1960s pop singer Jackie DeShannon in an episode of the NBC period drama American Dreams and a yoga instructor in the film Seeing Other People.

[edit] Personal life

In 1995, Phair married Jim Staskauskas, a film editor who had worked on her videos; they had one child, James Nicholas Staskauskas, on December 21, 1996. The couple have since divorced.

More recently, Phair has been linked with her guitar player, Dino Meneghin.[12]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Girly Sound

Year Tape Name
1991 Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Muthuh
1991 Girls! Girls! Girls!
1991 Untitled Tape 3

[edit] Studio Albums

Year Album Billboard Chart Position Sales Certification
1993 Exile In Guyville 196 450,000 Gold
1994 Whip-Smart 27 600,000 Gold
1998 Whitechocolatespaceegg 35 320,000 None
2003 Liz Phair 27 429,000 None
2005 Somebody's Miracle 46 81,000 None
2008 Exile In Guyvile: Reissue Unavail. Unavail. None
2008 Untitled Sixth Album Unavail. Unavail. None

[edit] EP's

Year Name
1995 Juvenilia
2003 Comeandgetit

[edit] Demos

Year Name
1992 Exile In Guyville Studio Demo
1996 '96 Shelved Demos/Studio Recordings
1997 Whitechocolatespaceegg Demos
1997 Stuck On An Island/from What's Up Matador Compilation
1999-2001 Michael Penn Recordings/"4th Album Roughs"
2005 Somebody's Miracle Demos

[edit] Singles

Year Song U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Top 40 Mainstream U.S Modern Rock Tracks U.S. Adult Top 40 U.S. Hot Digital Tracks Album
1994 "Supernova" 78 - 6 - - Whip-Smart
1995 "Whip-Smart" - - 24 - - Whip-Smart
2003 "Why Can't I?" 32 10 - 7 20 Liz Phair
2003 "Insanity" - - - - 5 iTunes-only release
2004 "Extraordinary" 111 28 - 14 - Liz Phair
2005 "Everything to Me" - - - 27 - Somebody's Miracle

[edit] Awards

Year Award Category Song Result
1995 Grammy Awards Best Female Rock Vocal Performance "Supernova" Nomination
1996 Grammy Awards Best Female Rock Vocal Performance "Don't Have Time" Nomination

[edit] Samples

[edit] Filmography (Actress)

[edit] Filmography (Composer)

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.chicagoreader.com/hitsville/pander.html
  2. ^ http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/Club/2471/00000077.html
  3. ^ http://music.barnesandnoble.com/features/interview.asp?NID=523051&z=y
  4. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2084862/
  5. ^ http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/pop/12376/index.html
  6. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003782697
  7. ^ http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/updates.html
  8. ^ http://dev.atorecords.com/blog/?p=39
  9. ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/49610-liz-phair-reissues-iexile-in-guyvillei-signs-to-ato
  10. ^ http://www.nancydrewsoundtrack.com
  11. ^ Five TV Shows To Enrich The Ears In '08
  12. ^ "Review: Liz Phair, 'Somebody's Miracle'", Associated Press, October 5, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-03-12. 

[edit] External links