Could the new Liz Phair be any worse

worst journey ever

"cocksucker blues" anyone? Metal Machine Music maybe? nah! she couldn't be that smart, amirite?

a song by song response to machine metal music is her next project

called Liz Can't Dance.

I think Liz should star and direct a Graffiti Bridge-like movie to tie all these songs together.

But her comeback is fucked now that "H.W.C." can't be her "Gett Off."

yes, that is why her comeback is fucked

cocksucker blues and metal machine music were both listenable, of course.

also artists usually drive themselves into the ditch when they're in the middle of the road, not when they've been stuck in their garage for five years

Holy crap, "Smoke" makes "Bollywood" sound like "Fuck and Run".

Sounds like a SNL parody of something from Beck's Odelay. Horrific.

I fucking love this song more and more every time I hear it and I need to hear this album ASAP

"Bollywood" totally winning me over, but I say this as somebody who feels "This Is Ponderous" is one of the great overlooked singles of my lifetime.

omg smoke hahahah, this is pretty great. When does this record come out again? Is the whole thing just a string of these goofy cut-up skits lampooning her own life as a washed-up onetime famed person? "I don't know John Mayer... I met him..."

xp:

Princess Superstar fronting 2NU.

― kkvgz, Tuesday, July 6, 2010 7:52 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

; )

I mean granted it's all horrendously dated-sounding but most of the jokes have been funny at least once...I'm in favor of this direction for her.

can't believe the same girl who wrote Shane could've written this new stuff. don't get it.

it's kind of shockingly sad

you gotta have fear in ur heart.

Funstyle is getting the deluxe reissue treatment.

Hmmm:

"I’m working on a proper rock record, a good, old-school rock record. Finally. I had a lot of issues to work out," Phair says, laughing and slinking into her chair.

"But this record has been a very beautiful experience. I’m not going to screw up the production, either. I’m going to get this one right. I have my head screwed on right. I haven’t been this way in a long time."

She credits her performance in 2010 at the Matador's 21st anniversary concerts in Las Vegas as reinvigorating her approach to music. Phair shared a stage with the likes of Guided by Voices and Yo La Tengo, and even dueted with Ted Leo.

"Oh, my God, what a godsend that was," she says of the experience. "What an amazing homecoming. That ended a whole cycle of pain. It was a rebirth. I remembered who I once was, and they remembered not to hate me so much. They remembered that it’s not all that ferociously awful, what I have done."

As for her new record, Phair says she's targeting a more stripped-down, stark approach. She cites a few artists as inspiration. "I want the production to be kind of Jack White-ish, Ryan Adams-ish, that style of production," she says. "I want it to sound (messed)-up, but at a level of mastery that is respectable."

And for those still confused by the scattershot production of "Funstyle," which ranged from Bollywood to spoken-word goofiness, get over it. There's more where that came from, but Phair is now reticent to release it.

"I was going to do ‘Funstyle,’ ‘Funnerstyle’ and Funnererstyle.’ I’ve got all these songs, but I can’t handle people freaking out," she says. "There’s just all this bad material that really ought to be heard at some point."

"I had a lot of issues to work out."

god

I want the production to be kind of Jack White-ish, Ryan Adams-ish, that style of production,

god

"There’s just all this bad material that really ought to be heard at some point."

This is why we need publicists.

"I can't think of anyone else of my indie-rock generation who has so completely betrayed his or her talent."

ahhhh old ILM

I thought that was said about Alex Chilton?

Greil Marcus re: Rod Stewart iirc

Google says you're right, but I remember reading that said about Chilton many years ago.

The beginning of this thread is still so gross to me.

we'll always butthurt fans

we'll always have butthurt fans too

Are there any fervent Liz Phair fans remaining? Seems like every fan horrified by the realization that um actually she was Sheryl Crow -- that EIG represents the inevitability of recording with no money instead of an ethos -- is a dumb straight guy.

fervent FEMALE fans, I should say. I need dinner.

Seems like every fan horrified by the realization that um actually she was Sheryl Crow -- that EIG represents the inevitability of recording with no money instead of an ethos -- is a dumb straight guy.

I want to take issue with this statement, but I just haven't listened closely enough to her later albums to feel like I'd be on solid footing. (Never even heard the one that Christgau loved and everyone else compared to Avril Lavigne.) I do know that there's nothing on albums #2 and #3 that come anywhere close to "Divorce Song" or "Fuck and Run" for me--some good songs, but not close. None of which rules out me being a dumb straight guy.

Agreed on Whip-Smart but WCSE is close to her best album: a Sheryl Crow production with Liz Phair songs. I can't listen to "Divorce Song" without thinking of "Go On Ahead," "Uncle Alvarez," or at half a dozen WCSE tracks as sequels.

i.e. the continuing story of a self-aware woman who likes sex but loves her son and is trying to fit into situations she's outgrown

btw clem I'm reacting to the angst expressed at the beginning of this thread, started in 2003. I'm surprised that even in 2003 fans couldn't see that a novelty song about hot white cum was the means by which Liz Phair scored her biggest commercial coup.

oddly, i think what i find disappointing about every album after 'exile' is how confident and professional her singing sounds. what i like about 'exile' is how tuneless and weird she sounds on almost every track, like the almost drone-y tone she gets on 'flower.' i love those unexpected phrasings and random emphases: "and BOXED it up and buried it in the GROUND."

Hmm. She still has an uncertain relation to pitch up until 2005 to my ears.

I'll grab WCSE for the car tomorrow. When Scott and I did that Facebook thing, there was some interesting commentary on how severe the backlash against her was. (You just quoted one of my favourite lines from "Divorce Song"--that and "I guess I already am."

Give it another shot.

i repped for the 2003 album lots when it came out, but i can't really get into most of it anymore. i do like most of 'whip-smart.'

I was going to do ‘Funstyle,’ ‘Funnerstyle’ and 'Funnererstyle'

just... wow

I dunno, I've never known any artist ever that had more people go "I know exactly what she *should* be doing, and I will immediately stop her from doing what she *is* doing in favour of my vision" than her.

Fairly, unfairly, correctly or no, I have no idea, I only heard "Fuck and Run" by her...

I keep waiting for her to do the inevitable kids album. The press release and reviews would pretty much write themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg055XfRnzY

Ten years since the release of the eponymous album. Fabulous interview: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/the-other-liz-phair-anniversary-this-week

I remember my A&R guy was Ron Laffitte and he was like, “Well, what would you do differently?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp9PGzGroMc

Good interview! Got me to check that record out for the first time. Really baffling that so much fuss was made - it's not a dramatic shift away from whitechocolatespaceegg and despite some kind of wince-inducing production choices here and there, and a couple of plodding numbers that never find a shape ("Friend of Mine") the songwriting totally feels like vintage Liz.

"Why Can't I?" is surprisingly durable.

My favorite track from that album is Red Light Fever.

I interviewed her after this album came out and she told me she was just happy to hear her songs played at the gym.

actually, Funstyle is great.