Liz Phair Liz Fare Liz Fair

no, Mount Cleaners, please go on, 90% of ILM gives a shit about your opinion of "indie".

Sure I think she's talented. She has an art background. So are a lot of people from the Midwest. First album was pretty good, second was okay...then she just got derivative.

I don't give an ass crack who disagrees. Local college DJ plays her all the time like she's god's gift to cool. She didn't invent "cool".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XYsfEb7Re0

The first time I flew into Chicago, about a year or so ago, I couldn't help but think of this song.

The "Divorce Song" Song Exploder was really good, it's been a long time since I listened to Exile but I never noticed how thin it sounds (in terms of bass/drum presence).

She's playing in town the night before my birthday, I can't decide if I want to get tickets. Zero idea how good she is live.

her tour has been selling out so you may be out of luck regardless

I bought the VIP ticket package for her Cleveland show and I am freakin STOKED.

sold out in 2 minutes here

Got tix for Nashville in October. I've seen her before but my wife hasn't and she is v excited to put it mildly.

Got regular tickets for Dallas, VIP was too holyshit expensive for me (and a meet and greet seems weird)

Went to the Cleveland show last night, it was frigging awesome. I feel like a big gross Amazon next to her:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41616323_224029205133832_8072503337636855808_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=19e3bfd962b879c9ba0a55b78a194403&oe=5BEF1D05

Her band is super-tight and the set list was great. (Among the songs I remember: Flower, Supernova, 6'1", Never Said, Johnny Feelgood, Cinco de Mayo, Polyester Bride, Stratford-on-Guy, Mesmerizing, Blood Keeper, Help Me Mary, Extraordinary, Why Can't I and a new song called The Game.) After being offstage for all of two minutes at the end of the set, she came back out and did a two-song encore of Fuck and Run & Divorce Song that brought the house down.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41654869_224371265099626_1656388342821945344_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=ecf6cfddee3ebc8cac13eab7a93f5cbb&oe=5BEE10AC

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41566247_224371475099605_764812999721484288_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=341bcac5aeaa42eaa244cec2a5001c09&oe=5C1B5C02

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41644184_224371268432959_3991430390844751872_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=bd783f30d3b361799f6c238ef83fc333&oe=5C250D7D

“Make America Girly Again”?

Cool photos

love the two lizes photo

excellent! I'm going to see her in... two weeks!

Waited too long and DC show is sold out. Oh well, saw her a long while ago once.

Saw her play last night, and after a shitty day/week/month/year I'm glad I didn't just stay home. It was a really good show. Her voice is fantastic! I only really know Exile and Whip-Smart (songs from which comprised well more than half the set, yay), but the newer stuff sounded pretty good... she should get a lap steel guitar and do a country album, I think it would work really well.

Great new interview:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/liz-phair-horror-stories-in-conversation.html

To be my age now, 52, and see a huge music community of women that didn’t exist when I was coming up is the best fucking thing. If I meant something to them, they mean a hell of a lot to me. It’s why I want to get back out there. My “Liz Phair” now are these young women. They give me motivation, excitement, a sense of safety, and inspiration. Every day I follow a new female artist on Twitter, so I have more of that feeling I was so hungry for back then. Girlville is here.

super good interview, i appreciated so many quotes that i got sick of c/p'ing them
a must-read if you have liked her music

yeah, she is a total badass.

and also not! she is a complex person. she is otm about so much.

memoir out today!!

A new single, it's not bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uF-kldIIQQ

I heard that song is a second-by-second response to Led Zeppelin's "All of My Love."

Wut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4LcFHMjH9k

why

if i didn't hate him and his cult then i wouldn't hate this but i wouldn't like it either. at least bollywood was funny (sort of) and edgy (ditto)

I find that kind of touching--the kind of thing you do only for yourself.

I guess. most of her best and worst music has that feeling. you do you liz i'll pass in this instance

First and foremost, I like the way it sounds, especially the chorus. The rest is harder to explain...I stupidly missed that the woman is Laurie Anderson (duh) until I read up on it a bit; I thought it was a fantasy about her being with Reed herself. Putting that aside, I'm moved that she's singing about these people that--it would be an exaggeration to say that nobody cares about them, I realize that, but at the very least who aren't necessarily front and centre in what the rest of the world's focused on in 2021. I can relate to that in a big way. But she doesn't care--she may even be so wrapped up in her thoughts that she thinks the rest of the world's right there with her. (I remember starting a Dylan/Warhol/Godard thread/poll on here once, very pleased with my great idea; within five posts, the message very clearly was nobody cares about your stupid idea.) And, not meaning to be cruel, I think it's fair to say that her moment or whatever has passed too. Which adds to all of that, for me.

convincing appraisal. if i liked the tune more i could get on board with it despite any feelings about reed specifically

I think she's had at least 2 "moments" the more recent of which was maybe smaller but vindicative for her. but she definitely knows what it's like to be treated like a has-been (which was always bullshit and obviously gendered). sorry if this sounds condescending or faint-praisey but I do really appreciate her tenacity

Is this a new song? I think it’s the most I’ve enjoyed her stuff since whip smart.

yeah I like it too. writing about lou reed from the perspective of an aging partner whos bored with his coolguy schtick is a good idea for a liz phair song. the video is cutesy but separated from that the song doesnt scream "cult of lou" to me

I need to listen to it again. I heard it for the first time while waking up today was was like “is this song really happening?”

“Good Side” worked for me and a lot of people found it dull, so who knows.

writing about lou reed from the perspective of an aging partner whos bored with his coolguy schtick

I could see maybe doing this if Lou were still alive, but... seems super wtf to do it now

i hear what youre saying but idk, it seems gentle enough imo, it doesnt come across as like a big takedown to me. maybe my gauge is off but liz phair writing from a female partners perspective to tease the rep of a canonical male rock star is not exactly a shocking break from what i expect from her.

I hear it as affectionate, too, even towards Lou Reed (I'd count the distancing of his death as a positive).

(For the song, I mean--I'm not glad he's dead.)

seems more likely that this is a song about *a* guy named Lou or someone she thinks of as like Lou Reed, and she's riffing off that idea as a private joke. e.g. Warhol and Anderson didn't overlap in the real Reed's life.

What’s with the puppets, Liz

I found the puppets distracting. I mean it's a pleasant enough indie folk song but it's got these giant bloopy puppets.

I've liked some Lou and hated some, but this is not how I want to remember him.

I mean now I gotta go and google what he said about Warhol...

hey, Soberish is really good -- did I miss the talk on a different thread? not sure if no one cares or if people are just happy to enjoy a Liz Phair album in peace for the first time ever. I especially love "In There."

I haven't heard it yet, but I saw her twice in 2019, and the new songs she unveiled sounded disappointing, so I've been reluctant to try it out.

I still love her first three albums and the Girlysound demos, but after that there's only been a handful of songs that I've liked.

It’s in my top three albums of the year so far.

I think it just didn’t get discussed here for whatever reason

“In There” (and to an extent “The Game”) snuck up on me, kicked my ass around the block.

If this album has a fault it’s that the last couple songs don’t hit as hard as the rest, but that first 75% hits like a train for me.

I'm not sure if he's reviewed it yet, but apparently Christgau "liked and understood the craftily allusive Soberish better after reading her book (Horror Stories)."

I still need to finish that book.

I've been spending time with the Girly-Sound material – I've long owned the bootlegs, but never listened to them much, maybe because they felt like a hodgepodge of "early versions," some tracks that had already been released (e.g., on Juvenilia), etc. Listening to the tapes now, with somewhat fresh ears, they're hugely impressive... not only are the songs (obviously) terrific, but the way she takes bits & pieces of well-known/famous songs, and kind of reconfigures / recontextualizes them, feels like a significant aesthetic move that I'm sure has other precedents, but I can't think of them at the moment.

These tapes are really Ground Zero of her catalogue, in a way that may even seem "unfair" to her in some ways of looking at it (e.g., she was still culling from these demos many albums deep in her career - which is understandable!), but I feel like maybe they haven't been properly assessed/appreciated (by some at least, like me); in part because Guyville was such a big deal and these older recordings only trickled out after the fact? I dunno, I'm rambling...

I think I know what you mean. When I first heard them, I already knew her first three albums pretty well, so they came off as a rough dub of demos thrown together and that was it. Basically an inferior version of what I already enjoyed. I think that's how I approached a lot of things, including live shows - on some level, it was just a track-to-track comparison and weighing whether this version of a song was really better than that version of a song.

What's changed since then is evaluating something as its own whole entity. Springsteen on Broadway of all things made me realize this - I was highly skeptical of that endeavor, but after hearing the raves, I checked it out when I landed a cheap ticket. It was an amazing show, one of the best things Springsteen's done, and it made me completely aware of context, flow, etc. and how much all of those things mattered even with very familiar material. And that's what what happened with Phair's demos - I listened to them again as they were originally arranged, and they do work like mixtapes, where the bits and pieces and other things are part of a cohesive work. I need to give them another close listen, but those three cassettes did flow like albums.

i had no idea

Finally that song makes sense and is beautiful

Paul Simon was writing a song, washed his face, and found someone else was writing his song?!?

Garfunklel’d, as they say in the biz

I was today years old when I learned…

Paul Simon was writing a song, washed his face, and found someone else was writing his song?!?

Probably Robert Lamm

“I would identify with the girl they were singing about in the song…like Cecilia” Sorry to be a lyrics dork but Cecilia is a song about writing a song. St Cecilia is the patron saint of songwriters.

(Also, don’t know what band you all are talking about, Blondshell were horrific)

I went to the Brooklyn show last night - missed Blondshell and got in my seat like 10 minutes before Phair started and it was really awesome. I wasn't sure if I'd ever see a show like this, but I really loved hearing all the lesser-known songs from Guyville, particularly the quieter cuts.

Saw her tonight in Nashville, lots of fun. This was the third time I've seen her so I'd heard the fan faves off Guyville before but it was cool to hear the lesser-known tracks. I also love how 30 years on she's still kind of perched halfway between making it and not making it — Gen X for life.

So, "making love with Cecelia" is a metaphor for writing a song, "wash my face" is some distraction (like the man from Porlock?) and "someone's taken my place" being "can't remember what I was thinking about while I was writing"..... ?

Or maybe a song was released by someone else that covered similar ground or had a similar melody.