The fire you like so much in me

April 28, 2018 3:15 PM

Liz Phair, 25 years on from Guyville.
posted by Chrysostom (31 comments total)

Wapo has a story too: ‘Guyville’ at 25: Liz Phair’s career-defining album still defines her. For better or worse.

When Liz Phair meets somebody, she can often tell right away what they know about her. Maybe they don’t know much. But maybe they know that 25 years ago, she made “Exile in Guyville,” one of the sharpest, boldest rock albums of its era, or any era. An album that was stunningly accomplished and also rapaciously, almost gynecologically carnal — the latter is surely what people mostly remember about it now. For men who came of age in the mid-’90s, Liz Phair was their potty-mouthed dream girl. This presents Phair with a late-’10s problem.

“I think it’s part of why I’m single,” Phair says one day in March, over coffee near her home in the South Bay region of Los Angeles. “I’m not kidding. I filter out most options, because I can see in their eyes, they have an expectation. They’re not really seeing me.”

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:24 PM on April 28, 2018 [8 favorites]

Just got my copy of the vinyl re-issue, super psyched. For me "Divorce Song" has always been the jam.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:30 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

She had a bunch of demos she recorded right after whitechocolatespaceegg which were quite good. I was really disappointed when she went in a more obviously commercial direction thereafter.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:50 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

“Exile in Guyville” is what I always point to when I argue that one thing, if it’s good enough, can be more than enough to make your mark in life.

It does make me sad that Liz Phair can only date men who don’t know who Liz Phair is. (A reality that started as a joke line from her unfairly maligned eponymous album.)
posted by MattD at 3:51 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was going to post that if you liked Exile In Guyville, and haven't heard her 3 Girlysound cassettes made when she was young, you really, really should. But maybe these rounds of interviews she's doing is support for the box set with Girlysound and Guyville remastered? (I think I first heard the Girlysounds songs from a tape tree the late 90s Liz Phair email fanlist organized.)
posted by Catblack at 3:57 PM on April 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

From the article;
I always have to pee, but in L.A. there’s always a comfortable nice bathroom nearby and you never have to walk very far.

I was confused, I thought they were talking about Los Angeles.
posted by bongo_x at 4:04 PM on April 28, 2018

A saw the 20th anniversary show. She played through the whole thing in order in a small venue - maybe a few hundred people - and it was wonderful.
posted by shothotbot at 4:05 PM on April 28, 2018

Liz Phair is so amazing. To do what she did 25 years ago is just...unbelievable. As far as I'm concerned, she gets to do whatever the hell she wants for the rest of her life.
posted by medusa at 4:08 PM on April 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

I say this not to prove anything, just to give some context; I spent 2 full days listening to some of my Cecil Taylor albums a couple weeks ago when he died, but I think I’m the only person I know who loves 2003’s Liz Phair and has since it came out. It’s not my favorite of her albums, but I really love it. No, you probably shouldn’t give it another chance, you still won’t like it. I don’t know why I do. It just hits me in a nice pop spot for some reason.
posted by outfielder at 4:38 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

There are probably albums I like better, but I can't think of one right now.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:44 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh, man. She's coming to SF - the same day that I already have tickets to see Social Distortion.

Exile is a great album, but my heart belongs to Whip-Smart.
posted by hanov3r at 5:00 PM on April 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

For me, Liz Phair is an every-other-album artist. I enjoy her even albums, but it's her first, third, fifth, and I pray to the holiest of musical deities (Sister Rosetta? Sir Bowie?) her seventh, etc. that speak to me deeply. I don't know why. But when I hear her pop hook singing

Straighten up/why can't you straighten up/I've heard you tell me this so many times/It doesn't even stick

Damn. Maybe I can just relate a little too much. And Table For One breaks my heart every time.
posted by knitcrazybooknut at 5:49 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Am I horrible for loving Whip Smart?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:24 PM on April 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

Nope, Whip-Smart is awesome.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:30 PM on April 28, 2018 [11 favorites]

Whip Smart’s main failing is not being every-last-song genius like Guyville. It’s still a pretty great album.
posted by Smearcase at 11:14 PM on April 28, 2018 [5 favorites]

For real. It's the difference between and all-perfect-songs album and a mostly-perfect-songs album. Whip Smart is excellent, Guyville just had longer to cook.
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:30 PM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

While I didn't much care for her self-titled album, it was pretty gross to see the backlash about "ugh, an older woman singing songs about seducing younger men? how pathetic!". Remember, ladies, once we are over 30, we are a punchline, not sexual beings. Ugh.

Anyway, I love Liz Phair. Exile in Guyville was a formative influence in high school.
posted by Kitteh at 2:27 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Caught their show when she toured with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. Liz Phair arrived around the same time as Aimee had launched her album career, I collected them both, so that show had even more impact seeing peers making rounds and still killing crowds of fans.
posted by filtergik at 4:09 AM on April 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I get to see her at my favorite venue on the night before my 42nd birthday and I can't way to cry-sing along to Divorce Song. (I am divorced.) The quote from the WaPo story is interesting, too, because I have already joked that the only thing I'm not looking forward to is a bunch of dudes yelling "I LOVE YOU LIZ" during every break in her set.
posted by misskaz at 9:28 AM on April 29, 2018

Joe Rogan and Liz Phair
posted by ostranenie at 2:23 PM on April 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I originally rented* this album when it came out because of the canny "song by song response to Exile on Main St." marketing angle (I was going through a massive Stones phase at the time). I didn't much like it at first...but something about it stuck with me, so I rented it again, eventually bought it and within a few years it was one of my favourite albums of the '90s. As a straight man, I honestly don't think I got much of a thrill or whatever from listening to graphic songs about sex sung by an attractive woman, but I did appreciate the glimpse into her psyche and her take on these issues. When I met the woman who would become my wife in 2000 we would play Scrabble and sing along to this album, so when I saw an original vinyl copy at a record show last year for $70 I bought it; that's the most I've ever paid for a record. It's still fucking great. I also briefly met her once, when she was doing a radio interview in Toronto during the Whip-Smart tour, and she was extremely polite and charming to my friend and I, gobsmacked fans both.

* yes, kids, that was a thing you could do for a little while in the early and mid '90s
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:22 PM on April 29, 2018

And yeah, Whip-Smart is pretty great, too. whitechocolatespaceegg I haven't listened to in a while; I remember it being about half-great. The S/T album I thought was lousy not because of the song about her younger boyfriend or whatever but because it attempted to wedge her into then-trendy production that didn't really suit her style.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:25 PM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Love love love this album. Pretty much every song is perfect, and few songs are as devastating as Shatter. Song still haunts me.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 4:29 PM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

when I saw an original vinyl copy at a record show last year for $70 I bought it

You got a deal.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:24 AM on April 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

> yes, kids, that was a thing you could do for a little while in the early and mid '90s

i once borrowed a CD of Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad from a local library. I think it was 1994. They didn't have any Liz Phair, though—too racy.
posted by ostranenie at 7:42 AM on April 30, 2018

Wow. Flashbacks. Saw Liz Phair at The Wiltshire shortly after Guyville came out. And was introduced that night to her opening act, a singer-songwriter named Jewel.
posted by terrapin at 9:44 AM on April 30, 2018

i once borrowed a CD of Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad from a local library.

The soundtrack to my 1995 retreat from LA back to my east coast roots. Love that album. Especially Snowbound on a snowy day.
posted by terrapin at 9:45 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's been permanently in my All Time Top Ten Album list since it came out, and that list changes often.
posted by Twinge at 1:33 PM on April 30, 2018

I'm listening to the remastered box set right now and hearing the Girly-Sound songs without all the tape hiss and flutter is amazing. They totally sound a bit thin and home recorded but now they are clear and perfect, like you are sitting in the room with her and she's playing it fresh from the 4 track.

I can't find any audio examples of the remasters anywhere, but they sound amazing.

Also this edition of Guyville skips the 2 added songs that the 15th anniversary edition tacked on, which destroyed the album's flow. (Not so sure about the remaster of these songs, maybe I need to be in my 20s riding my bike cross town for them to sound the way I remember them.)
posted by Catblack at 7:52 PM on May 4, 2018

NYT interview with Phair.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:32 AM on May 6, 2018

The Song Exploder podcast does "Divorce Song."
posted by purpleclover at 5:39 PM on May 9, 2018 [1 favorite]