From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V6 #59 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Saturday, March 15 2003 Volume 06 : Number 059 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: support-system-digest V6 #58Kohl's ["nickn626" ] SXSW [reesiep@mail.utexas.edu] March 14, 1999 [Easter ] Re: support-system-digest V6 #58 ["chris w" ] Michael And Liz [AWeiss4338@aol.com] News about Liz's new album [Jase ] More Liz news [Jase ] Re: More Liz news ["Orange Nish" ] Re: Michael And Liz [Jase ] Re: Michael And Liz [AWeiss4338@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 00:26:58 -0800 From: "nickn626" Subject: Re: support-system-digest V6 #58Kohl's I heard the tail end of a Kohl's commercial a month or so ago and swore it was Liz, and it might be the second one you've linked. The first sounds like a guy singing. There is a web site that catalogs music in commercials and I've looked at it but it listed only two Kohl's commercials and I didn't recognize either artist. I can't remember the address, either. > I have a friend who insists that Liz is singing in some recent > commercials for Kohl's. He has managed to capture them to MP3 - you > can listen to them here: > > www.bleufunk.com/kohls(1).mp3 > www.bleufunk.com/kohls(2).mp3 > > I definitely hear the similarities, but i'm not convinced. What do you > guys think? > > Josh ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 05:33:39 -0800 (PST) From: "trent \[hardcore since '74\]" Subject: MTV 'Matrix' article: tiny liz mention Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne [Liz Phair] Fall Into The Matrix 03.13.2003 7:47 AM EST The Matrix were a little known production team two years ago when they got a call about meeting with a teenage newcomer. "[Arista Records] had an artist who had been signed for a year and nothing was working. She was on the verge of getting dropped," Scott Spock, one of the team's three producers, recalled recently from the Matrix's Los Angeles studio. "She came over and we played her some stuff in the Faith Hill vein and she said, 'I don't wanna do that, I wanna rock!' She played us a CD of this screaming punk rock, 'I hate you'-type stuff. We said, 'Come back tomorrow and we'll go over some stuff.' She left and the three of us knew exactly what she wanted, a pop song with a rock edge. We wrote 'Complicated' that day." When Avril Lavigne and her manager heard the song, they responded, "This is it!" "Her and Lauren changed some lyrics," Spock said of Lavigne and the Matrix's Lauren Christy. "She sang it in like two takes and we had the version you heard on the radio the next day." Of course, "Complicated" went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2002 and propelled Lavigne to superstar status. And the Matrix, who also co-wrote and produced Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You" singles, are not doing too bad either. In a matter of months, they have become the go-to producers for singers looking to stretch their musical boundaries. Along with working on the next Britney Spears LP (see "Who's Been Hooking Up With Britney? We Got 'Em To Talk"), the Matrix are logging studio time with Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Liz Phair and up-and-coming singer/songwriter Jason Mraz, among others. The production team's success is even more impressive considering that Spock, Christy and her husband, Graham Edwards, formed the Matrix by accident. Christy was a solo pop-rock artist signed with Mercury Records (making music similar to Lavigne's) in the early '90s when she met Spock, who produced one of her singles. Years later, Edwards met the producer while putting together a band called DollsHead. The trio first collaborated in 1999, much to the apprehension of Christy and Edwards, who had vowed never to work together when they wed 15 years earlier. DollsHead's manager asked if the three could write a song for an Australian band called Jackson Mendoza. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but the results were well received and the group enjoyed the process. The following week, their manager asked for a holiday song for Christina Aguilera. "This Year" made her Christmas album and the Lavigne phone call came soon after. "We thought, 'Wow, this is fun!'" Christy said. "We preferred it to slogging away doing the artist thing." Spock, Christy and Edwards sing and play the instruments on most of the tracks they produce, including Lavigne's, however, unlike, say, the Neptunes, they have no interest in being in the spotlight. "We don't want to take the glory, which is why we took the name the Matrix, to be in the background, to make the artist's name stand out more," Spock explained. "We're not into that," Edwards added. "I did the whole rock and roll thing in my early days." The Matrix say that while they have only written or only produced for artists, they prefer to be more of a one-stop shop. "A song is a work of art," Spock said. "You just don't say, 'I sketched this with a pencil and I'll color it in later,' [it's] 'here's my piece of art.' I think that's the old-school way of thinking  a guy on a piano who is the lyricist and then we get a producer and he hires the musicians and then we get an arranger. Today, it's evolved into one thing. You sit down and all the pieces start evolving together and that's kind of how we work. When we get done, it's usually a finished master." The production team often comes to artists with songs already written, but also enjoys co-writing, especially with older singers, like Phair. "From a writing point of view, there were things we could say with Liz that we couldn't on the Avril record," Christy said. "That's why it was fun, you could just let rip." The Matrix are influenced by Quincy Jones (Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin) and Mutt Lange (Def Leppard, Shania Twain), producers with a wide range of achievements. "We don't want to be put in the box of people who do only Avril-type stuff," Edwards said. "We've done rap, punk. All three of us are so different." "We have done everyone from Darius, who won 'Pop Idol' [the U.K. version of 'American Idol'], to Busted, who are just like Blink-182," added Christy, a native of England. Ironically, Edwards' ultimate goal is to work with an artist so far removed from Lavigne that the Canadian singer once famously mispronounced his name. "My dream would be working with David Bowie, sitting down and making a concept album," he said. Corey Moss ===== - --- meet me @ trent-vanegas.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 06:52:29 -0800 (PST) From: Craig King Subject: Re: support-system-digest V6 #58 Ok, sorry about the false Liz pic. I feel like an ass for not noticing the obvious photoshop alteration. Guess I should have looked closer. lol Craig Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:40:23 -0600 From: reesiep@mail.utexas.edu Subject: SXSW I just heard through the grapevine that liz played at SXSW last night. apparently she played all new songs and they were awesome. was anyone there? i'm dying to hear the setlist, what she wore, and how the songs sounded. someone had to be there! right? - -reese ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 12:07:52 -0800 (PST) From: Easter Subject: March 14, 1999 I think this was a special day for some. ;) Katie ();) ===== ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "My love belongs to who can see it." George Harrison ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 10:17:49 +1100 From: "chris w" Subject: Re: support-system-digest V6 #58 > Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 21:43:38 -0500 > From: bleuFunk > Subject: Kohl's commercials? > I definitely hear the similarities, but i'm not convinced. What do you > guys think? its the Apples in Stereo. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 18:24:47 EST From: AWeiss4338@aol.com Subject: Michael And Liz This was from someone on the Michael Penn list, who saw him at SXSW, and got to chat with Liz and him. According to her, 5 of Michael's songs will be on her album. Pretty cool. Andrea ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 21:41:14 -0500 From: Jase Subject: News about Liz's new album This news story was posted at billboard.com today. http://www.billboard.com/billboard/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1838745 is the direct link to the piece. Liz Phair Ready To Rock Liz Phair has recorded her first album of new material in more than five years. Speaking yesterday (March 13) with Recording Academy president Neil Portnow during the South By Southwest (SXSW) music conference, Phair described the self-titled set, due June 24 from Capitol, as having "big songs. They are cool and they rock." Phair said she recorded "40 or 50 songs" and "picked my favorites from the last five years" to create the album. The set features the work of several producers, including Michael Penn, R. Walt Vincent (Pete Yorn), and the Matrix, among others. "Honestly, the reason why this next record is so good is because I collaborated," Phair admitted. "It's a totally new feeling for me to be really proud [of my music]," she added with a laugh. Because she's well known for personal, soul-baring songs, Phair said she realizes some may balk at her decision to work with a mainstream outfit such as production/songwriting team the Matrix (Avril Lavigne), instead of remaining under the independent banner with which she has long been associated. "I think that people who stay indie are very 'us vs. them,'" she said. "I say, 'Why paint yourself into a corner?'" The set will be the follow up to 1998's "whitechocolatespaceegg," which debuted at No. 35 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 266,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. "That was more reflective of a post-motherhood type of thing," Phair said of that album. "This is more rock." As for the extended delay between releases, Phair explained, "It's hard to write good songs, frankly." Phair said she no longer suffers from extreme stage fright, which in the past led to spotty performances and kept her from extensive touring. "I just got over it," she said. "[Now] it's just so much fun. It's hard to get off the stage. I'm gonna tour, that's the raw fact. I'm gonna be out there for a long time. I'm gonna love it. I love performing, truly." - -- Barry A. Jeckell, Austin, Texas ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 21:43:19 -0500 From: Jase Subject: More Liz news This is from another piece, "South By Southwest Diary: Day Two," that was published on the Billboard site today: Back in the Convention Center, modern rock goddess Liz Phair sat for an interview with Recording Academy president Neil Portnow to discuss music, touring, family life, and the state of the music industry. Along with recorded previews of new songs, including the provocative "White Hot Cum," Phair played a short set that included past favorites "Supernova" and "Uncle Alvarez," and asserted that in the five years between releases, she has emerged as a stronger, more confident performer. "I love performing, truly," said Phair, who was once crippled by stage fright. "I'm gonna tour, that's the raw fact. I'm gonna be out there for a long time, and I'm gonna love it." Phair's self-titled new album is due June 24 through Capitol. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 20:54:58 -0600 From: "Orange Nish" Subject: Re: More Liz news "Phair's self-titled new album is due June 24 through Capitol." Well, that explains the "released this summer" bit on lizphair.com. I thought that a May release was strange, especially since there seems to be nothing floating around -- cover art, a track list, etc. _________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 22:29:47 -0500 From: Jase Subject: Re: Michael And Liz Andrea wrote: >This was from someone on the Michael Penn list, who saw him at SXSW, and got >to chat with Liz and him. According to her, 5 of Michael's songs will be on >her album. Pretty cool. Does anyone else get the feeling that this is going to be a fairly long album? If five of the songs Michael Penn produced and all four Matrix collaborations make the cut, that's nine songs right there. The Billboard news piece mentioned R. Walt Vincent as another producer and said that there had also been others. That's not even accounting for the "four or five tracks" Liz herself was supposed to be producing, according to the one mtv.com story from December. I'm starting to wonder if this album will be along the lines of _Exile_ or _WCSE_, where there will be anywhere from 16 to 18 songs on it. I hope that will be the case; it'll give the album a little more variety if she includes a greater wealth of material and I've always been somewhat partial to long, sprawling records in the first place. I still wonder if Liz plans to release outtakes from the album online. Given that 40 to 50 songs were recorded, it seems like a bit of a shame that well over half the songs may never see the light of day. I'm not so keen on the idea of the record being self-titled; I hope Liz will change that at the last minute. She usually has a knack for great titles (like _Exile_ and _Whip-Smart_), so it's a little weird to see her choose something so generic. Hopefully the June 24 release date won't change again; it'd be great to have a new Liz record just in time for summer. If it does hold true, I imagine the first single will start showing up on the radio (not to mention all file-sharing services) sometime in May. Not all that far away, really... "White Hot Cum" sounds like a Peaches song title. Jase ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 00:25:34 EST From: AWeiss4338@aol.com Subject: Re: Michael And Liz In a message dated 3/14/2003 10:17:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, phairist@cogeco.ca writes: > I'm not so keen on the idea of the record being self-titled; I hope Liz > will change that at the last minute. She usually has a knack for great > titles (like _Exile_ and _Whip-Smart_), so it's a little weird to see her > choose something so generic. > While I hope so too, I know in publishing they never let you title your own books, and that may be the case here as well. I'd like a long album myself. Andrea ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V6 #59 ***********************************