From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V6 #134 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 Thursday, May 29 2003 Volume 06 : Number 134 Today's Subjects: ----------------- no show reports?! ["john kim" ] guitar tabs ["Jason Carroll" ] Liz Phair in San Francisco Bay Guardian [carrma@WellsFargo.COM] Re: Liz Phair in San Francisco Bay Guardian ["trent \[Grr, Arg\]" ] liz on "how to deal" sdtrk [Stephen Griffes ] Amazon [TitleTK@aol.com] "Why Can't I?" moves up the Hot AC chart [Jase ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 03:04:43 -0400 From: "john kim" Subject: no show reports?! i'm sort of pissed that no one from portland or who went to the show has posted a review yet. what the f? i'm going to see liz at the warfield (which is awesome since that's where the POTTYMOUTH cd was taped) and i'm pretty excited. looked on the web for some shit, but mostly crazy lips fans. nothing in lexis for show reports. blogs stink for reporting. jk _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 09:58:39 -0600 From: "Jason Carroll" Subject: guitar tabs I saw yesterday that sarahmay14 was inquiring whether anyone tabbed out any of the new material yet. I already play some of her older tunes and am interested in tabs for the new stuff, although I haven't heard the album yet. Also, if anyone has any clues on tabs for some older material that is not readily available on the net (7 viels, shatter, explain it to me) I would be most appreciative. Thanks, Jason _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 10:13:15 -0700 From: carrma@WellsFargo.COM Subject: Liz Phair in San Francisco Bay Guardian There's a not so nice article about the new Liz Phair album in the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week: http://www.sfbg.com/37/35/art_music_liz.html Phair or foul An Alternative Nation's onetime sweetheart takes her whacks. By Jimmy Draper ' It's nice to be liked, but it's better by far to get paid," Liz Phair infamously sang on "Shitloads of Money," from her 1998 album, whitechocolatespaceegg. At the time, five years after Exile in Guyville made her the DIY boudoir rocker du jour, the sentiment was largely regarded as an indie in-joke. This was, after all, a woman who sort of fell into the spotlight: her Matador record deal was based on a pair of heavily bootlegged home demos, she refused to do extensive touring, and she dragged her feet so long on her third album that, when it hit shelves in 1998, more impressive than the actual music was that she even bothered to finish it. Not exactly the auspicious, ambitious beginnings of a millionaire-in-the-making. When Phair signed to Capitol, jumped on the Lilith Fair bandwagon, and started showing up in Levi's ads and singing on Sheryl Crow songs, suddenly her ode to brass in pocket seemed more prescient than anyone ever suspected. Who knows yet whether it'll make her shitloads of money, but the former indie queen's self-titled fourth album (due June 24 on Capitol) is an all-out bid for America's pocketbooks. A rock-to-pop makeover sure to go down as one of music's most unexpected, embarrassing, and disappointing reinventions, the full-length finds Phair recasting herself as a pushing-40 Avril Lavigne. "I remember hearing [Lavigne's] 'Complicated' and being almost jealous," she recently told the New York Times. "I thought, 'Aw, that's what I want to sound like.' " Be careful what you wish for. With help from Lavigne's pop chaperones, the songwriting-production team the Matrix (along with Michael Penn, R. Walt Vincent, and others), Phair now sounds uncomfortably similar to that skinny-tied sk8er girl. Tuned out On the ridiculously polished Liz Phair, you can practically hear the producers pushing the auto-tune button, morphing her casual-cool delivery into an obnoxious, unrecognizable trill. And whereas she once wrote smart, subversive verses, here Phair spouts dumb, Celine Dion-style drivel like, "Always going nowhere, afraid of going somewhere / And somewhere's a place in your heart." She also resorts to vapid love songs ("It's Sweet," the "Complicated" clone, "Why Can't I?"), cringe-worthy come-ons ("Rock Me," "Extraordinary"), and unintentional self-parodies such as "Bionic Eyes" and "H.W.C.," wherein Phair gets jizzy with it as she espouses the beauty-enhancing qualities of - no joke - hot white cum. In short, despite her onetime wish to be our "blow job queen," she's become everything we once loved her for not being. While undeniably catchy, Liz Phair's bid for Lavigne's Top 40 fan base is as pathetic as it is ill-fated: Does anyone really think teens want to hear a woman nearly their mom's age sing, "I wanna play Xbox on your floor ... I want you to rock me all night"? Madonna's piece-of-shit new album is 10 times better than Phair's piece-of-shit new album, and even she can't get anyone younger than 25 to care. Who, then, is gonna fund Phair's new pop-star lifestyle? Certainly not her Guyville-era fans, who understandably have turned on Phair in droves. Aware that she's opening herself up to an onslaught of indie-centric ridicule, she responds with lyrical narcissism that conveniently if unintentionally doubles as a plea for mainstream approval. "I am extraordinary if you'd ever get to know me," she boasts on the very ordinary "Extraordinary," a pop rock banality better suited to Meredith Brooks. Elsewhere, during "It's Sweet," she simply tries brainwashing new listeners: "It's sweet how you believe you're in love with me." On "Firewalker," she defends her right to change direction. "I can grow in spite of all you know, you might not recognize me tomorrow," she proclaims, seemingly oblivious to the fact that no one recognizes her today. Bland ambition In interviews, Phair dismisses criticism of her new sound as indie elitism. The scandal surrounding Liz Phair, however, isn't an indie-versus-major label debate. It's not about hits, producers, bigger budgets, wider audiences, or even a switch to pop; it's about Phair (co)writing the blandest songs of her career. Without a trace of her once-stellar songwriting and subversive spirit, why should anyone care if she finally gets on the airwaves? By joining, not infiltrating, radio's ranks, she offers nothing new to the mainstream. Contrary to what the numbingly by-the-numbers album leads you to believe, however, Phair can still write damn great songs - she just isn't releasing 'em. Bootlegs of new demos and live recordings have surfaced in recent years, and anyone longing for more old-style Phair should seek out unreleased tracks like "Conversation Overheard Between Two Bouncers," "Blood Keeper," and the marital reality check "Bars of the Bed." Intimate, intense, and emotionally unflinching, these are the sort of songs her fans have come to expect and respect. That they were passed over in favor of dumbed-down, commercial-minded hideosities such as "Rock Me" and the first single, "Why Can't I?," is so tragic it's almost funny. Still, it's hard to simply laugh at the punch line that Phair has become. As illustrated by looking too closely at Courtney Love's cut 'n' paste face, what's initially mockable about an artist's descent into schmaltz quickly becomes sad and unnerving. Poking fun at Phair's almost campy absurdity seems easy and inevitable, but the joke is infinitely less entertaining when it sets in that she's sacrificed her art for the possibility of fame and fortune. No one's saying Phair isn't allowed to grow, evolve, change, whatever. After all, it must have been tough bearing the burden of everyone's indie dreams, and there are probably rational, real-life reasons - mortgages, kids, People profiles - prompting her to turn her gaze toward the top of the pops. Artists such as Polly Jean Harvey, Sleater-Kinney, and Aimee Mann have proved that moving on doesn't have to mean total industry assimilation, so it's disheartening that Phair has willingly chosen the road more traveled. Rationalizing her move to pop rock schlock, she recently explained, "You might understand that [the] music industry is just another Guyville, and I want to take it down." But if that's how Phair is trying to justify her music now, and if she truly believes these songs do anything but play into industry expectations, then she's even more deluded about her relevancy than her new album lets on. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 10:25:12 -0700 (PDT) From: "trent \[Grr, Arg\]" Subject: Re: Liz Phair in San Francisco Bay Guardian this kid used to write this drivel for the University of Michigan student newspaper ... he's been writing sanctimonious crap like this for years ... carrma@WellsFargo.COM wrote: Phair or foul An Alternative Nation's onetime sweetheart takes her whacks. By Jimmy Draper ===== - --- remember, always be yourself. unless you suck. -- joss whedon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 13:26:28 EDT From: TitleTK@aol.com Subject: Re: Liz Phair in San Francisco Bay Guardian In a message dated 5/28/03 1:17:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, carrma@WellsFargo.COM writes: << here's a not so nice article about the new Liz Phair album in the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week: >> Not nice -- but at least well-written and dead-on. james ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 14:36:28 -0500 From: "Brooke, Robert" Subject: Lillux and Liz Hey, I just got to listen to Lillux, which have some of there songs produced and engineered by the Matrix team, and you wouldn't believe what those songs sounded like. Liz and Avril all rolled in one. Does the Matrix team expect to be in this business for long? I would imagine not if they continue shelling out the same old shite. If they are going to work with Bowie, I'm afraid what he is gonna sound like. Anyone know of any Philly shows coming for Liz? Rob ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 20:53:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Stephen Griffes Subject: liz on "how to deal" sdtrk not sure if this was posted, but "why can't i" is going to be on the sdtrk to the movie "how to deal" (starring mandy moore). flaming lips is too steve. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 21:37:16 EDT From: TitleTK@aol.com Subject: Amazon James E. Place Amazon.com gives a decent if bland review of the album . . . "Eponymous albums are usually either debuts or the work of musicians trying to introduce themselves to a new audience. Count Liz Phair among the latter. Itbs Phair's fourth studio album, but her first since 1998, and it's a long way from the arty, low-fi sound that marked her true full-length debut, 1993's Exile in Guyville. Phair has developed into a considerably more confident singer, while her songs and the production they receive here are as slick and radio-friendly as anything by, say, as Avril Lavigne. Thatbs no surprise, since Lavigne's production team, the Matrix, produced many of the tracks here. (The rest are helmed by LA rock stalwarts Michael Penn and Pete Yorn producer R. Walt Vincent.) Sex is still Phair's primary subject, whether itbs comparing a lover to a comfortable pair of old underwear ("Favorite"), asking a much younger man to "Rock Me" all night long, or praising the beauty benefits of oral sex ("H.W.C."). The only time Phair lets the cheery facade crack a bit is on "Little Digger," on which Phair tries to explain to her young son why the man she's currently dating is not the boy's father. Who could've guessed that even the freest, best-protected sex could have such far-reaching, unintended consequences? - --Keith Moerer " James E. Place 180 Sachem Rd. N. Kingstown, RI 02852 401-885-0564 TitleTK@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 22:21:02 -0400 From: Jase Subject: "Why Can't I?" moves up the Hot AC chart I just checked out the new airplay charts posted today at radioandrecords.com. "Why Can't I?" has been added at 10 more stations this past week, bringing the total up to 41 now. The song was played 395 times during the week, up from 268 spins during the previous week, which was enough for the song to move from #39 to #32. If the momentum keeps building during the next few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the Top Ten by the time the album is released. My first encounter with hearing the song on the radio was this afternoon. A couple of co-workers and I walked over to Tim Hortons (an ubiquitous coffee place here in Canada; there's seemingly one on every block) on our lunch break. While waiting in line, I thought I heard something familiar being played quietly in the background and I had one of those quick "Wait, is it or is it not?" moments before realizing it was. I then proceeded to embarrass everyone I was with by exclaiming, "Holy shit, they're playing Liz Phair!" a lot louder than I had intended. Even with my mixed feelings about the new album, it seems that I still can't help but be excited to hear the song being played on something other than my own stereo. Jase ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V6 #134 ************************************