From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V6 #203 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, July 31 2003 Volume 06 : Number 203 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Re: [TitleTK@aol.com] [support-system] from the rocky mtn news Denver [robert joyner > "Stewart's Coat" is an absolutely heartbreaking old song of Ricki Lee Jones. It was recorded on the "Traffic in Paradise" album and live on "Naked Songs." I highly doubt Liz ever did a recording of it . . . but I could be (hopefully) wrong. A lot of times those downloading programs confuse artists. james ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 07:27:58 -0700 (PDT) From: robert joyner Subject: [support-system] from the rocky mtn news Denver http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_2142349,00.html 'Sellout' Phair answers the snobs By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News July 30, 2003 Liz Phair is annoyed. Her latest album is out, Liz Phair, and receiving some of the most savage reviews of her career. After a career of glowing reviews in the wake of 1993's gritty breakthrough album, Exile in Guyville, Phair has been pummelled for selling out. She collaborated with hit-makers The Matrix, went for a new, sexy, poppy image and sang bright, melodic songs about love and life. And for the most part, younger fans embraced the music and older fans were appalled. It's the same musical snobbery, she says, that led her to record Guyville. She doesn't mind so much the criticism of the music; hey, you can't please everyone. She's more incensed at critics - especially female critics - who demean her new sexy appearance at the unthinkably ancient age of 36. She's fighting back, speaking out and sending a "Chicken Little" letter to The New York Times after it blasted her work. It doesn't matter whether critics like the material - she does, and she has a newfound confidence in her voice and her songwriting that makes performing a pleasure these days, taking her past her famous bouts of stage fright. She's opening for Jason Mraz at the Paramount Theatre tonight and recently spoke to the News from her home in Los Angeles. Question: Before you released Liz Phair, were you prepared for the polarizing effect it would have on your fans, or were you surprised? Answer: "No, I figured. I knew there would be a reaction. I'm sorta pleased because I like it when a little controversy is stirred up. I don't mind that. The people who like it really like it and the people who don't like it are really upset by it. That's better than 'It's boring, don't buy it.' At this late date, I've been answering questions about it for so long. I'm getting impatient. They're losers.' " Q: The first single, Why Can't I, is as different musically from your previous work as anything on the album. Did you release it first to let fans know what they were in for? A: "That wasn't my call. . . . I've never been one of those people. Even when I did Guyville, I wasn't concerned about style or sound. I just happened to work with Brad Wood, who very much cares about style and sound, and rightly so. He's phenomenal. But that's part of why I wrote Exile in Guyville in the first place. It's that mentality, a rigidity, what's cool and what's not cool, that I was basically railing against with Guyville. So it's kind of ironic - that mentality of rigidity, what is good music, what is bad music. 'Do you know Mudhoney? Well, do you know Green River?' That's exactly what... burned me to write Guyville in the first place. It's very conservative even though it's in this subgroup that is supposed to be so liberal. It's just Guyville all over again." Q: Fans of everyone from Elvis Costello to Paul Westerberg have cried 'Sellout!' when their music became more sophisticated and melodic - when what was happening was, they were really just getting better at their craft. Is that what's happening with you? A: "I'd say that about my singing. I'm much more interested in melody. I was into melody before then, but when I play them live it's so striking to me that the early stuff is really difficult for me to sing live. It's so low. It's almost like talk/speak. It's just almost like post-spoken word. (sings) 'You've never been a waste of my time.' There's really something challenging about that. To me one of the things that has changed . . . is growing as a singer and enjoying that. This is gonna sound really New Agey; can you go with me for a second? It's how you feel in the shower when you think no one is listening, how that feels. It's not just about vocal cords. It's about emotional comfort, too. I learned that what was holding me back as a singer was emotional, kind of fear or self-consciousness. I don't know how to describe those feelings. Learning to sing out loud and proud actually changed my music, changed my outlook. It came with a whole life change after my son was born, but I sure as hell wouldn't trade it back for all the reviews in the world. Singing is now a joy, a pleasure, and before I'd rather die than be onstage." Q: The opening verses of Extraordinary are classic Liz Phair lines. If they were done lo-fi on a guitar, older fans might be raving about it. Did you purposely recast your thoughts in a different musical context? A: "I just write these same damn songs all the time, for 15, 20 years now. It's a challenge; it's a new creative challenge. I felt able to meet the challenge. I wouldn't put them on the record if they weren't my sentiments and enough of me lyrically and enough of me melodically. They were willing, The Matrix, utterly to their credit. . . . They were excited by that. They said: 'Really? Great!' I don't think people come to them to collaborate that often. Often they'll get these people who say, 'Just churn us out a hit.' So they were all excited about it - having me have a lot of input. When you're younger, that seems more untrue and inauthentic. Once you know your voice and have your voice and have a confidence that no one is gonna steal anything from you, they can just add something. That's just experience talking." Q: Do you see any sexism in the reaction to your image? A: "I do see a lot of sexism. I was just looking through the paper and hit on one of those $9.98 ads. I see Jane's Addiction's there. How come someone's not screaming about someone (Perry Farrell's) age dressing like that? How come when he has low pants showing his belly hair and a vest with no shirt on - why aren't people freaking out that he's too old to dress like that? . . . I've incensed a couple of women - that New York Times woman with the way that I'm dressing, a woman at South by Southwest who was incensed by my (sexually explicit) song H.W.C. and actually implied I was a bad mother with it, or thank God I didn't have a daughter. I'm sitting there thinking, wow, according to you, should we all button up and go back to our quiet wifely ways? Really, if you can't imagine that a woman, after she has children or after a certain age, can still have sexuality, then what are you saying? Where does that leave you when you get older? It's a scary thing. There are a lot of sexist undertones. But isn't that great about my music? I seem to be this lightning rod for all these provocative questions. I don't mind that." ===== - ------------------------------------------------------------ Supernova Discussion Board http://supernova.board.dk3.com/2/ - ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 07:28:10 -0700 (PDT) From: robert joyner Subject: [support-system] Salt Lake Tribune - ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07302003/wednesda/79593.asp Review: Phair show features old tunes, new sound Liz Phair at the Zephyr. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune) By Dan Nailen The Salt Lake Tribune The sold-out Liz Phair show at the Zephyr Club Monday gave longtime fans worried about her new pop-oriented direction plenty of reason to take heart. For one, the 19-song set was dominated by older material, with plenty of selections from Phair's 1993 breakthrough album, "Exile in Guyville" as well as 1998's "Whitechocolatespaceegg." For another, the songs from her new, self-titled album came across as more typically Phair-like -- rough and sparely played - -- than the ultra-produced versions on the record, and they fit in alongside the oldies with surprising ease. Phair is never going to be compared to big belters like Janis Joplin or angelic voices like Emmylou Harris, but her deadpan delivery -- at times veering from deep-throated growls to strained high notes -- works well with her confessional and explicit lyrics. When she took the stage surrounded by the four young men in her backing band, there was some worry Phair's voice might be swallowed up in the din, but those fears were unfounded; Phair's voice was the clear centerpiece for the night. From the opening "White Chocolate Space Egg," a low-key, roiling song and surprising starting point, Phair had the crowd enraptured. While the dozens of thirtysomething men who still consider Phair their indie-rock pin-up queen were notable, plenty of young women in the packed club were just as into the proceedings. "We're really glad to be here, and I'm not just saying that," Phair announced after the first song. "I jogged in Liberty Park today, and I took a tour of the temple." The flirting finished, Phair raised the energy with strong takes on "Uncle Alvarez," "6' 1"" and "Mesmerizing" before playing her first new song of the night. "Rock Me" is relatively pedestrian by Phair's standards, but the song did give her band a chance to rock out on a song without the baggage of a revered favorite. "Never Said," "Divorce Song" and an organ-enhanced "Help Me Mary" thrilled the "Guyville" fanatics, but most impressive from that era was "Flower," its lyrics bordering on spoken-word and Phair backed by only a hint of instrumentation besides the drums. The show's biggest drawback was Phair's band, which was competent but far from inspiring. When the group wasn't trying to copy the album versions of Phair's songs, it completely skipped parts burned in the minds of fans after years of listening to her music. "Supernova," near the end of the set, lagged noticeably compared with the studio version of the song. Perhaps knowing what her band is capable of is the reason Phair stripped down some of her new songs, resulting in better versions of "Why Can't I?" and "Extraordinary" than you will find on "Liz Phair." And "H.W.C.," one of two encore songs, was converted into an acoustic-fueled country shuffle compared to its album version. By the time Phair finished with "F--- and Run" from "Guyville," it was clear she has no intention of completely ditching her past; indeed, she seemed to revel in it on this night. ===== - ------------------------------------------------------------ Supernova Discussion Board http://supernova.board.dk3.com/2/ - ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V6 #203 ************************************