From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V8 #142 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 Friday, October 21 2005 Volume 08 : Number 142 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V8 #140 [Matthew Bowtell ] [support-system] Somebody's Miracle review (Village Voice) [Kenneth Lee <] [support-system] Billboard/Toronto show [Jase ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 14:12:31 +1000 From: Matthew Bowtell Subject: [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V8 #140 I've been loving this list, reading the reviews of the new album, and i'm gonna keep this reaaaaal short. I'm noticing, of course, that the critics are harpooning this record just like they did the last one.. But.. oddly enough, they're ALL mentioning something along the lines of "I quite LIKED her last album, the self-titled one even though no one else did.. I wish SM was more like that.. she's lost her edge..".. My god! If all these people liked the self titled so much, why did it get such horrible reviews? Where were they then when it was uncool to like that album.. suddenly it's all indie-pop and masterpiecey or something, and SM is a train wreck.. Hardly. What's the bet if she releases a new album, all the reviewers are going to be the one reviewer that "quite LIKED her last album, Somebody's Miracle..even though no one else did, etc.." These critics accuse Liz of selling out and going with the trends.. yet they're doing the exact same thing. I really, really like the new album. It's very catchy and even if the music was crap i'd still by it.. for that voice, Liz' voice. I haven't heard anyone else who sounds like her. She's always gonna be able to write lyrics that get straight to the core of everything, and she's always going to have moments of greatness with her music. I know somebody's miracle is a little bit.. you know.. lovey-dovey and.. smitten.. But that's kinda sweet, and it's something she's never really explored before.. So i think it's great. Also, if anyone in australia has any decent copies of girlysound.. I'm happy to pay or something, i've only got dodgy burnt cds of unreleased songs, nothing really worth trading though haha.. Matt. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:18:07 -0500 From: "Victoria R." Subject: [support-system] Harp Article Catherine, thanks for sharing that Q&A. I thought it was really interesting and a bit enlightening. You know, it's funny, after reading so many reviews of the record, I realized as I was reading this article how different it was to hear Liz's take on everything from her own voice and perspective. Was anyone else a bit taken aback by her discussing her business point-of-view and even finances? I wasn't offended or uncomfortable, it was just odd to hear that sort of thing from a "rock star." Have a great day everyone! Victoria ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:23:50 -0700 From: Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] Somebody's Miracle review (Village Voice) From The Village Voice: (http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0543,christgau,69144,22.html) Ms. Liz to You Liz Phair discovers that there are other ways to be honest than taking your clothes off by Georgia Christgau I bet Liz Phair long ago identified with the girl whose tits were too big in fifth grade just as she did with the one who was good at math. She internalized the threat they posed and enjoyed the way they messed with other people's expectations. That they were often the same girl was a female epiphany of my generation. Phair in turn invented a protagonist who could fuck and run at age 12, be bored with the process by her early twenties, and live to tell about it-all in a guitar-strummed plaint with a hook. Disgust was her artistic capital; tormented by roommates, she prayed they would help her "breed my disgust into fame," and they did. Phair's privileged background in Winnetka, Illinois, and the unconditional love of her adoptive parents tempered the nail-biting urgency of her persona. Even though song after song trashed the eons-old myth that a well-fucked female kept her mouth shut, their anger was grounded in a vision of equality that promised better sex and more love. For a while she got off on this: "I totally fed off the whole idea that I had done something brash that was hard for a woman to do. My little tail wagged." But soon it got old, and she went after the "Shitloads of Money" she'd never denied wanting. For the first time, she was willing to risk a one-night stand where she wasn't in control. On "Somebody's Miracle", Phair is more confident than on her previous mass-appeal bid, 2003's "Liz Phair". She's split the difference between the Matrix and Michael Penn by working with John Mayer/Jason Mraz producer John Alagio, and along the way she's discovered that there are other ways to be honest than taking your clothes off-although when the subject calls for a cock tease, she's ready. Guitars humping, her voice at its best sexy growl, she's a temptress for a sucker who doesn't know what's coming: "I've got my own thing/Feel it, it is strong/As short as people think/But really it is long." But at least two other strong tracks convince because they lack resolution: the loving look back at an extramarital affair in "Leap of Innocence" and the Stones send-up "Why I Lie." Phair passes off this nasty retort as a love song, reveling in the naked truth of her motives, "predatory instinct and simple ill will." Repeat after me: The man she lies to isn't good enough for her anyway. And while we're on the subject, would the self-professed blowjob queen consider resurrecting Joan Jett's hilarious "Coney Island Whitefish," or is it beneath her to acknowledge such common origins or admit that she wasn't the first pissed-off chick on the block? Although there are two saccharine pro-happiness songs I'd just as soon never hear again, there's also "Giving It All," a rave-up that seems to liberate Phair. No longer married to the gloomy, grainy sound that defined her, she's also stretched the singer-songwriter values that have inspired this divorced mom pushing 40 to pen tunes ever since she was little. As with the last record's "Little Digger," the civility of the defeated alcoholic in "Table for One" puts the listener up close and personal with a subject too many of us would rather pass off as someone else's problem. But the gem is "Closer to You." No wonder Phair prefaced her current tour with an acoustic go-round of small houses. Unlike the sweeter title track, which poses Ms. Liz as an outsider looking in on happy couples, this one plants her firmly mid-relationship, both wanting more and admitting that intimacy can be off-putting. She believes that mutual respect provides love its essential balance: "I don't need your ock and roll to stay in tune." Meet Liz Phair. She knows who she is. Do you? - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 23:07:17 -0400 From: Jase Subject: [support-system] Billboard/Toronto show Does anyone know where _Somebody's Miracle_ placed on the Billboard 200 chart this week? I just checked the Billboard site, which only publishes the top 100 positions, and didn't see it listed. Am I just blind? I can't imagine it dropping out of the upper half of the chart in only its second week. Also, it seems that the Montreal show on Saturday night has been cancelled. Does anyone know if the Toronto show has been cancelled as well? The date is no longer listed on Liz's site, but it's not showing as being cancelled on ticketmaster.ca. Jase ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V8 #142 ************************************