From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V10 #58 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 Wednesday, June 25 2008 Volume 10 : Number 058 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] from pitchfork today... ["Katie Brown" Subject: [support-system] from pitchfork today... http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/51441-exile-in-guyville-15th-anniversary see some of you at big city tap... KB Liz Phair Exile in Guyville (15th Anniversary) [ATO; 2008] Rating: 9.6 Buy it from Insound Download it from Emusic Digg this article Add to del.icio.us You break all kinds of unwritten rules when you're a guy who admires a girl. The white suburban kids who idolize gangster rappers are old news, and the rich kids have always loved to rub elbows with the poor. But when a man tries to identify with a woman, he doesn't just hit the normal problems of "white male gaze" and "exploitation of the other" and "being a jackass": There's also the third rail of male sexuality, where identifying too closely with a woman might make you seem, perish the thought, sensitive. So instead, the guys who dig a girl like Liz Phair have to play up the attraction, the lust, the submission to a rock'n'roll goddess-- even when, for many of them, the lust ain't the main draw. The other tactic is to take credit for what she's done. And guys can take plenty of credit for Phair's early career. Rock critics like Bill Wyman brought Phair to Chicago's attention when they ranted and raved about * Guyville* weeks before the thing came out. The Rolling Stones recorded *Exile on Main Street*, the loose template for *Guyville*'s 18 tracks-- and one of the blues-rock genomes that saved this from being just another singer-songwriter set. And a couple other guys, co-producer Brad Wood and engineer Casey Rice, helped nail the minimalist production of *Guyville* and its follow-up, the underrated *Whip-Smart*. It was the guys like her Johnny or her Joe-- the titular guys in the indie boy's club centered in and around Chicago's Wicker Park-- who preened for her, dicked her over, and taught her how to push back, inspiring her and making it necessary for her to write these songs in the first place. And it was guys who took the piss when she started headlining at venues that were too big for an amateur. Playing a New Year's Eve show at the Metro as your sixth or seventh gig is a lot to bite off. And if I recall correctly, she bit. But stagecraft and starpower weren't the point: Those of us who were taken in by Phair loved her because she was-- sorry to use the word-- real. Men and women have written paeons to Phair since *Guyville* was released, putting her swagger, strength, and mundanity in whatever context meant the most to them-- "girl next door," "older sister," "younger sister," "easy lay," "slut next door," "bitch." But let's start with "female rocker." * Guyville* still runs up your spine on track one with its full-on opener, "6'1'", which is the best song she's ever recorded: tough but exposed, with cute feints in the lyrics, a wicked riff, and the door slamming open on her sassy tomboy vocals. On cuts like these, guys can dig Phair because she's one of the guys. The songs are mostly sprints or drones, and on relistening to it, it's striking to hear the full-band cuts next to the solitary head space of songs like "Glory" or "Shatter", where she's backed more by a memory of guitar than by the raunchy blues-rock of the album's other half. The production of the ballads replicates the intimacy of a bedroom recording without the tape hiss or bum notes, which is an awesome illusion; and only a beginning songwriter could make such elemental riffs sound so exciting. Phair has famously struggled to become a star, and never quite made it. * Guyville* turned her into an object of fascination, but those early gigs revealed she wasn't a superstar: She had to get by on talent, and perceptiveness. She has the gift of turning everyday downers into rock, and the shock came when she sang about things that nobody else discussed in public. The cover shot nipple, "I want to be your blow job queen," the outro of "Fuck and Run" ("...even when I was 12")-- this stuff was startling at the time, but I'm guessing it won't register with any teenagers who discover this today. You can get Savage Love right on your cell phone, and young adults today can browse mainstream blogs and read about machines that will fuck you. Sad to say that at the time, it was shocking to talk about non-missionary sex with the girl you could take home to mom, but today, on "Flower"-- the one about blow jobs-- the line that surprises is her Dungeons & Dragons-like reference to "minions." (On the original, she said she'd fuck the guy's girlfriend.) Also hard to explain would be the sound, which is grey and wedged entirely in the midrange. When a "remastered" edition was announced, I had to wonder if the remasterer had actually heard the thing before taking the job-- but hearing it now, the treatment works: the rhythm section, when there is one, has more punch, and Phair's vocals come a little closer to your earlobe. The package also comes with a poorly-made DVD of interviews that Phair conducted with people from Chicago who knew her when-- Steve Albini, Ira Glass, the Urge Overkill guys. It makes a scene that fancied itself "the next Seattle" seem exactly as insular and provincial as it really was. More useful would have been a tighter focus on Phair-- say, a better set of her B-sides and demos. Would it have killed ATO to throw in more of her early, even less-inhibited Girly Sounds material? Three B-sides grace this reissue, including the meandering "Ant in Alaska" and a curious cover of Lynn Tait's "Say You". They're nice throwaways, but they explain little about what was going on around the making of her debut. Fifteen years on, *Guyville* occasionally sounds dated-- for its particular sexiness, and its particular indieness. But the songwriting holds up. She ticks off all the bruises and embarrassments of relationships, and never lets her defenses get in the way. Naturally as a guy, I can't speak for what women saw in the record back then, or how young women will take it now. But of all the albums written from a woman's perspective, this is one of the most accessible to men. It's intriguing to watch her deal with us-- not as a mere revolutionary, but as someone who knows that sex will always be tough, so she always has to be tougher. She's been tested in ways we never will be, and we understand just enough to admire her for it. Men don't get what it's like to be a woman. But spinning this record, you swear that you could. - -Chris Dahlen , June 23, 2008 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:38:46 -0700 From: Kenneth Lee Subject: [support-system] San Francisco setlist, 06-23-2008 So much for acoustic at the Fillmore... ...Liz was full-on electric accompanied by three guys (which she oddly didn't introduce at any time during the show). Setlist: 6'1" Help Me Mary Glory Dance Of The Seven Veils Never Said Soap Star Joe Explain It To Me (interacts with fan about "Exile On Main Street" and reminscing about some old lady's cat named "Spooky") Canary Mesmerizing Fuck And Run (Liz wants catcalling from the audience) Girls! Girls! Girls! Divorce Song (tuning that evolves into...) Shatter Flower Johnny Sunshine Gunshy Stratford-On-Guy Strange Loop - ---encore--- Chopsticks new song (don't know the title, I remember her singing "ding dong" and singing in high falsetto voice in spots, and she was playing her electric guitar) Polyester Bride (she didn't remember the chords, but who cares?) To anyone going to the Chicago and New York shows... Get Liz to introduce the band! - -Ken kenmlee@ix.netcom.com MeSmErIzInG - AnOtHeR LiZ PhAiR WeBsItE http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/2471/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:11:32 -0400 From: dayzij@aim.com Subject: [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V10 #57 Liz Phair Marks 15th Anniversary of bExile in Guyvilleb With First Full-Album Show 6/24/08, 8:44 am EST For the first show on her three-city tour to promote the 15th anniversary reissue of Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair walked silently onto San Franciscobs Fillmore stage and launched into her landmark debut albumbs conflicted opening rocker, b6b2 1b3.b bI loved my life,b she sang, band I hated you.b This would be the first of many lyrics to set off screams of remembrance and approval. As she moved through each one of Guyvillebs 18 tracks in their original, perfectly paced sequence, Phair gained confidence, worrying less about her notes and connecting deeper with her sentiments. There were times when she appeared to be feeling them so strongly that the singer seemed to morph into the bold but vulnerable younger version of herself who crafted one of the key albums of the b90s, one that opened the door to many women musicians and listeners previously locked outside of rockbs fraternity. Her eyes would wince in resentment as shebd sing the most wounded lines of bCanary,b or shebd swing her right arm against her guitar streings a little harder while emphasizing the most swaggering boasts of bGirls! Girls! Girls!b At the time of Guyvillebs original release, Phair was an inexperienced performer dwarfed by the power of her own material. Shebs now a far better singer and guitarist, and although it was clear Monday night that she and her three-piece backing band had rehearsed extensively, there was nevertheless a tangible moment-to-moment anticipation as they pieced her masterwork together. bI didnbt know if I could measure up, but itbs actually pretty great,b she admitted while addressing the raptly attentive crowd after bGlory.b For bFlower,b she propped her guitar between legs wrapped tight in white stockings and short denim cutoffs, swaying side to side while delivering immortal lines like bIbll fuck you and your minions too.b Although she returned solo for an improvised encore that sandwiched a tough new song between loose renditions of bChopsticksb and bPolyester Bride,b nothing could match Phairbs smile as she hit the last chord of Guyvillebs concluding track, bStrange Loop.b If shebs ever been this satisfied, shebs never showed it. ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V10 #58 ************************************