From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V12 #17 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, July 9 2010 Volume 12 : Number 017 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V12 #16 [Derek Donovan ] [support-system] The inevitable Pitchfork review [Jase Subject: [support-system] Re: support-system-digest V12 #16 >BUT as always, new Liz is better than no Liz. Right? To receive this album in 2010, after years of nothing, after an album of music that most of her fans thought was too mainstream -- well, this is a miracle indeed. Mine, not just somebody's. _Funstyle_ is full of life. Piss and vinegar. Rancor. Humor. It's the loosest thing she's ever released. She's finally accepted and become extremely comfortable with her musicality. She knows her strengths, but isn't afraid to push herself into something unfamiliar. Remember how much shit people talked about Debbie Harry when Blondie released "Rapture?" You know, that song that's now considered one of the top 10 to 20 classics of the '80s today? No, I'm not saying this album is a defining cultural moment like that. But then again, Internet culture is past defining moments. This record fucking rules. It's my early front-runner for 2010's No. 1. d ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 02:40:18 -0400 From: Steve Kisko Subject: [support-system] Funstyle Love the album. Which is weird, because I haven't really liked an album of hers since Whip-smart, and I stopped listening to Liz Phair completely quite a while ago. I'm trying to think of a single track on this one I don't like at all... Even when a fair bit of it is the kind of music I have no interest in, it all seems solid for what it is. For instance, I can't imagine why she wrote "My My" (to sell to another artist?), but I think she did a good job with it. I mean, what do I know? I even rather enjoy the saccharine stuff, like "Miss September", which has a great AM Gold chorus (it must be said: I'm a lifelong fan of Firefall's "You Are the Woman")... although those last verses about the "prize inside" of her are pretty gross. I like the weird songs for being weird, the joke songs are a riot, and the groove of "Bangladesh" grinds me good, right in the crotch, where I like to be ground. "You Should Know Me," while clearly a song for pussies, has the best layered harmonies she's done since "Freak of Nature". The whole thing is as interesting as the '96-97 demos/shelved tracks, and it's definitely the craziest shit she's done in 15 years or so. The people on the internet who are saying she's lost her mind or that "Bollywood" is the worst song in the history of recorded sound or whatever, are fuckin' idiots. Then again, most people on the internet are. Oh yeah: and the album artwork is great! I mean, what the fuck?! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 07:09:33 -0400 From: Jase Subject: [support-system] The inevitable Pitchfork review Pitchfork doesn't get it: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14444-funstyle/ Quelle surprise. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 09:39:56 -0500 From: "Mark J. Foxx" Subject: [support-system] RE: support-system-digest V12 #16 i sent this yesterday, but i think it bounced b/c i quoted everything (oops). anyway. guys, this is the weirdest thing ever. the good thing is that liz phair made me laugh for the first time in years. the penius colada thing, the line about holding her hair while she vomits, the thing about signing the contracts on stone tablets--it's goofy and really, really funny. the first minute or so of the first track is the craziest thing i've heard in a long time, which is hard given that there's a new m.i.a. album. i definitely hear "smoke"--particularly its chorus--as an homage to the "all wild horses" opener on bob dylan's self-portrait (and funstyle resembles that album is a whole lotta other ways, too). obviously, the album is not even a little bit cohesive, so i'm not sure if she's really expecting people to treat it as an album or not. given how often liz has been in and out of the studio in the past twelve years--and how little she's actually released--i'm guessing that this is her doing some housecleaning and getting a lot of "fuck you"'s out at the same time. which is great. the juxtaposition of this with servicible-but-bland somebody's miracle-like material at the front end of this album is totally confusing and fun. i'd probably i.d. "and then he slayed her" as the most conventionally good song on the album--it sorta makes you wonder if it's a true blood soundtrack leftover (which might fit with the theme of the album). the crazier tracks (the first two, the closer, and that one about caffeine addiction) definitely have a lot of malcolm mclaren's solo work in them, which we know liz has always been a fan of. there's definitely a lot that's not really working. the middle few tracks, in particular, drag a little once the initial weirdness wears off; they're stylistic exercises, but they definitely still sound like demos. and the whole thing is obviously incredibly bitter and mean. but what it lacks in careful judgment or especially novel observations, it makes up for in energy and spontaneity--which is something that we haven't seen since the whitechocolatespaceegg demos started circulating. like bob dylan's self-portrait, i doubt this is something i'm going to be returning to that often, but... sorta awesome. it made my day. _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID283 26::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5 ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V12 #17 ************************************