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Liz Phair
Phair performing in October 2008
Background information
Born	April 17, 1967 (1967-04-17) (age 41)1 New Haven, Connecticut
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Indie rock Lo-fi Pop rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1991 - present
Label(s)	Matador, Capitol, ATO Records
Website	http://www.lizphair.com

Liz Phair (born Elizabeth Clark Phair on April 17, 1967² in New Haven, Connecticut, USA) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing lo-fi audio cassettes under the moniker Girly Sound, before signing with Matador Records and becoming one of the leading artists of the 1990s indie rock underground. In 2003, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair, was released on her new label, Capitol Records and her music began to move in a more pop rock-oriented approach.

Her signature guitar, which she is often seen playing (and is prominent upon the cover of her self-titled fourth album), is a Fender Duo-Sonic II. Her album Exile in Guyville was chosen as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Early life

Phair was born in Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois. Phair was adopted, as was her older brother Philip. She attended³ and graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and majored in art history.

Career

Origins of music career

Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw was visiting her San Francisco loft-mate Nora Maccoby when he heard Phair's songs, and encouraged her to record them.

After moving back to Chicago, Phair began writing songs and recording homemade tapes under the name Girly Sound, and supported herself by selling her drawings on the streets of Chicago. She became part of the alternative music scene in Chicago and became friends with Material Issue and Urge Overkill, two of Chicago's upstart bands to go national in the early 1990s, as well as Brad Wood and John Henderson, head of Feel Good All Over, an independent label in Chicago. (A later attempt at re-recording the Girly Sound tapes failed after arguments between Henderson and Phair.)

Recordings with Matador Records

After asking Wood who the "coolest" indie label was, Phair called up Gerard Cosloy, co-president of Matador Records, in 1992 and asked him if he would put out her record. Coincidentally, Cosloy had just read a review of Girly Sound in Chemical Imbalance that very day and told Phair to send him a tape. Phair sent him a tape of six Girly Sound songs. Cosloy recalls: "The songs were amazing. It was a fairly primitive recording, especially compared to the resulting album. The songs were really smart, really funny, and really harrowing, sometimes all at the same time. . . . I liked it a lot and played it for everybody else. We usually don't sign people we haven't met, or heard other records by, or seen as performers. But I had a hunch, and I called her back and said O.K."

Cosloy offered a $3,000 advance, and Phair began working on a single, which turned into the 18 songs of Exile in Guyville.

Exile in Guyville was produced by Phair and Brad Wood, and released in 1993. The album received uniformly excellent reviews. The album received significant critical acclaim for its blunt, honest lyrics and for the music itself, a hybrid of indie rock and pop. The album established Phair's penchant for exploring sexually explicit lyrics such as in the song "Flower": "I want to be your blow job queen/...I'll fuck you and your minions too." By contrast, her trademark low, vibrato-less voice gave many of her songs a slightly detached, almost deadpan character. The combination of these factors won Phair many dedicated fans. She also had several detractors, especially in her hometown of Chicago; in particular, veteran producer Steve Albini was involved in a war of words reflected in Chicago's free newsweekly, the Chicago Reader. Albini wrote an angry response to an article by Billy Wyman (Hitsville), entitled "Not From the Underground: 1993 in Review", that discussed how Phair and several other artists had given an "explicit rejection of much of the insularity that increasingly characterizes underground music". Albini identified the aforementioned artists as "pandering sluts" and said Phair was the modern Rickie Lee Jones, "more talked about than heard, a persona completely unrooted in substance, and a fucking chore to listen to".⁴

Hoping to capitalize on the acclaim for her debut album, the release of Phair's second album received substantial media attention and an advertising blitz. Whip-Smart debuted at #27 in 1994 and "Supernova", the first single, became a Top Ten modern rock hit, and the video was frequently featured on MTV. Phair also landed the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine with the headline "A Rock Star is Born." Nonetheless, the album received mixed reviews, and although it was certified Gold (shipments of at least 500,000 units), it ultimately did not sell as well as expected, as it was hoped the album would introduce Phair to a wider, more mainstream audience. Following Whip-Smart, Phair released Juvenilia, a collection of some early Girly Sound tracks and several B-sides, including her cover of the 1980s classic by The Vapors, "Turning Japanese".

Phair's third album, titled whitechocolatespaceegg, was finally released in 1998 after some delays, which included a disagreement about content; at one point, the label rejected the album as submitted, and asked Phair to write a few additional radio-friendly songs for the set.⁵ The album displayed a more mature Phair, and reflected some of the ways marriage and motherhood affected her. The single "Polyester Bride" received some airplay, but the album was no more successful than her previous records. To promote the record Phair joined the now legendary Lilith Fair. Phair performed on the main stage along with acts like Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Missy Elliott.

Recordings with Capitol Records

In 2003, her self-titled fourth album was released on her new label, Capitol Records. Phair had not released an album in several years; she had been working on her record, as well as making guest appearances on other tracks (she lent backing vocals to the Sheryl Crow hit "Soak Up the Sun").⁶

Initially, Phair worked on several album tracks with songwriter Michael Penn as the producer. When she submitted the finished Penn-produced album to Capitol, the label gave it a lukewarm reception. Having already exhausted her recording budget, label president Andy Slater offered Phair more money to record only if Phair agreed to work with the production team known as The Matrix to come up with some singles for the album. Phair's collaboration with the Matrix resulted in only four songs, but much of the media attention focused solely on the Matrix-produced tracks, which were a departure from her earlier work. The album received many negative reviews, especially from the independent music press, who accused Phair of "selling out" by making the record very pop-oriented.⁷

Though her eponymous album took her higher in the charts than she had ever been previously, and introduced her to a mainstream audience for the first time, success brought about a strong backlash from critics and disappointed fans of her earlier work. Many decried her for "selling out", and she became a "piñata for critics."⁸ The New York Times' Meghan O'Rourke titled her review of the album "Liz Phair's Exile in Avril-ville", and complained that Phair "gushes like a teenager" and had "committed an embarrassing form of career suicide."⁹

The debut single "Why Can't I?", co-written by The Matrix, did reach the Top 40 charts in North America, and its follow-up, "Extraordinary," was also somewhat successful: it appeared on the soundtrack to the 2004 movie Raising Helen and was the promotional theme for the 2004 Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament; in March 2007, the song began appearing in Gatorade television advertisements. Phair continued to flirt with sexually explicit themes, however, as was most evident in a track called "H.W.C.", standing for "Hot White Cum".

Somebody's Miracle, Phair's fifth album (and final album with Capitol Records), was released on October 4, 2005. The album returned to a more traditional rock sound, mixing the mood of Phair's earlier work with a more mellow sound.¹⁰ The album received mixed reviews and was not a chart success.

Exile in Guyville reissue and future recordings

Phair signed with ATO Records in early 2008 and re-released Exile in Guyville on June 24, 2008.¹¹ Exile in Guyville was reissued on CD, vinyl, and in digital format. The special reissue package includes three never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: "Ant in Alaska," "Say You," and an untitled instrumental. Phair has also completed a new documentary DVD, "Guyville Redux." ¹² This DVD features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records, and describes the making of the album, in the male-dominated, Chicago independent music scene of the early 1990’s (which included Urge Overkill, Material Issue, and Smashing Pumpkins), and the Wicker Park neighborhood where it happened.

"Exile in Guyville is miles more complex than the porn-star manifesto it was often considered," said Alan Light (former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe, and Tracks) in an essay written for the reissue. "Phair spoke for the uncertainties facing a new generation of women, struggling to find a balance between sexual confidence and romance, between independence and isolation. . . . Exile in Guyville sat at the center of a culture in transition."¹³

Phair is currently working on an untitled project to be released Fall 2008.¹⁴

Other recordings

• In 1993 Phair released a 7" single called "Carnivore", which featured the song titled "Carnivore" on side A, and a different recording of the same song titled "Carnivore (raw)" on side B. The 7" single was released by the Chicago independent label Minty Fresh.
• In 1994 Phair contributed a song called "Don't Have Time" to the soundtrack of Higher Learning. The soundtrack is notable for mixing hip-hop artists with indie rock artists, mirroring the cross-cultural aspects of the movie.
• In 1995 Phair and Material Issue contributed a cover of The Banana Splits' theme song "The Tra-La-La Song," for the compilation Saturday Morning. The compilation also featured punk and alternative legends such as The Ramones, Helmet, Matthew Sweet, and a duet with Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly.
• For the 1997 film First Love, Last Rites, Shudder to Think and Phair collaborated on the track "Erecting A Movie Star."
• In 2001, Phair recorded a song called "Down" in response to her divorce. A quasi-stop-motion animation video using photographs was created for it by filmmaker Rodney Ascher (he shot fifty rolls of still photographs in L.A.'s Chinatown), and posted on her official website LizPhair.com.[1] The song was never officially released on any of her albums, but the video can still be seen on her website, as well as Ascher's website.
• Phair contributed backing vocals for Sheryl Crow on Crow's hit song "Soak Up the Sun" in 2002.
• In 2004, Phair offered backing vocals on Jimmy Eat World's "Work" track on their Futures album.
• In 2005, she recorded the track "Chemistry" with Canadian artist Kyle Riabko.
• Phair also collaborated with singer/songwriter and actress Minnie Driver on a track called "Sorry Baby" on Driver's second album Seastories, which was released in summer of 2007.
• The summer 2007 movie Nancy Drew featured a new song by Phair, called "Perfect Misfit." A 30-second preview of the track can be heard on the film's official soundtrack's website.¹⁵
• Another summer 2007 movie No Reservations features her song "Count on My Love."
• Phair currently composes the original score for CBS' Swingtown¹⁶ and The CW's 90210¹⁷.

Film

In addition to making appearances on television shows and in films portraying herself, Phair has been billed as an actress in several roles, including the film Cherish. She also played 1960s pop singer Jackie DeShannon in an episode of the NBC period drama American Dreams and a yoga instructor in the film Seeing Other People.

Personal life

In 1995, Phair married Jim Staskauskas, a film editor who had worked on her videos; they had one child, James Nicholas Staskauskas, on December 21, 1996. The couple have since divorced.

More recently, Phair was linked with her guitar player, Dino Meneghin,¹⁸ The couple have since split, but remain good friends.

Discography

Girly Sound

Studio albums

EPs

Demos

Singles

Awards

Samples

Acting filmography

• Seeing Other People (2004)
• Cherish (2002)
• Charmed (2005)

Film composition

• Nancy Drew (2007) (song "Perfect Misfit")
• Raising Helen (2004) (song "Extraordinary")
• 13 Going on 30 (2004) (song "Why Can't I?")
• Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) (song "Why Can't I?")
• How to Deal (2003) (song "Why Can't I?")
• Thirteen (2003) (song "Explain It To Me")
• Julie Johnson (2001) (song "Uncle Alvarez")
• High Fidelity (2000) (song "Baby Got Going")
• She's All That (1999) (song "Baby Got Going")
• The Horse Whisperer (1998) (song "Chopsticks")
• First Love, Last Rites (1997) (song "Erecting A Movie Star")
• Chasing Amy (1997) (song "California")
• Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) (song "Six Dick Pimp")
• Stealing Beauty (1996) (song "Rocket Boy")
• Walking and Talking (1996) (song "Go West")
• Higher Learning (1995) (song "Don't Have Time")
• Amateur (1994) (song "Girls! Girls! Girls!")

References

• Liz Phair - Photos & Gallery - Biography.
• Davy, Ashley. (March 1996) Exit From Guyville. Soma.
• Barnes&Nobel artist interview (March 20, 2002) COME ON OVER!. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
• Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Liz Phair Biography. Allmusic. Retrieved November 7, 2005.
• Kramer, Kristen. (July/August, 1994) [2]. OUT magazine. p.42.
• Liz Phair interview: December 28, 2005 on the Tavis Smiley show

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Liz Phair

• Liz Phair's official website
• Liz's Matador site
• Liz's MTV site
• Liz Phair at the Internet Movie Database