|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Elizabeth Clark Phair |
Date of Birth: April 17, 1967 |
| Status:
Married
|
Partner:
Jim Staskausas |
| Profession:
Actor/Musician |
Official Site
Go to the Liz Phair Official Homepage |
| << Add Liz Phair To Your Favorites |
Liz Phair Listing
|
Full Liz Phair Biography
Liz Phair's deeply clever and often brutally candid songs have been commanding ears and raising eyebrows ever since she started writing them, and her new self-titled fourth album is perhaps the strongest link yet in an incomparable musical chain.
After her homemade “Girlysound” tapes quickly made the rounds among Chicago's indie tastemakers in the early 90s, she followed up with what is considered one of the most accomplished debut albums for any artist in any genre, 1993's Exile in Guyville. Ambitiously patterned after the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, the album contained raw, unblinking songs like “Fuck and Run,” sharply provocative lyrics claiming her as “your blowjob queen,” and sold over 200,000 copies – a major feat for a small independent release.
Following Guyville, Phair released two other highly-acclaimed albums, 1994's gold-certified Whip Smart (featuring modern rock radio hit “Supernova”), and 1998's deeply confessional whitechocolatespaceegg. She also toured with the Lilith Fair, got married, gave birth to a son, and got divorced.
Released almost exactly ten years after Guyville made waves, Liz Phair is a testament to her continuing maturity as a composer and performer, but also harkens back to some of her most fearless songwriting about carnal knowledge (and ignorance). Alongside point-blank songs about love, loss and longing, the album contains a song called “H.W.C.” (an acronym for “hot white come,” as the chorus “Give me your hot white come” makes abundantly clear).
But while Guyville featured endearingly shambling indie rock recorded in stripped-down fashion, Liz Phair rocks with a newfound authority and a startlingly BIG sound. Produced variously by the Matrix, Michael Penn, R. Walt Vincent, and Phair herself, Liz Phair puts forth a sonic intensity that only adds to the album's many facets.
Her name alone as the album's title suggests Phair at her most naked and direct. And her powerful brand of first-person narratives -- variously naughty, wistful, pointed, sexual, and humorous, often at the same time – are very much in evidence.
While album opener “Extraordinary” has Phair “licking her lips” for a “primitive fix,” the chorus -- “I am just your ordinary, average, everyday, sane/psycho super-goddess” knowingly tweaks her own sultry image, later taunting “I still take out the trash, is that too normal for you?”
Indeed, Phair gleefully toys with her self-image and her public image throughout. “Take A Look” makes direct self-reference to her incontestable starpower -- “You wanna take a look? Take a look!” she demands. But in “Rock Me” she describes an affair with a nine-years-younger, penniless, X-Box playing, roommate-having young guy who doesn't “even know who Liz Phair is.”
As always, Phair never shies away from chronicling relationships at their most complicated. “Why Can't I,” explores the forbidden thrill of infidelity (“Holding hands with you when we're out at night/got a girlfriend, but you say it isn't right /and I've got someone waiting, too”), and is peppered with her uniquely salacious wordplay (“We're already wet and we're gonna go swimming,” “We're at the beginning/We haven't fucked yet but my head's spinning”).
“Little Digger” unflinchingly portrays a child seeing his mother with a man other than his father, while “Good Love Never Dies,” “Friend of Mine,” and “Firewalker” detail the myriad tensions of failed relationships. It may all be brimming with attitude, but this is pop music at its most honest.
Musically, Liz Phair is her most confident and varied effort to date: there's a virtual smorgasbord of indelible hooks but they're couched in everything from turned-to-eleven crunch chords to swirling psychedelia to garage stomp to ephemeral synths to bare naked acoustics. |
|
Liz Phair Promotions
|
Additional Liz Phair Biography
Liz Phair (born Elizabeth Clark Phair on April 17, 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA) is a Grammy-Nominated American singer-songwriter and guitarist. The guitar that Phair is often seen playing (and is prominent upon the cover of her self-titled fourth album) is a Fender Duo-Sonic.
Exile in Guyville was produced by Phair and Brad Wood, and released in 1993. The album received uniformly excellent reviews. The album received significiant 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, 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".
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." 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 this album would introduce Liz Phair in the mainstream scene. Following Whip-Smart, Phair released Juvenilia, a collection of some early Girly Sound tracks and several B-sides, including her cover of the 80s classic by The Vapors, "Turning Japanese".
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.
Liz Phair garnered some commercial attention and seemed to propel Phair out of the "alternative-chick" category and closer to the pop charts. 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 second album for Capitol), 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. The album received mixed reviews, and was not a chart success.
Project Six (Untitled record) harvests an unencumbered collection of tracks with collaborations including an array of guest artists. Now after the recording sessions with Minnie Driver (Sea Stories), Phair has met Universal Motown and Saddle Creek Records with ideas of using new and old work in a future production.
For the film First Love, Last Rites, Shudder to Think and Phair collaborated on the track "Erecting A Movie Star." 1997
Phair also collaborated with singer/songwriter and actress Minnie Driver in her second album, entitled Sea Stories, which was released in summer of 2007.
(As Girly Sound)
- 1991 - Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Muthuh
- 1991 - Girls Girls Girls
- 1991 - Untitled Tape 3 |
|
| Add Liz Phair Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Liz Phair Quote(s)
| I am a feminist, and I define myself: Be yourself, because if you can get away with it, that is the ultimate feminist act. |
|
| Add Liz Phair Review/Comment
|
HQ Liz Phair Pictures (6) | Random Liz Phair Picture
|
| << Back to the Liz Phair Homepage |
|
