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Liz Phair

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Liz Phair

Liz Phair (born Elizabeth Clark Phair on April 17 1967 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Phair emerged from the Chicago independent music scene; her debut album, Exile in Guyville won critical acclaim.

Early life

Phair was born in Connecticut, but was raised in Winnetka, Illinois. Phair is adopted, as is her older brother Philip. She graduated from the famous 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, and when he heard Phair's songs, he 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 due to arguments between Henderson and Phair.)

Recordings with Matador Records

Brokaw gave several "Girly Sound" tapes to the head of Matador Records, Gerard Cosloy, who signed Phair to a contract.

Phair's debut album, Exile in Guyville, was produced by Brad Wood and released in 1993. The album received uniformly excellent reviews. It was said in several articles that the album was ostensibly structured as a female response to the Rolling Stones' classic Exile on Main Street. (A comparison of the two albums shows that the "response" only pertains to a few songs, and not the entire album.)

The album received signficiant 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 a feature article on Phair that identified her and several other artists as "pandering sluts". [1]

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. The album received mixed reviews, and although it was certified Gold (sales of at least 500,000 units), it ultimately did not sell as well as her debut. 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".

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. [2] 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 not a chart success.

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).

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. The label president, Andy Slater, convinced Phair to have the production team known as The Matrix produce several of the tracks she'd written. [3] When the album was released, much of the media attention focused 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 considered Phair to have sold out by making the record very pop-oriented. [4]

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. Phair continued to flirt with sexually explicit themes, however, as was most evident in a track called "H.W.C.", standing for "Hot White Come".

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. [5] The album received mixed reviews, and was not a chart success.

Other Recordings

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.

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.

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. Phair's son appeared on the cover of her album Whitechocolatespaceegg, which was so named for Phair's description of his appearance when he was born. She also wrote the song "Little Digger", on Liz Phair, from his perspective.

Discography

Early recordings

Studio albums

EPs

Virtual albums

  • iTunes Originals - Liz Phair

Demos

  • 1996-1997 - "The whitechocolatespaceegg Sessions"
  • 2003 - "The Liz Phair Sessions"

Non-album singles

Samples

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Filmography (Actress)

Filmography (Composer)

References

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