WNRN, April 17, 2020
Liz Phair burst onto the music scene in 1993 with her debut album “Exile in Guyville” which according to Rolling Stone is one of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Phair grew up in the midwest with most of her years in Chicago. After college she moved to San Francisco but broke after a year, returned to her parent’s house in Chicago.
From her bedroom she wrote and recorded, issuing cassettes under the name Girly Sound. On a hunch and based on the Girly Sound recordings, Matador Records signed Phair sight unseen and work began on the album. The result was a critically acclaimed mix of indie rock and pop featuring blunt, sexually explicit lyrics that was a track for track counter to the Rolling Stone’s “Exile on Main Street”.
Now more than 25 years after her initial album, Phair’s career has taken her back to that initial defining album multiple times. 15th and 25th Anniversary reissues returned her to that original music, and she says that having so little previous performing experience before the album, she sometimes feels that she simply works for the Liz Phair that recorded that album at that time, rather than seeing it all as a continuous career.
Phair’s newest album is coming this Summer and will be her first in 10 years and reunites her with Exile producer Brad Wood. The supporting tour includes a stop in Virginia Beach in July.
Featured Image: Liz Phair (Photo credit needed)
