Weighing in again after a lot of listening - the alternate WCSE was not so great to my ears. It really does sound like a bunch of demos, but then again this is probably my favorite Liz album, so I'm admittedly biased. For me, the released version is perfect the way it is. The original 'Liz Phair' album is an absolute keeper though and has replaced the released copy in my i-tunes library. I may never listen to those Matrix songs again! Thanks for the heads up about that. One of the things I love about SHF is discovering these alt-versions of beloved records.
I hope it will still see the light of day, but it's hard not to be skeptical. There was SO much social media chatter about this project -- almost a year ago now! -- from both Liz and Ryan -- tweets! Instagram! Videos! A full LP's worth recorded in a week! And then ... nothing. Like deadening, absolute, deep-space-level silence. I know that schedules were scattered in the spring -- Liz went on the mini-tour with the Pumpkins, Ryan had an album and a tour -- but not so much as a PEEP from either of them since about this album they were both so excited about. Discouraging, to say the least -- but while there's life, there's hope!
Excellent. I am glad you like it this way. With the Matrix tracks removed and the Comeandgetit tracks restored...it is an awesome record imo.
The released version is pretty much perfect, bar the fact that it doesn't include Liz's best song from that era (besides possibly "Headache"). "Blood Keeper" was included on neither the original version of the album nor the one that was released, and it's a damn shame that to this day it remains unreleased.
I don't think we necessarily need to worry about Liz's book deal interfering with her musical activities. Based on her tweets and interviews, she's been working on at least one of the two books long before she started work on this album. My guess is that most or all of the first book has already been completed by now. I'm going to make some bold predictions here. First, I would bet there will be another reissue of Exile in Guyville timed to coincide with its 25th anniversary in June. The album has been out of print since Liz's licensing deal with ATO for it expired. I have a feeling any bonus material will be different than what was included on the 15th anniversary edition. I also strongly suspect that the album she's working on with Ryan Adams will be released around the same time to take advantage of any press EIG's anniversary generates. I have a feeling this was the plan all along and that's why they haven't been in a rush to complete it. Last March, Ryan told Classic Rock magazine, "This will blow everyone's mind. It's very much the album you would have expected to follow Exile in Guyville. And it's connected to it in a way I can't say yet." From the videos he posted of them in the studio last year, the songs themselves don't seem particularly connected to Guyville, so I have a feeling the way it's connected has something to do with when or how it will be released. As of August, when Ryan was still touring, Liz had tweeted that they still had to finish the acoustic section of the record, which she described as "the stuffing to the Oreo." That may not take all that long to complete whenever they do get back into the studio. Someone did ask her on Twitter when they would be wrapping up the album and she replied, "let's get thru Christmas then it's ON". I have a feeling there will some other activity, such as a tour, to coincide with Guyville's anniversary. I'm also guessing that the book will follow later in the year. If the album and book (and any possible reissue) are well received, Liz could make quite the splash this year. It may be just what she needs to revive her career.
Yep, me too. Nice prediction and now my hopes are high! You’ll have a lot of explaining to do if none of this eventuates
She was doing 6-7 EIG songs per night on tour 2005-2010. Did some full EIG shows in 2008. What could it be for a bonus disc that is not already on youtube in decent audio quality? I wouldn't mind a decent performance video, maybe EIG related, shot in HD. Is there a 25 year old Metro video hiding away?
If we repeat this enough we can create an internet rumour. If the right people hear about it, it has to happen, right?
I remember reading that Ryan Adams quote; I assumed "the connection" he was speaking of was that, like Guyville, the new LP is a song-by-song response to a classic double album (The Beatles' White Album). It would be cool if it was more than that. I would love to see Liz's back catalogue be given the same deluxe treatment as Matador's Pavement reissues.
I took this account as conventional wisdom, but just now read the Trouser Press entry on Liz and they completely contradict this account. They posit that the label was happy with the Penn/Vincent album, and it was in fact Liz that had a change of heart and pulled the plug on it. That she herself hired The Matrix without any pressure from Capitol. It certainly gels with some of her provocative statements in the music media. Phair had finished the album with producers Michael Penn and R. Walt Vincent and turned it into the label. Everyone was happy with it, except Phair herself. Ten years earlier, during the media rush on Guyville, the young auteur told interviewers that airplay and hits were not really her aim. To a 35-year-old single mother, however, especially one who had seen whole chunks of her persona ridden to the top of the charts by the likes of Alanis Morissette and Meredith Brooks while she remained stuck in the cult artist/critical darling category, such impractical idealism no longer swayed her. Phair decided to go for the gold. She scrapped part of the album and hired the Matrix, the songwriting/production team that had made an overnight star of Canadian teen pop-rocker Avril Lavigne, in many ways one of Phair's musical granddaughters. The wounded "sell-out" cries from the indie community were loud and legion. Phair added fuel to the fire with comments like "I have no desire to be Wilco," a statement which, in the heady post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot days of 2003, was on a par with John Lennon's bigger than Jesus remark. She alienated what was left of her feminist following by announcing that her fondest wish was to marry a nice rich man who would support her and her son and allow her to just sit around and create art when the whim struck her. And then there were the photo shoots...Phair was never shy about exploiting her looks, but it was always ironic, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, sexy-in-quotation-marks stuff. Posing half-naked for hubba-hubba shots in laddie mags promoting an album she dared to hope would be commercially successful was something else entirely and a completely unforgivable crossing of some line or another. With nearly everyone who cared calling for her pretty head on a platter, Phair insisted that she had always been a fan of Top 40 radio and wanted a Top 40 single of her own. Why enlisting the Matrix to make that happen was any worse than a band of indie-rock fans enlisting Dave Fridman or Steve Albini (or Brad Wood, for that matter) to produce their album and gain instant credibility was beyond her, and she couldn't understand what the fuss was about. And besides, she had a kid to feed. The possibility (probability?) remains that the whole controversy was just one more provocation from a veteran ****-stirrer. What could possibly tweak the noses of Phair's longtime nemeses, the guys of Guyville, more than selling out? And there is the fact that Whitechocolatespaceegg — a strong, artistically mature album — was her worst seller. It's a credit to Phair's well-established intelligence and sense of mischief that the suspicion of media manipulation is even there. Who else could make people wonder if Top 40 success was part of an ongoing piece of performance art? After all the sturm und drang that preceded its release, what about the actual contents of Liz Phair? On balance, the album is actually pretty good. The two songs bearing the strongest imprint of the Matrix are a mixed bag. "Why Can't I?" is the atrocity everyone feared — a quirk-free generic piece of slick, faceless Top 40 product which could have been sung by Avril, Kelly, Ashlee or any number of non-entities with no one the wiser. (To rub further salt in the eyes of her indie detractors, Phair sports a CBGB T-shirt in the song's video.) "Extraordinary" is better. While it's an obvious and shameless attempt to pen a girl-power anthem that could contend with Smashmouth's "All Star" as the go-to soundtrack for any commercial or sporting event, it at least sounds like a Liz Phair song. And the strategy worked: "Extraordinary" became the theme song for the WNBA. Elsewhere, when Phair tries to recapture her shocking naughty girl mojo on songs like "HWC" and "Rock Me," the results sound forced and contrived rather than anything she really felt moved to express. The songs left over from the original, non-Matrix album form the emotional core of Liz Phair and make it worth hearing. In songs like "Little Digger" (Phair explains the new man in her life to her), she addresses issues in which she has an emotional stake. The tracks which aren't screaming "look at me" are the ones most deserving of attention. To placate the former faithful, a bonus EP of less commercial work (most likely the stuff bumped from the album to make room for the Matrix) was made available to download from Phair's website. In a shrewd if potentially self-defeating marketing move, however, fans had to purchase the album to get the download, drawing a line in the sand which the EP's target audience was unlikely to gladly cross. TrouserPress.com :: Liz Phair
That Trouser Press entry is pretty much the only place that provides that alternate narrative. Given some of the errors I've seen in other entries on their site, I wouldn't take anything they post as gospel, especially when they don't cite any sources and it's not consistent with other accounts, including comments from Liz herself.
1st off. Thank you for posting this. This account is the absolute opposite of everything else I have read about Liz and her "Matrix" tracks so I am pretty skeptical... but maybe I am too much of a Liz fanboy to accept the truth.
Anyone come up with a good-flowing alternate version of Liz Phair (meaning one that possibly comes close to the original Penn-helmed album), using Comeandgetit tracks, iTunes exclusives, etc.?
manicpopthrill...ask and ye shall receive... Jeremy Engle Red Light Fever It's Sweet Take a Look Hurricane Cindy Little Digger Firewalker Shallow Opportunities Bouncer's Conversation Love/Hate H.W.C. My Bionic Eyes Friend of Mine Fine Again Good Love Never Dies
If ATO had the license expire on the EIG tracks, does that mean the "Icon" compilation is now out of print?
I never saw the Icon comp and never even heard about it until a couple of weeks ago... was it ever in print?
It was initially a Best Buy exclusive in the U.S., but now seems to be available from other retailers like Amazon. It appears to either still be in print or they're still selling old stock. It appears that Liz has either licensed or sold the rights to Exile in Guyville back to Matador; if the Icon compilation continues to be pressed, it's possible that they're now licensing the EIG tracks from them.
Finally got a chance to pick up 'Funstyle" a few weeks ago, I like it! Maybe runs out of steam a little but catchy to my ears. Haven't had a chance to listen to the 'Girlysound' CD in that package yet. I really need to start searching out her "unreleased" stuff that seems to be fairly widely available. I missed out on DLing the items available in conjunction with her s/t album :-(
Maybe she will pull a Weezer and and give us something as good as Everything Will Be Alright. However, Pacific Daydream is nothing to write home about. They were kind of on a later career streak for a bit. Not to turn this into a Weezer thread but I see some parallels with the two artists. One genre defining album in the 90s, a couple of misunderstood gems that people view favorably in hindsight, some pop radio craving releases, and then some "I don't really care what you think. I'll do what I want no matter how bad this actually is." sort of stuff. Maybe, I am talking out of my ass because I am not super familiar with her discography as a whole. I picked up a CD copy of Guyville at a Goodwill a few years ago. I never got around to listening to it. I picked it up because of it's reputation. I remember putting "Why Can't I?" on a mix CD of free iTunes songs form Pepsi caps when I was 13. I had really poor taste in music at that age. I thought The Black Eyed Peas were "great" hip hop. Looking through this thread is giving me an itch to at least listen to Liz's first three albums. I am a huge fan of Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Cat Power so her early stuff seems up my alley. We shall see.
