I came up with this alternate version of the Liz Phair album within a year of its original release, and it's what I've listened to ever since. To me it makes a more natural progression into a "poppier" sound from WCSE, and I like this almost as much as her classic first three albums: LIZ PHAIR: SHALLOW OPPORTUNITIES 01. Take A Look (original mix from Capitol promo CD) 02. Red Light Fever (from Liz Phair album) 03. Bouncers Conversation (from comeandgetit EP) 04. It's Sweet (from Liz Phair album) 05. Tell Me I'm A Liar (leaked outtake) 06. Firewalker (from Liz Phair album) 07. Insanity (iTunes exclusive) 08. Little Digger (from Liz Phair album) 09. My Bionic Eyes (from Liz Phair album) 10. Fine Again (from comeandgetit EP) 11. The Rapids Song (leaked outtake) 12. Love/Hate (from Liz Phair album) 13. Friend Of Mine (from Liz Phair album) 14. Shallow Opportunities (from comeandgetit EP) 15. Good Love Never Dies (from Liz Phair album)
good track list. I like Rapids and tell Me I'm a Liar.... Surprised you don't have Jeremy Engle on here though....
I know ... was never one of my favorites ... can't really defend that, and I know fans tend to love it. But for an "album" I had to draw the line somewhere and there were other songs I liked more.
I didn't see the one you posted, but I assume it was racy if it got pulled. I don't usually go for the ooh-la-la pics but this one of Liz is compelling <ahem> and I meant to render it ironic by the title I gave the "album" (Shallow Opportunities) and as a meta-commentary on the Matrix collaboration. Whether you choose to enjoy the photo ironically or not is up to you!
What makes you say that? I have to wonder if the new album(s) will land on the same label, just like what Liz intended to do with ATO and EIG/Funstyle nearly a decade ago.
Exile in Guyville disappeared from iTunes, Spotify and other digital platforms when ATO's license ended. It then reappeared shortly after with Matador listed as the label (for example, on iTunes, it now shows "℗ 2016 Matador", replacing the previous credit). Also, Beggars Group, which owns half of Matador, is blocking any new uploads that include material from Exile on YouTube and issuing takedowns for existing ones. I may have been on the receiving end of one of those... My gut tells me that the new album will be out on Matador as well, but they seem to be keeping things under wraps for now.
Anyone know if JBTV has pro audio/video of her 12/31/93 Metro performances? THAT might be the only EIG era bonus disc I'm after. EIG era music videos included.
On Spotify, it says ℗ 1993 Matador, and © 2016 Matador. That would indicate that Matador owns the phonographic copyright, essentially the master recordings from 1993, and that it is a 2016 release of the recording. That’s interesting because the ATO reissue said ℗ & © 2008 National Anthem, which was apparently a one-off company Liz set up for the reissue. That company name has not been used for any other releases by her or any other artist. So what I take from all that is Liz bought the rights from Matador in 2008, then licensed it to ATO, and now Matador has bought the rights back. Unless the credits on the ATO were a mistake and should have said © 2008 National Anthem and ℗ 1993 Matador. I think this is a possibility because it’s not like Matador to give up their phonographic copyrights, and I don’t know that Liz was in a position to buy them in 2008. Further confusing things is the Icon compilation, which says ℗ © 2014 Capitol Records LLC. That is definitely a mistake, as Capitol only owns the phonographic copyright on S/T and Somebody’s Miracle. I think some folks were lazy or incorrect on these various releases. A lot of labels don’t seem to know the true meaning of the ℗ and the © symbols. But Matador has always been very good about using them accurately, so I tend to believe them.
There are pro-shot performances of at least a couple of songs from that show that were broadcast, but I don't know if it was on JBTV. I still have at least one of them ("Divorce Song", if I'm remembering correctly) on an old VHS cassette I got in a trade way back when... I don't know if enough material from that era exists to warrant a DVD, unless they produced a new documentary that incorporated footage of things like her appearance on JBTV, interviews with WFLD (Chicago Fox affiliate), etc.
Liz didn't buy the rights back from Matador. They reverted back to her. As she said in this interview with Spin, "But here’s the funny thing: In 2000, the rights to Exile in Guyville reverted back to me. Someone [at Matador Records] forgot to put it back on the books and lock it up for 30 more years." With some of Matador's earlier signings, the deals didn't lock up the rights in perpetuity, which is why, for example, Superchunk own the rights to their Matador releases and have reissued them on Merge. I believe the rights to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Unsane's Matador output reverted back to them as well.
Thanks for that. I'm a music metadata nerd, and always fascinated by who owns the rights to what, and the details surrounding various releases and reissues. So from that interview, it appears that Liz, or Guyville in particular, were signed to Matador for seven years. With the new ℗ credit on Spotify, I wonder if Matador has finally bought Guyville from her and "locked it up" for good now. Matador has definitely made some concessions to some artists over the years just to get the music on their label. From what I remember reading years ago about their Superchunk deal, they were only on Matador because they had a better distribution network than Merge did at the time. Even though both labels are the same age, I assume this is because Gerard Cosloy already had a lot of experience from his time at Homestead Records, and worked out deals to get Matador releases into stores. But they were free to leave at any time and take their recordings with them, from what I understand. When Matador was distributed by Atlantic for a few years, that freaked Superchunk out big time, as they wanted nothing to do with major labels at all. All the Matador bands had the option of not displaying the Atlantic logo on their releases, but that was not enough to allay their fears, and they were off to Merge permanently. I always found it interesting that Pavement chose not to have the Atlantic logo shown on their early Matador LPs, but when Brighten the Corners came out, the Capitol Records logo was displayed right next to the Matador logo. Maybe it was OK to be on the same label as the Beatles?
Liz Phair - Retrospective Capitol had rights to EIG in 2003. I always thought it was Liz using her tape trading clout or family lawyer connection to get an entertainment attorney that 15 year reversion clause back in 92 or 93.
Just want to say that, in addition to “Don't Apologize,” one of my favorite obscure Liz tracks is “Dotted Line” from the People Like Us soundtrack. One of the best and prettiest of her recent songs, IMO.
Since that was a promo release, I don’t think that necessarily meant there was any transfer of rights. These promo samplers often feature selections from an artist or band’s entire career, across many labels. One that comes to mind is Do You Remember?, a Hüsker Dü promo compilation put out by Warner Bros., featuring many SST tracks: Hüsker Dü - Do You Remember?
It's possible that Liz was licensing EIG to Capitol while she was still signed to them. It seemed that the first time it went out of print was when she and Capitol parted ways, then wasn't available again until the ATO reissue. I doubt there were any entertainment attorneys involved when Liz signed the deal with Matador. In Spin's oral history of the album, Brad Wood said, "A few days after they’d heard a FedEx’d cassette of our recordings, they faxed me a two-page contract for a single album. Liz signed it and we faxed it back to Matador. Liz then decided that the record needed to be a double album to match the Stones’ Exile on Main St.. She asked me, “Do you think Matador will give twice as much money?” They did. It was five thousand bucks." Matador was still a pretty small player at that point and Liz didn't seem to have high aspirations. As she told MuchMusic in August 1998, "I really didn't think anyone was going to hear the album... I thought, like, if I were really lucky, if this album really did well, I'd sell about fifteen hundred copies, and that'd be like a huge success, so the fact that it was picked up by press and picked up by a lot of the public was really a surprise."
After getting hooked on the first album I’ve now ordered the second and third. After that, the much-debated fourth album beckons...
Very curious to hear your thoughts about Whip-Smart and whitechocolatespaceegg once you've listened to them. If you enjoy whitechocolatespaceegg, you'll probably like a good chunk of the self-titled album, minus the Matrix-produced tracks.
Don't see anything confirmed online, but the local word is she is playing the Wichita Riverfest in June!
