Is she fabulously wealthy, perhaps independently of her music? I’m just trying to get a sense of why she seems to abandon albums so easily.
Ticketmaster has an entirely different set of dates posted. Not like I believe any concert listing with a 2021 date anyway.
I think the tragedy is that that first album was so good that some of us are miffed because the career we imagined for her - dropping an all-killer, attention-grabbing album every couple of years - didn't happen. And I'm not saying she owed us that, it's just... As someone who wanted very much to see her succeed, and I'll leave out the stream of EP's and Non-album singles in here: The first album suggested that she might be one of the great voices of Rock, and she was hyped as such by the critics. The second album was disappointing by comparison. Not the five star broadside I expected her to deliver now she knew she had an audience waiting. The third took a very long time to arrive (four years), and was... okay. By then that grunge generation of musicians (and even Britpop Musicians in the UK) had already had their zeitgeist moment, and audiences were moving on. Even Hole put out the glossy 'Celebrity Skin'. Liz had lost about 2/3 of her 'Guyville' sales. I listened to it a lot at the time, but I accepted it was a 'three star' kind of album. Some great tracks, some good, some forgettable, and there were lots of new post-grunge and post-britpop sounds around that were competing for my attention, but I'd single out 1998 year as a slump year because she wasn't the only older artist I'd admired who released a dud that year. I remember buying the fourth, but it was neither here nor there for me. I always loved both Rock and Pop Music, so the glossier tracks didn't bother me, but I expected a lot more out of her pairing up with Michael Penn. I'm looking at the track listing now, and can only remember the single, and the HWC song, for obvious reasons. The fifth was just... dull. I skipped the sixth. So... 'Hey Lou' is OK. Not outright bad, but not great either. I wouldn't turn it off it it came up on a random play, but it's not suggesting she's about to drop a vital album that I *must* hear. Three stars. Thinking about this, if I really wanted to sum up the grunge artists, I seem to keep coming back to 'didn't reach their potential.'
She grew up in one of the wealthiest towns in the US and her dad was a doctor. She’s probably doing just fine whether albums sell or not. I just recently got the Guyville box and I’ve been enjoying digging into the girly sound material. It’s a lot to take in, but I dig it. The zine that comes with the box is excellent. In the end, though, I think I prefer the second record to Guyville.
It was just Liz and Brad Wood, but their parts were pre-recorded. Brad posted “We tried to make a livestream from separate locations (due to Covid), but the tech is not there yet. Everything you saw and heard tonight was performed by Liz and I live, no edits or fixes. We were committed to that. So, except for the intro and bridge portions of Johnny Feelgood and some horns and strings on Hey Lou- it’s all Liz and I, including the many mistakes.” Due to this approach, Brad was able to play both drums and bass, and Liz played multiple guitar parts and was able to do things like the overlapping vocal parts on “X-Ray Man”, as well as incorporate a lot of interesting visuals. It made for a much more creative and engaging presentation than I was expecting. I figured it would be a sitting-on-a-stool-with-an-acoustic guitar kind of deal. Great set list, including some deeper album cuts: “Never Said” “Mesmerizing” “X-Ray Man” “Whip-Smart” “Johnny Feelgood” “Polyester Bride” “Crater Lake” “And He Slayed Her” “Hey Lou” “Good Side” The performance of “And He Slayed Her” killed. Much stronger than the album version. At the end of the stream, there was another version of “X-Ray Man” played in the background. Liz revealed during the Q&A afterwards that it was the demo of the song.
EIG seems to be around 500k, WS over 400k, WCSE around 300k and LP in 2003 around 430k. She's also now owns EIG and earlier stuff. Anything monetized since reversion of the album to her in 2008 is her pocket. With Brad there I could see Why Can't I/Extraordinary being skipped. Looking at the song list, Liz seemed to go very easy on the "dirty" songs.
https://twitter.com/Margit/status/1367323244076883974 15 second glimpse Setlist.fm implies that the Funstyle track was first time in a decade and the 2 WS tracks were first time in 25-27 years. https://twitter.com/PhizLair/status/1366580059855708170 Her tweet seems to imply the AM/LP/Garbage tour was bumped again to 2022.
Guyville...the lightning in a bottle that it was...was missing only one thing.... A hit. I said it when I first heard it and I'll say it til I'm dead...if Supernova is on Guyville, it's a game changer and she potentially shoots to the stratosphere. I know people will say Supernova wasn't a massive hit, and that's true. However, the great RS cover the exception, the media glitter surrounding Liz the previous year was already starting to fade. The media wanted her to be a star. Unfortunately, there wasn't a song on Guyville to capture the masses. Looking back on those times, I'm not sure if other scenarios even help or could change her trajectory. Liz didn't know what she wanted to be. It's like "I'm now the queen of the indie world. Wait...you mean I have to go out and sing these songs?" Her reluctance to tour, regardless of a legit reason, destroyed any momentum she could've gained in a Supernova/Guyville world. She didn't realize that her window was only going to be open for a very short period of time. Whip Smart gave her a brief second wind but by 1995 the window was being painted shut and by the time whitechocolatespaceegg rolled around, it was already over. I love Liz. Always will. There was so much potential in 93-94 and it was squandered. A "tragedy"? Maybe not...but a lot of "What if?"s surrounding her. Over the years a lot of people say Sheryl Crow had the career Liz should've had. I disagree. Alanis had the career Liz should've had. This is the head scratcher. In hindsight I have wondered how much of a role this played in how it all turned out. There was a huge contrast/disconnect between 'Rebel indie college blowjob queen" and the 26-27 year old upper middle class woman engaged to an older man, stepmother to a teenager, and soon to be a mom. She wasn't "living the gimmick", as they'd say. As great as Guyville is, I've wondered if it was even the right choice. Another path would be cherry picking the best Girly Sound songs, and then rerecord them with just Liz and her guitar in the studio. The Girly Sound tapes are Liz at her purest. Between Girly and Guyville, something got lost in translation.
I think things worked out well. I see that Exile ended up at no. 56 on Rolling Stone’s 2020 poll of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time. That’s pretty good considering there have been 56 years since 1964. Exile’s star has been rising while other albums from the era are gradually being set aside by younger generations. In fact, number 56 puts her right between Dark Side of the Moon at no. 55 and the debut album by the Band at no. 57. That’s some seriously elite company, but it’s well-deserved. She may not have had a big hit, and she may not have become the superstar some predicted, dominating MTV, carting home Grammy Awards, touring arenas around the world, and branching out into acting “if the role is right.” At the end of the day, she made an album that still resonates with and influences young artists and fans, and is considered among the very best of all time. Hopefully, she can take pride in that. She should - it’s a great, great album.
Reminds me of Andrew Hill's comment that before recording for Blue Note he thought 'fame would bring some kind of income' - he hadn't anticipated being "famous but still poor."
Reminds me of George Benson's comment about "selling out" in Downbeat c. the late '70s. 'Sellout? Where do I go to do that?' He went on to say that 'he wouldn't make a jazz album for a million dollars but he didn't expect that to happen anyway, as a jazz album would lose millions of dollars anyway, so no one was going to pay him to make one.'
There will be four vinyl variants (including blue vinyl exclusive to Barnes & Noble and a “milky clear” indie exclusive) and a CD.
I'm excited for this record but 2 pre-release songs is enough for me; gonna hold off on "Spanish Doors."
Song is catchy but a little long, video is pretty weak, but most usually are. Still, looking forward to it.
The blue vinyl is available on the Barnes & Noble site; I ordered it about an hour ago. The milky clear is available for pre-order from Rough Trade (both the US and UK sites). There were also 500 copies of a signed grey vinyl edition available through Liz’s official store earlier today, but they sold out in about an hour.
I've always thought Liz's career was more disappointing than tragic. After such a wonderful debut the quality of later releases just never matched it. I only listen to a couple of her songs now. I think Juliana Hatfield's career has been the more tragic, another young singer/songwriter who started off brightly but is almost unknown these days. The difference is Juliana still releases a new album every year or two.
