Trivia / Liz Phair

• Creator Killer: She was an indie darling in The '90s but did not enjoy much commercial success, which she sought to rectify in 2003 with a Self-Titled Album that marked a Genre Shift from indie alt-rock to mainstream pop-rock. The album met a scathing reception from certain critics critics who saw it as a Sell-Out (Pitchfork gave it a rare 0.0 out of 10, and Meghan O'Rourke of The New York Times even called it "career suicide"), and the modest Top 40 success of the lead single "Why Can't I?" failed to last. Phair only recorded two little-heard albums after that, 2005's Somebody's Miracle and 2010's Funstyle, the latter of which she released independently while stating outright that it cost her her management and her record deal, and also started composing music for television shows. Todd in the Shadows, when discussing her downfall on Trainwreckords, said that, while he found the album underrated (and personally believed that Funstyle, the subject of the episode, was the real death blow - it took over a decade for Phair to issue some new music with Soberish), it's impossible to deny that it snapped Phair's career momentum and reputation. Phair spent the rest of the 2000s and 2010s slowly rebuilding her indie cred, owing in part to some well-received tours, an acclaimed 2018 reissue of her breakthrough Exile in Guyville album, and the self-titled album receiving an unexpected critical re-evaluation in the late 2010s.
• Doing It for the Art
  "I had plenty of time to sit with Funstyle. There were a lot more songs that I didn’t put on that record that were recorded during that period, some of which are very good, and a lot of which I’m sure the critics would prefer. I really felt like I stumbled into a new style which, I’m not gonna start rapping, I’m not Joaquin Phoenix. It was just something that needed to be aired. It was a part of my creative journey that needed to see the light of day, and it was either shove these things under the carpet and pretend like I never did them, and no one would ever hear about it, or stand on my own and say, “I like it. This is what is exciting me now. This is what I see as a creative person now.” And that’s what I chose to do."
• Executive Meddling:
  • The "selling-out" above wasn't Liz Phair's fault. Her label insisted she work with mainstream producers and create a pop album. However, Phair has said that Capitol Records did not force her to make a pop album, and that she wanted to do it because she felt it would be an interesting experiment. She is also not ashamed at all by the album.
    As much as it is couched in the public's mind that I got sucked up by a spaceship and forced to do pop, I was actually just saying, 'Okay, pop's a different medium. I can try that on just the way I would try writing anything'
  • Liz fought with her management to release "Bollywood." (Said fight actually inspired another similar song, "U Hate It.") Ultimately, Liz won.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Aside from Juvenilia and the upcoming Girlysound disc, Liz's pre-1993 demos can only be found on the Girly Sound bootlegs. Two tapes entitled Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Muthuh and Girls Girls Girls respectively are the most common and are available to download on the internet for free. A third tape and information about it remains elusive.
• Money, Dear Boy: During a down period in the late 2000s, Liz's childhood friend who worked on television, Mike Kelley, invited her to score a series based on their childhood in Chicago, Swingtown. As put in the intro to "Bollywood", she was "wondering how I was gonna make enough dough y'know", and accepted it, following with some more TV gigs. In the downtime of the composing, she and a partner would write silly songs that would make up half of the infamous Funstyle.
• One-Hit Wonder: "Why Can't I?" from Liz Phair is her only Top-40 charting song in the United States.