Exile in Guyville, the poll

stratford-on-guy, easy

Ridiculously tough to pick once it's narrowed down to my favorites, the hooky midtempo rock n rollers:

"6'1"" – 3:05
"Help Me Mary" – 2:16
"Soap Star Joe" – 2:44
"Fuck and Run" – 3:07
"Divorce Song" – 3:20

"Divorce Song" and "Fuck and Run" have moved me to tears, whereas the others just kick ass. "Divorce Song" then, for not having even the appearance of leaning on shock value.

yeah "divorce song". probably her best-ever lyric.

Mesmerizing.

Never Said

An unbreakable 3-way tie for first between 6'1", Fuck and Run, and Divorce Song, so I voted Shatter, which has some serious sentimental value for me.

Couldn't choose between Fuck and Run and Divorce Song, picked Fuck and Run for the totally WTF lyric "even when I was 12..." WHAT, Liz??

Love Soap Star Joe, too.

Man what a great album

"divorce song," easy. because what tipsy said, and that's saying something b/c she's got some good ones. also bonus points to ILM for no one yet even mentioning oh-so-quotable song that put her on so many maps way back when.

Hon. mention to the rockers: 6'1", Help Me Mary, Mesmerizing...

Shatter is so good.

'Divorce Song' - 'cause it's helping me through mine today. My kid sis recalls fondly about how when this record came out, (93?), I sent it to her explaining that this was the best I could do to explain tough male/female relationships - me being the brother that couldn't see her through her high school years, being that there was a 9 yr difference between us.

"Divorce Song" makes me feel like a disgusting pit. So I voted for it.

i don't know this is so hard. i really kind of came around to johnny sunshine in a HUGE way. i might have to go for it.

Wow, I chose Divorce Song as well, with Dance of the Seven Veils and 6'1" in a close race. 6'1" is special to me because that's my height and it reminds me to own it ;)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

one of my favorite albums of all time. voted "fuck and run" because, like the rest of the album, it's poignant, funny and it totally rocks. tough one, though, because i love at least five other songs just as much, esp. "dance of the seven veils" and "divorce song."

Great, great, great album. I remember buying it on tape many years ago. I always used to gravitate to side 2 but but the whole thing is fantastic. As previous posters have stated, there are at least 5 other tacks on here that could get the vote. But I'm going to go for Shatter because I love the sound of that guitar.

6'1" coz of the swagger

She did a mini set on KCRW sometime between "Exile" and "Whip Smart" where she played 3 songs that I don't think ever ended up on albums, and they were just amazing. I used to have a cassette of them that I taped off the radio. "Rise," "Wasted," and "Hurricane Cindy" (the last one she actually ended up recording for a b-side late in her career, but the lyrics were totally different and it was much less creepy). I miss that tape. It had cringey Chris Douridas drooling banter between the tunes.

okay i did it. johnny sunshine it is.

Voted for "Explain It To Me" in the end. Love the electric strumming and weird electronic swirls.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I played this, but I'd probably cite "Fuck And Run".

I couldn't remember the last time I listened to it either, but this poll reminded me to pull it off the shelf/throw it, freshly encoded, onto the iPod. I went with "Strange Loop" but think I meant "Stratford-On-Guy."

she played 3 songs that I don't think ever ended up on albums

there's basically an entire CD's worth of great Liz Phair songs that never made it to LP. "Wasted" and "Hurricane Cindy" are two good examples, there are at least a dozen more.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

This is one of the least-disputable poll results I've ever seen.

"Glory" is like the only song I like on this one.. and that one song where she's like "I wanna just want ur fresh young jimmy, slamming jamming ramming in me."

sad to see "dance of the seven veils" lose out so hard. it's the sleeper hit of the album!

and no votes for 'canary' or 'gunshy' - both beautiful songs in there own right...but maybe not quite rocking enought to get the vote. i love the little tempo changes on gunshy and the fragile sounding piano on canary. hell - the whole album's great.

GUYS

i'm really upset.

i just realized

i wanted to vote for dance of the seven veils, which is the one "johnny, myyy love..."

but i thought it was Johnny Sunshine so i voted for that by mistake! ARRRRRGHHHHH! and now Dance of the seven veils has no votes :(

This disc is being reissued next month, I believe.

missed the poll.. 6'1".
I really like "Soap Star Joe" and "Canary" too. got this album back in 94, still listen to it.

prolly cuz it's pure genius

Just back from the Chicago show. WOW.

I HATE YOU!!!!!! what was the best song?

I'm not too sure! The obvious favourites (6'1, fuck and run etc) were in some ways less good, just because they were a straightforward band runthrough. More interesting was the effort they made on stuff like canary, flower, shatter, to replicate the sound of the record. Definitely one of those shows where you pick out a lot of stuff you didn't notice before - I'll be listening to the record a good deal tomorrow, I suspect.

It was essentially all great though. Even the new song in the encore seemed promising (charming solo goes at chopsticks and polyester bride, too).

nice -- i feel like that's a good sign, that those were the highlights.

i am so thrilled by the idea of a new song being "promising" (this from someone who liked albums 4 and 5 at first) i can't even put it into words

said new song:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NP8z5MQD9Sw

Pitchfork and Jim DeRogatis seemed to hate her show (Google News search them)… I hope to hear better things from the people who show up at Hiro tonight and tomorrow. People seemed to like her in SF… maybe it's just the traditional Chicago hatred of her taking over.

Is the reissue remastered?

DeRogatis looked like a bit of a dick to me (I know nothing about him more generally, fwiw); sat there with his laptop in the stalls, barely paying any attention. I think it's fair to suggest that his mind may have been made up before the show. Not quite sure that Mesmerising is a "potty-mouthed confession", either.

Apparantly there is some remastering - I think the Pfork review mentions it?

i love that song

divorce song

why can't i breathe whenever i think abt u

I didn't really think that I realizeed how highly I regarded this album (top 10 of the decade for sure) until I realized that five or six songs from it were among my favorite ever ("Glory", "Explain it to Me", "Canary", "Fuck and Run", "Divorce Song", "Johnny Sunshine"). My favorite out of all of these, and the one I wouldve voted for, is Explain it to Me. Love that song.

I don't remember this poll but I probably would have either voted DS or F and Run. Popular choices it seems. This album was really important to me for a long time.

oh yeah F&&R and DS are def #2 and #3 in my book...way glad they won!

did anybody ever do a runoff?

Her electric rhythm strum is one of my favorite songs ever.

aww man, one late write-in vote for Dance of the Seven Veils, because I too am a cunt in spring..

no, apparently I voted way back in the day. I guess Future Lex is nastier than Past Lex. I am still 6'1" though.

Her electric rhythm strum is one of my favorite songs ever.

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, April 29, 2011

SOTM - she and brad wood found a great sound on this record.

mesmerizing in particular. the bluesy little hook from same is one of my fave things to play when I'm just hangin' on the couch with a guitar.

Anyone listened to her episode of Joe Rogan yet? I just realized that it was up.

http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/liz-phair

i'll be honest, the 'joe rogan' part is a likely unsurmountable hurdle right out of the gate

Yeah, I get that. But he isn't 100% unlistenable and can be a good interviewer (with some very glaring exceptions). My breakdown of when I'll listen to Rogan from another thread:

how's life wrote this on thread Post a controversial opinion on board I Love Everything on Oct 13, 2017

lol, I'll listen to Joe Rogan if one of my favorite musicians is on. Then it'll be like Ok that was pretty cool. Who's next? A guy who hunts invasive pigs in Patagonia? Great! Sign me up! Subscribe! Next? A b-list stand-up comic. Ok, sure I guess... Next week? The more speculative side of evolutionary psychology! EJECT EJECT!

This repeats itself every 6 months or so for me. Substitute in Milo Yiannopoulos, an anti-feminist woman, or some MMA fighter in the last slot as necessary.

Point being, there's a two-hour Liz Phair interview up.

omg, like 10 minutes in and they're talking aliens.

I enjoyed it, it's just 2 hours of stoner talk

Yeah, I was enjoying it. I just got up to the part where Liz starts talking about how maybe demons are dog ghosts and had to take a little break. I'll finish it up tonight.

Haven't listened to it yet, but she's on the latest Song Exploder talking about Divorce Song.

http://songexploder.net/liz-phair

I really wish those Song Exploders were an hour long. They're great for the most part but I always want more.

My thoughts exactly! It's seemed like they could have covered a lot more

I'm not a gearhead or even a musician but I don't remember it being mentioned what kind of guitar she used

I'd bet it was her old Fender Duo Sonic. She's had other guitars since but probably not at the time.

Having never listened to Liz Phair before it's insane reading old ILM threads (not this one, the other ones)

Haven't listened to it yet, but she's on the latest Song Exploder talking about Divorce Song.

http://songexploder.net/liz-phair

― how's life, Friday, May 11, 2018 4:41 AM (nine hours ago)

I wonder if "Shane" was a sequel to "Divorce Song":

I know that it was the night
The war broke out because
You and I were driving around

You were doing a story
About if people understood
What had happened to their world
Tonight
In bed
Sleeping
The world tonight
In bed
Asleep

You said that you were in touch
With the draft resistors
In case the big boys called you up
You're gonna have to let 'em
Dick you around
But don't let 'em make
You do
What you can't live with
Tonight
In bed
With me
Sleeping
You looked like you were just a little kid

Shane, I said, you've got to watch your ass

You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
You've gotta have fear in your heart
Fear in your heart

This album is one of those albums that I've discovered is a "root" over the past 27 years since I first heard it.

I don't have much that's profound to say about that, but I don't think there's a song that I don't like on here. Hard for me to believe that "Canary" got 0 votes in the original poll, it's always been one of my favorites.

Before I started here, but this is one poll where I agree 100% with the co-winners (virtually tied for me, too).

Agree with the top five tbh

xxp yeah it's all great, including the three zero-vote tracks

I think I probably ended up voting for Shatter in the end, as I said upthread

I don't like "Stratford-on-Guy" at all, it's boring. I think each of the tracks that didn't get any votes are better.

(I mean I still like it, but it would be near the bottom of my list)

I like songs about looking out of plane windows, bored.

I'm not totally sure what made me think about this record today, for what it's worth— I was doing some work after dinner, and all of a sudden the phrase "tell him to jump higher" came into my head.

This album has some of my favorite electric rhythm strumming.

reposting these great mostly-unreleased tracks here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/lkcseenpa3i1ccd/Liz_Phair_-_Unreleased_Songs_Collection.zip/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/c1unravlu2fbti8/Liz_Phair_-_Unreleased_Songs_Collection_part_2.zip/file

1. Desperado Theme
2. Oh My God
3. If I Ever Pay You Back
4. Tell Me You Like Me
5. Firewalker
6. Hurricane Cindy
7. Don't Apologize
8. Beginning To See The Light
9. I'm Like That
10. I'll Get You High
11. Conversation Overheard Between Two Bouncers
12. Wasted
13. You Have No Idea
14. Russian Girl
15. I'm A Believer
16. Waiting For The Bird
17. Freak Of Nature

1, 4, 9, 14, 16, 17 - from White Chocolate Space Egg solo demos boot CDR
2 - Squirt TV, 1.96
3, 8 - Minneapolis 4.22.95
5, 7 - Wellesley 4.30.99
6 - unknown demo
10, 13 - NYC 4.25.95
11 - live, source unknown
12 - KCRW, 12.8.94
15 - live, source unknown

This album has some of my favorite electric rhythm strumming.

100% same

xp thanks, sleeve!

Good ol’ “Hurricane Cindy”

Thanks sleeve.

(I have all the WCSE demos somewhere but don’t know where, and it’s been a while.)

I know it's lo-fi but "Conversation Between Two Bouncers" is just incredible

happy to throw these out into the world again! I made this from my own bootlegs CDRs and tapes, I got like a dozen boot tapes off of eBay in the mid-2000s and went through all of them for the gold.

(the tapes were bought as a lot, to be clear)

many thanks, sleeve.

First-past-the-post is so cruel. "Dance of the Seven Veils" and "Canary" might even have been my favourite tracks 2/3 of a lifetime ago. Some days, at least.

I was shocked how few songs she played from Exile a few years ago and there wasn't a big audience pop for "Fuck and Run" or "Divorce Song" - and most of the audience sang along to "Why Can't I" (which I like). Completely flipped my expectations of what a Liz Phair concert audience in 2018 (or 2017) was into.

A lot of great songs on this album (“Shatter” is sorta its lowkey MVP)… but I still remember what it is was like to hear “Fuck and Run” those first few times, in someone’s car, it felt like something totally new and I just had to get the album.

sleeve, not for the first time, you are a true hero to Liz Phair fans around these parts!

"Why Can't I" still pops up on the semi-reg on Adult Contemporary/Hits Radio.

that’s pretty wild, I was just driving home late at night and “Shatter” popped up on the shuffled iPod I use for car play, I marvelled at its greatness in the dark.

Newly released outtake to mark 30th Anniversary: https://matablog.matadorrecords.com/2023/06/22/liz-phair-exile-in-guyville-30th-anniversary-edition-miss-lucy/

(I have a ticket to the L.A. show in November)

This is one of the greatest albums of all time, also: Brad Wood and Gordon Raphael tied for #1 in the category of "spectacular producers who deserve more acclaim that they've received".

*than, doy

This is one of the greatest albums of all time, also: Brad Wood and Gordon Raphael tied for #1 in the category of "spectacular producers who deserve more acclaim that they've received".

old friend asked me to be her date since her actual date couldn’t make it tonight— amazing show tbh.

(Philly show)

lots of gen xers and older millennials with their young children, everyone singing along to every song. very lovely experience

yeah I went to the SF show weekend before last & it was so fun

also singing “Fuck & Run” at the top of my lungs the first time in a while is very therapeutic <3

If I was voting today it probably would’ve been “Mesmerizing”.

yeah "Mesmerizing" is a jam. loved seeing her perform it live the other nite.