Liz Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly Sound, before signing with the independent record label Matador Records. Her 1993 debut studio album Exile in Guyville was released to acclaim; it has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Phair has sold nearly three million records worldwide and had two Grammy nominations. More than two decades after the release of her debut, Phair’s influence over female voices in alternative music can still be felt today.
Elizabeth Clark Phair (4/17/67) was born in New Haven, Connecticut, adopted at birth and raised primarily in the Chicago area. Phair grew up in Winnetka. During her high school years, no one imagined the musical career she would embark on as she was on the cross country team and involved in student government at New Trier High School.
It was after graduating from Oberlin College in 1990 that Phair embarked on her musical journey, first heading to San Francisco, but returning to the urban energy of the Chicago alternative music scene in the early ‘90s. At the time, independent bands were releasing cassette-only EPs, Phair offering hers under the Girly Sound moniker.
Those Girly Sound tapes, raw four-track cassette-only releases of work done in her bedroom studio, and an independent single “Carnivore” (Minty Fresh) led to her signing a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records.
Always sporting an attitude, her debut Exile in Guyville “was a middle finger to the boys club of ‘90s rock,” said Phair in a story published in Record Sleeve. “I felt written out of rock & roll, and I was writing myself back in. I was trying to write the girl experience into rock history.” The album cover challenged “how society uses the female body and women’s sexuality to sell everything.” Nash Kato of Urge Overkill suggested Liz pose topless for the cover. So she hopped into a photo booth at Chicago’s Rainbow Club. “It all goes back to exposure as power versus exposure as abuse. Fighting for agency, fighting for authorship.”
Her sophomore outing Whip Smart garnered her a Grammy nomination in 1995 for Best Female Rock Performance for “Supernova” https://youtu.be/tM60GAPIXTY and again in 1996 for “Don’t Have Time” https://youtu.be/LGAti8oJzDs.
Phair married in 1995; her next release Whitechocolatespaceegg was delayed due to disagreements with her label. By this time, neither Phair nor Matador were independents, the label securing a distribution agreement with Capitol, who were asking for more “radio friendly” content while Phair had continued her themes on the social perceptions of women in a “man’s world” with “Polyester Bride” https://youtu.be/utiquyN-Zz4. She supported the work, touring as part of the Lilith Fair with Sarah McLachlan, and opening for Alanis Morissette.
Through the normal maturation process, a decade since her debut, her music reflected some of the ways marriage (she divorced in 2001) and motherhood affected her. Coupled with the commercial appeal, Phair’s sound moved more into a pop-rock direction, crossing over into mainstream success. With that, her self-titled album Liz Phair (Capitol) spawned the single “Why Can’t I” https://youtu.be/qUALb0sGdto which rose to #32 on the Billboard Hot 100, but more importantly, was honored as the “Most Performed Work” at the 2005 BMI Pop Awards and the ASCAP Pop Music Awards.
Phair signed with ATO Records in early 2008 and re-released Exile in Guyville. The special reissue package included three never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: “Ant in Alaska,” “Say You,” and an untitled instrumental.
In 2009, Phair began working as a television composer, pulling down an ASCAP Award for Top Television Composer for her work on the CW network’s reboot of “90210.” Other recent work includes the theme song for NBC‘s “The Weber Show.” She’s also worked on the CBS show “Swingtown,” CW’s “The 100” and the USA Network program “Plain Sight.”
2010 saw Phair return to her own independence, but it was not necessarily her initial choice. She had uploaded some new songs on her website which caused consternation with her label and she quickly pulled them down. She told the Wall Street Journal, “The people who were still there didn’t like, or didn’t know what to do with, the music I was making, so we just stalled out and I asked to leave.” She then posted some of the songs on her website, but quickly pulled them down. “Those songs lost me my management, my record deal and a lot of nights of sleep.”
Phair took the songs, coupled them with some of her early Girly Sound material, and released them on her own Rocket Science Ventures label as Funstyle.
Nearly 30 years after its release, as Rolling Stone has noted, Exile in Guyville still stands as a landmark album in music history. Critic Alan Light notes, “Phair spoke for the uncertainties facing a new generation of women, struggling to find a balance between sexual confidence and romance, between independence and isolation. … Exile in Guyville sat at the center of a culture in transition.” Matador Records celebrated the release in 2018 with a 25th anniversary box set, Girly-Sound to Guyville.
Phair has chronicled the trials and tribulations of her career in her 2019 memoir Horror Stories (Random House).
Discography
GIRLY SOUND
(cassette-only releases)
1991 Girls Girls Girls (Everything In Your Hand)
1991 Yo You Buddy Yup Yup Word to Ya Muthuh (Everything In Your Hand)
LIZ PHAIR
1993 Carnivore b/w Carnivore “Raw” (Minty Fresh MF-4)
1993 Exile in Guyville (Matador OLE 051)
1994 Whip-Smart (Matador OLE 107 / Atlantic 92429)
1998 Whitechocolatespaceegg (Matador OLE 191)
2003 Liz Phair (Capitol 724352208401)
2005 Somebody’s Miracle (Capitol 72435777592)
2009 Exile in Guyville (ATO 0059)
2010 Funstyle (Rocket Science Ventures RSV 028)
2018 Girly-Sound to Guyville (Matador)
2021 Soberish (Chrysalis)