Liz Phair
Liz Phair (* 17th April 1967 in New Haven , Connecticut , real name Elizabeth Clark Phair) is an American rock - singer . Her music combines rock sounds with often blunt song lyrics, which often revolve around love and sex, but which also deal critically with gender roles. In the past few years Phairs Sound has developed a bit more in a pop-oriented direction.
With the release of her album Exile in Guyville , Phair is considered to be one of the pioneers of numerous female songwriters who were also commercially successful in the music business from the mid-1990s.
biography
Liz Phair was born by Dr. John Phair and Nancy Phair adopted, as did their older brother Phillip B. Phair. She spent her childhood in New Haven, Connecticut , and later moved with her family to Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago . In 1989 she graduated from Oberlin, Ohio, with a degree in Art History and Studio Art . After a trip to San Francisco , she returned to Chicago.
In Chicago, at the suggestion of a friend, she began recording demo tapes on which she plays and sings electric guitar . On these tapes, they Girly Sound called, were a total of 32 songs in a roundabout way to John Henderson, head of the Indie - record label Feel Good All Over , arrived. He immediately offered her to re-record some tracks with bassist and producer Brad Wood - but nothing came of it because Phair and Henderson could not agree on the arrangement of the songs.
She still worked with Wood and created a demo tape with him in 1992 with six songs, which she sent to the record label Matador Records , which also signed Pavement , Yo La Tengo , The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and later Cat Power . She immediately received a two album and EP deal and began working on Exile in Guyville . The title of the album is a reference to Exile on Main Street from the Rolling Stones - the "Guyville" is supposed to stand for the male-dominated indie scene in Chicago. This album was released in 1993 and received many positive reviews and is listed by the American Rolling Stone in the list of 200 Essential Albums .
Whip-Smart , their album released the following year, received mixed reviews, but the first single Supernova received a lot of airplay on MTV and thus earned Phair a top ten position in the US modern rock charts. Despite good sales figures, however, the breakthrough to a wider audience failed to materialize. In 1995 her label released the Juvenilia EP, which included a cover version of the Vapors classic Turning Japanese as well as numerous tracks from earlier demo recordings.
Also in 1995, Phair married Jim Staskauskas, a film director whom she met while shooting a video clip . A year later their son was born, but the marriage broke up a few years later.
In August 1998, a musically visibly mature Phair released the album whitechocolatespaceegg , which, however, had rather moderate success. It was initially produced by Scott Litt, the producer of REM , but she was unsatisfied with the sound and reworked it with Brad Wood. Because of this and the birth of their son, production took two years. After working on the album, she toured the USA with the Lilith Fair Festival.
After a five-year hiatus, she completed work on her album Liz Phair in June 2003 , which was released on Capitol Records. The album and the singles Why Can't I? and Extraordinary were successful in the charts - but the fans from the very beginning accused her of "selling out" because the album was more oriented towards the pop mainstream . In 2005, Somebody's Miracle was their second and last album for Capitol. She released her next album Funstyle in 2010 on her own label Rocket Science Records .
She was involved in the soundtracks of several TV series ( Swingtown , 90210 , The Beautiful Life , In Plain Sight , State of Georgia , Super Fun Night and The 100 ) and received ASCAP Awards for "Top Television Composer" in 2009 and 2014 ".
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
 US
|
|||
| 1993 | Exile in Guyville |
US196  (1 week)US |
First published: June 22, 1993
|
| 1994 | Whip-Smart |
US27 (17 weeks)US |
First published: September 20, 1994
|
| 1998 | Whitechocolatespaceegg |
US35 (9 weeks) US |
First published: August 11, 1998
|
| 2003 | Liz Phair |
US27 (18 weeks)US |
First published: June 24, 2003
|
| 2005 | Somebody's Miracle |
US46 (2 weeks) US |
First published: October 4, 2005
|
| 2010 | Funstyle |
US181 (1 week) US |
First published: July 3, 2010
|
EPs
| year | title | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Juvenilia (EP) | First published: August 8, 1995 |
| 2003 | Comeandgetit | First published: June 24, 2003 |
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
|
US
|
|||
| 1994 | Supernova Whip-Smart |
US78 (14 weeks) US |
First published: July 23, 1994
|
| 2003 | Why Can't I? Liz Phair |
US32 (20 weeks)US |
First published: September 8, 2003
|
As a guest musician
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2002 | Soak Up the Sun C'mon, C'mon |
DE96 (2 weeks) DE |
AT15 (14 weeks) AT |
CH15 (30 weeks) CH |
UK16 (10 weeks) UK |
US17 (29 weeks) US |
First published: March 25, 2002
( Sheryl Crow feat. Liz Phair) |
More singles
|
more songs
|
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brooke Carter: What Happened to Liz Phair - News & Updates , Gazette Review, October 25, 2016
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: US
- ↑ Awards: US
Web links
- Liz Phair in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website (with audio samples)
- Liz Phair at laut.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Phair, Liz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Phair, Elizabeth Clark |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rock singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 17, 1967 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Haven (Connecticut) |