FASTER, HARDER, SHORTER
Curated by Steven Gallagher and Scott Macaulay

September 21: Acting and Performance

DOWN (excerpt)
Rodney Ascher, Director

50 rolls of still film plus 1 musical icon (Liz Phair) plus 100s of unsuspecting Chinese New Year parade spectators minus extras, lighting and permits multiplied by over 4 weeks of after effects work equals 1 music video about emotional and literal firecrackers. Running time: 3 min.

Pete Yorn Working With Liz Phair When Not Tinkering In Garage

By Corey Moss

LOS ANGELES - Pete Yorn has been on tour practically nonstop since his debut album was released in the spring, though it hasn't kept the New Jersey native from finishing nearly half of his next disc.

Before Yorn's new album is out, fans can hear him on Liz Phair's spring release. He wrote and arranged four tracks for the project after meeting her through [Brad] Wood and [R. Walt] Vincent, who are also both working on it.

"I gave her what I thought would be cool arrangements for some songs," Yorn said. "Her new songs are great and totally cool. The new stuff is kind of a return to Exile in Guyville (1993)."

If you missed the premiere (Wednesday, November 7th), here is the upcoming schedule:

• Sunday, November 11 at 6 PM ET
• Monday, November 19 at 1 PM ET

"Gary Clark is currently writing with Liz Phair for her new album and recently produced Natalie Imbruglia for RCA. Gary just completed producing Nicola Charles for Mushroom Records and has written a song for Vitamin C."

Clark has also worked in the past with Lauren Christy, Julia Fordham and k d lang.

Liz Phair Nabs Michael Penn For New Album

By Corey Moss

HOLLYWOOD - Liz Phair has enlisted singer/songwriter Michael Penn to produce several songs for her upcoming fourth album.

Phair, a Chicago native, recently relocated to Los Angeles, where she is about halfway through recording the as-yet-untitled project.

"Michael's sound is something that I have never really heard before," Phair said backstage at Saturday's Breathe breast cancer benefit concert, where she performed three tunes with Third Eye Blind. "He places me in it so beautifully. He'll do things like get an industrial sound and replace it for a snare drum. It's one of the most intense-sounding things I've ever done."

Penn, who has previously done production work for his wife, Aimee Mann, as well as for the Wallflowers, is working with Phair at a studio in the famous Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, fine-tuning a number of songs she wrote recently with songwriter Gary Clark.

Singer/songwriter Pete Yorn has also produced some material for Phair follow-up to 1998's Whitechocolatespaceegg.

Once considered the poster girl for indie rock, Phair came to prominence in 1993 with the release of Exile in Guyville, a song-for-song response to the Rolling Stones' classic Exile on Main Street. Her second album, Whip-Smart, featured the hit "Supernova".

Phair, whose stage fright kept her from touring for several years early in her career, said she is scheduled to hit the road next summer. "So the record should be coming out by then," she said.

Her spokesperson at Capitol said there is no release date yet for the album.

"Then 3eb came out and played: 'Gradate', 'Never Let you Go' and 'Jumper' (Liz Phair sang 'Jumper') and then she did a couple songs and during one Stephan sang with her. The whole time, Arion, Tony and Brad were acting as her band."

To recap, here is a setlist of Liz's performance:

• Jumper (guitar and backing vocals for Third Eye Blind)
• Supernova
• Fuck And Run (duet with Stephan Jenkins)

"Liz came on in the middle of the 3EB [Third Eye Blind] set. She played, backing vocals on a 3EB song, 'Supernova' with 3EB backing her, 'Fuck and Run' as a duet w/ 3EB frontman [Stephan Jenkins]. He was out of tune, out of rhythm and too loud. Liz was under amped but rockin' anyways. It was the best 15 minutes of the month."

If you have a concert review / report you would like to contribute, email me.

"It's fun to mix and match... It's always interesting for the audience to see some of their favorite artists pairing up in unusual ways. It gives the night a little bit of spontaneity and excitement, and that's fun for the artists, too."

Topics covered in the article include:

• Liz's plans to collaborate at the concert with Stephan Jenkins/Third Eye Blind and Remy Zero
• her new album and plans to tour in 2002
• her stage fright (or lack thereof)
• Chicago and Los Angeles

For the complete article, click here.

5.30.01 ~ blackvanillaearthzygote

Liz Phair is currently in the studio working on her fourth album for Capitol Records. She has worked with several people for the upcoming album, including Brad Wood, Michael Penn, Pete Yorn, Matt Mahaffey (Self), and Ken Andrews (Failure, ON). Whether or not all these collaborations will make the final cut is yet to be seen, as 35 songs have been written. Look for the album late in the year or in early 2002.

yewknee

And here are some comments from Matt Mahaffey:

09/03/01 - from Matt Mahaffey @ spongebathrec.com

hello friends & fans, matt m here. long time no hear from. well, the world of self has been busy. we are working on our next album, due in the summer & finished a song for the movie "shrek" called "stay home". i just got back from tokyo where "gizmodgery" is finally being released (& will include the japan only bonus track "resurrect"). the japanese seem to really dig "giz" & we will be touring there in august. so, book your flight early.... anyway, in addition to self, as always, producing has been fruitful. i am currently working with "pidgeon john" (from the l.a. symphony) for his solo record, mixing some songs with liz phair, & writing a bit with ken andrews for the next "ON" record. also just mixed a mega-mix by cut chemist (jurassic 5) for release on stones throw this summer. very groovy stuff. as for "selfafornia", i gave the cd to spongebath months ago. & if i knew how to encode it onto a web site i would. so....i'm finding the dopest web designers to create "MY SELF SITE THAT WILL BE UPDATED REGULARLY" with juicy bits & you'll be able to hear it there! as well as mattmahaffey.com (sounds conceited eh?) for people, labels, artists to sift thru & see what they dig. not to slag the 'bath but i truly have no idea what is going on there, i live 2250 miles away. cool? cool. *mm.

(NOTE: The Stones Throw release mentioned by Matt Mahaffey is entitled The Funky 16 Corners -- a fine compilation, in my opinion.)

Stephanie from Orlando, FL: Pete -- your set in Orlando was incredible, and thanks for staying to meet your fans! How did you meet the great Liz Phair, and how was your experience working together? Thanks for sharing your music! [NOTE: Pete Yorn performed at the Sapphire Supper Club in Orlando, Florida on August 10th.]

Pete Yorn: I met Liz Phair through Brad Wood or her manager or Ken Andrews. I think it was Ken Andrews. Working with her was great her new songs were amazing. She's a really cool girl, and I can't wait to hear her new record.

The complete chat transcript is available here.

Bell Ringer: It's been reported that you and Liz Phair are collaborating to write some new songs for her upcoming album. How did this come about?

Pete Yorn: She was just looking for a place to record some stuff and she really liked what I did with Walt Vincent and Brad Wood, whom she worked with before and they're really close. She came down and Walt called and said, "Dude, get your ass down here. You're going to play on these demos." So I helped write out some of her new songs and played drums and guitar on a bunch of them and that was it. They're really good songs, some of the best I've heard since Exile in Guyville.

The complete interview is available here.

For more information on BREATHE please call (323) 549-5347.

Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232 and www.ticketmaster.com.

As it turns out, the fourth song that Liz contributed to Julie Johnson is entitled "Faded" (a fast-paced rocker). To recap, the four songs that Liz contributed to the film are:

• Faded
• She's Gone (played during the end titles)
• Appletree
• Uncle Alvarez (from whitechocolatespaceegg)

Also, a source has told me that Liz has shot some extra footage for the "Down" video -- whether or not this footage will be used remains to be seen.

"The iconography of cult hero-dom is constantly evolving: Being a socialist (Billy Bragg) or possessing a world-class sense of the absurd (Randy Newman) is nice, but when seeking an underground hero afterlife, total commercial rejection is a must (to be sampled by the mainstream and rejected -- think Liz Phair, or Lou Reed -- is even better)."

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