"Exile in Guyville was a very intentional art piece for me, and I had a lot of conceptual art things that I was playing with. A lot of people took it as if that's just the way I found it and that's just the person that I was. And they didn't know my previous work, so how would they know? But for me, it was a very intentional thing to be doing, and I was very aware of how risqué my lyrics were. [Guyville studio musicians] Brad [Wood] and Casey [Rice] knew it too. We talked about it. They got into it, and I love them for that. They added so much to that record, and we all knew what we were doing."

"I love the whole bootleg culture though, like how things get snuck out of the recording studio, and how [people] even get a hold of them, I don’t know. No one’s even making any money in music anyway, like, what does it matter? It’s nice that there are rarities. And to pick which ones to use for the disc I went to Ken Lee of [Phair fansite] Mesmerizing and asked, 'Which ones are the best?' And I pretty much used his list."

You can read the rest of the interview at Crawdaddy.

Liz Phair followed, a well respected artist who has been doing the rounds for some two decades, while selling some three million records worldwide. I was quite looking forward to her set, but I felt it fell a little flat. She brought a random from the crowd onto the stage for one of her tracks, which livened things up briefly, but ultimately something just didn't quite connect with the crowd. All this said, however, it remained a tight and enjoyable set from the Chicago based performer, and it was a pleasure to see her perform. Props to Perez for managing to get her onto the lineup.

You can read the rest of the SXSW report here.

I also have made the Perez Hilton show a personal tradition at SXSW as he brings some interesting new artists I have not heard before, and some interesting and surprising headliners. I entered the venue to the sound of dj duo Nervo and found my way to the backstage area where the performers would pose for us throughout the evening.

Liz Phair, dressed in a too-short miniskirt was next, and she was probably the surprise headliner as she only did one other set at SXSW that I know of. Taylor Momson and the Pretty Reckless was next (and I think this was their only SXSW set). Taylor did manage to dress even more provocatively than Liz Phair and her angst rock was actually fairly palatable.

You can read the rest of the SXSW report plus see photos (including Liz) also taken by John Davisson here.

Joseph Arthur announces The Graduation Ceremony (May 24th / Lonely Astronaut), his first solo album since 2006's Nuclear Daydream.

The Graduation Ceremony credits:

Produced by: John Alagia & Joseph Arthur
Recorded by: Sheldon Gomberg at Carriage House LA and John Alagia at Village Recording
Mixed by: John Alagia at Village Recording / Mastered by: Scott Hull at Masterdisk

Tracklisting:

1. Out on a Limb
2. Horses
3. Almost Blue
4. Someone to Love
5. Watch our Shadows Run
6. This Is Still My World
7. Over the Sun
8. Face in the Crowd
9. Midwest
10. Gypsy Faded
11. Call
12. Love Never Asks You to Lie

Joseph Arthur has tweeted that Liz played piano on "Almost Blue" and vocals on "Midwest".

Liz Phair talks about the advantages and disadvantages of being a woman in the music industry.

Overall, though, Phair says she enjoyed making music for the point of, well, making music: "We all have a different sense than we did before, where there was huge amounts of money being put into record-making. Now it's so much cheaper to make music that we have an attitude that kind of goes along with it. Everybody does it for the love of doing it. And that's what Funstyle was all about -- just the love of making music between friends."

You can watch Spin's SXSW Liz interview here.

Liz Phair is one of my all-time favorites. I was so excited to hear that she'd be at SXSW. However, she ended up not having a showcase (as far as I know), but playing a few special things, like this at the IFC/Crossroads House. It was a weird setup, a big camera rig in the middle of the room, and a dude in the crowd with another giant camera. And, it was hot. But it was so worth it. Got to hear lots of my favorites. She plays the Perez Hilton party tonight, so I may try to catch her again. BTW, Perez was there, standing next to me for a little while before the show.

You can read the rest of the review plus several photos of Liz and video of Supernova from the show here.

From SpinningPlatters.com (by Dakin Hardwick):

Liz Phair

This was billed as 'Liz Phair & The FreeCreditScore.com Band', which I thought would be fun...

On the other hand, Liz Phair sounded great. She opened with the blistering mid 90's hit "Supernova", then dived straight into "6'1"", then "Never Said". She played a greatest hits set complete with only one track off last year's maligned Funstyle record. The only thing odd about this set was that all of the tracks from the lofi classic Exile In Guyville seemed inappropriate next to the bigger, more produced tracks from later records. Although, even that was forgiven when she closed with an especially dry reading of "Fuck & Run", punctuating the humor of the song.

You can read more of his SXSW reviews here.

From The Austin Chronicle (by Richard Whittaker):

Liz Phair
ACL Live at the Moody Theater, March 19

"Seriously? No takers for 'Hot White Cum'?" Seems like neither age nor motherhood had dented Liz Phair's delight in crudity. Inside a packed Moody Theater, Perez Hilton's official SXSW party was running late, with gaggles of stage crew having pointed discussions stage left as Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe padded out a bland DJ set with violins stage right. Outside, it was a confused mess of various colored wrist bands, rival invite lists, and overflow lines full of disappointed guests. So there was raw relief when Phair finally lit the fuse on "Supernova". Steering clear of anything after her eponymous 2003 album, she fulfilled the first of two requests from the evening's host when an audience member joined her on backing vocals for the slutty-sweet playground chant of "Flower". The second favor was the real gift to the audience: the wistful swing of "Polyester Bride", still breaking hearts.

You can read the rest of the Austin Chronicle's SXSW reviews here.

From Roy Christopher:

Somehow, my man Merrick (of Music Impacts — more on this project on the site later) got us into the VIP at Perez Hilton's party at The Moody Theatre, where we drank free drinks and watched Liz Phair freaking own the place. No small feat considering the size of that monstrosity. We stumbled off into the night not long after her stellar set (which included classics like "Supernova", "6'1"", "Flower", and closed with "Fuck and Run").

You can read the rest of his SXSW review here.

Here are some SXSW reports which mention Liz (and may have photos of her):

• Image Amplified (mention of Liz at Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin" plus photo)
• Austin Post (brief review of Liz's Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin" performance plus photo)
• Mollywood U.S.A. (brief review of Liz's Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin" by Liz's high school friend Molly Bryant)
• FreeCreditScoreBand.com (The American Secret's bassist/singer Bryon Rossi reflects on SXSW 2011 with mention of opening for Liz)
• Blare Magazine (SXSW act K.Flay names Liz's Exile In Guyville her favorite record and explains why)
• The Music Fix (photos of Liz at Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin")

A few videos (courtesy of clickdagger):

• Liz and Perez Hilton backstage
• Supernova (from Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin")

You can read click & dagger's behind-the-scenes report from Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin" here.

Does anyone have the complete setlist from Liz's performance at Perez Hilton's "One Night In... Austin"? From the show reports:

• Supernova (opener)
• 6'1"
• Polyester Bride
• Extraordinary
• Mesmerizing
• Flower
• Fuck And Run (closer)

Any help with the setlist would be appreciated!

Mike Ragogna: What's happening in the news lately that has your eye?

Liz Phair: Well, I'm watching Libya because I completely, inaccurately, predicted that the son would sort of step in and see reason. Obviously, what's happening in America and around the world, with global corporations superseding nationhood as the powers that be -- that's disturbing. And of course, Charlie Sheen -- I've been following that train wreck.

You can read the rest of the interview at The Huffington Post.

Liz Phair stopped by SPIN's SXSW outpost, the Shed at Stubb's in Austin, to visit with us, shoot a video interview, and have her portrait taken. This pic was taken by photographer Frankie Norstad.

(Photo credit: Frankie Norstad / Spin)

You can see more photos from Spin's SXSW gallery here.

• Austin American-Statesman
• KCRW
• PopMatters
• LAsThePlace.com
• Examiner.com
• Boston Globe
• Monograms and Margaritas (this one focused on the dress Liz was wearing)

An icon and a woman that paved the way for others after her, we were so honors to have Liz Phair perform at our One Night In... Austin event on Saturday.

AND, she played several of our requests!

She brought it!!!

We were in heaven, as was Taylor Momsen, who was so stoked to meet the rock legend.

View photos of Liz from the show here.

Not many people were singing along with Phair, who was joined by a guitarist, bassist and drummer, and played six songs from across her sizable discography, including oldie "Flower", middle-period "Polyester Bride" and newer song "Extraordinary". It made those who were singing along wonder who exactly people were there to see, if not this rock icon. The night did feature some solid talents later, including Sweden's Oh Land, but the draw seemed mostly to be about Perez and his bizarre but increasingly legitimate cred as a party organizer and curator of pop music.

Read the rest of the report plus view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Rebecca Smeyne) here.

Later that evening, I made my way to Perez Hilton's One Night in Austin Party, which boasted a somewhat uneven lineup and was plagued by admittance issues. I arrived in time to hear some Liz Phair classics and then saw The Pretty Reckless tear through a set of songs from their debut album Light Me Up.

Read the rest of the report plus view a photo of Liz from the show here.

That's not true everywhere at the massive music fest, where parties are often headlined by established stars. Liz Phair and Dirty Vegas (unseen by me; I called it a night about six hours into the eight-hour showcase) played Perez's party, but most of the acts on the bill needed some introduction.

Read the rest of the SXSW Perez Hilton showcase review plus a photo of Liz here.

Then it was time for "icon of rock 'n' roll" Liz Phair. I have to say she didn't look like she'd aged a day since her Exile era (she was lovely and leggy in a uni-shouldered, psychedelic-print micro-minidress and teetering stilettos), and I was pleased that she stuck mostly to her classic girlysounds, like "Polyester Bride", the infamous oral sex anthem "Flower", and my personal favorite, "Supernova", all songs that have aged about as well as Liz has. This was a major relief , since no one really needed to hear anything off 's misleadingly titled recent Funstyle album (especially the single "Bollywood", a tune so terrible and lyrically ridiculous even Rebecca Black would balk). "I like my new records, but some of you prefer the older ones," Liz admitted. Well, at least she was honest, and wise enough to give the people what they wanted.

Read the rest of the SXSW Saturday review plus photos of Liz here.

Most Unexpected Thing We Have in Common With Perez Hilton: Liz Phair

Who knew that the Venn diagram of things beloved by both Perez Hilton and your average rock critic would include the exact same Liz Phair songs? The One Night in Austin host slipped Phair a request list before her set, and the songs on it — 1993's "Flower" and "Mesmerizing", as well as 1998's "Polyester Bride" — were on our Liz Phair bucket list, too. Fans like us, who may or may not have been bored by Phair's pop direction as of late, were treated to a batch of songs from her trio of near-perfect early career albums instead. Thanks, Perez. We're going to shower now.

Read the rest of the SXSW day four review here.

"I have a guitar pedal nicknamed the dickless wonder," laughed Phair, wearing heels and a miniskirt. "Actually, I'm the dickless wonder."

Read the rest of the review plus view photos and video ("6'1"") from the show here (alternate link here).

UPDATE: This link will take you to the Ted Leo Liz interview plus a live performance of "Cinco De Mayo" from the IFC SXSW showcase.

Besides her awesome set list, one of the other highlights of the night was when Liz invited a willing participant from the crowd to come on stage and sing back-up on her oh-so-raunchy classic "Flower". A murmur went through the audience as people were trying to decide if they had the nerve to go up there or not. Some people were quietly on the fence while others were muttering phrases like, "Oh hells to the no!" or "Omg, I wish." After a few tense seconds of debate, one girl decided she was going to do it. She actually got up there on stage and took up her own mic! And she even had a sort of mini practice session with Liz.

Read the rest of the review plus view photos from the show here.

"Everything on Funstyle is recorded on the fly," said Phair. "That's the fun of Funstyle. It's sort of me saying you too can make music."

From West Hollywood Patch (review by Nicole Pajer):

After expressing concern over the crisis in Japan and her worry that she had been "radiafied", she dove right into several songs from her critically acclaimed, Exile in Guyville, including "6'1"", "Help Me Mary", and "Divorce Song". Following the openers, Phair performed a mixture of hits, as well as several new songs off her latest release, Funstyle.

Read the rest of the interview and review plus view photos from the show at West Hollywood Patch.

Noticing the opening band, Cathy's setlist still stuck to the stage (not far from her left foot), Liz Phair told the crowd that she felt tempted to play one of their songs. Temptation soon turned into action, as Phair choose a random title off of Cathy's setlist... and briefly made up her own song for it on the spot. The band and the audience had a good laugh...

Skipping "Perfect World" on the setlist, Liz Phair and the band went right into "Mesmerizing"... another great track off of Guyville... Liz Phair later returned with a 4-song encore that included "Cinco De Mayo" from Whip Smart, as well as brand new song that she had yet to record, or even perform live before: "Soul Dedication"... a moving, mid-temp tune that will hopefully find its way on to her next album.

Read the rest of the review plus view photos from the show (taken by Erik Jordan) here.

Liz did not reveal when her album would be released but I'm hoping it'll be out this Summer, about a year after she released Funstyle on her official website. The show was great, Liz sounded amazing and Josh and I had a blast! We had a fabulous night with Liz Phair :)

Read the rest of the review plus view photos and two videos ("May Queen" and "Sole Dedication"/"Soul Dedication") from the show here.

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me, Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Never Said
• Nashville
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Flower (with back-up sung by a volunteer from the audience)
• Mesmerizing
• Drunk Ass Buzz (a song by her opening act, Cathy)
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford on Guy
• Fuck and Run
• Cinco de Mayo (encore)
• Sole Dedication (new song, encore)
• Why Can't I? (encore)
• Johnny Feelgood (encore)

New, possibly unfinished song, "Soul Dedication". It would sound very at home on whitechocolatespaceegg.

Follow up:

The lyrics make it sound like that should be "Sole Dedication".

UPDATE: Here is video of "Sole Dedication" ("Soul Dedication"?), courtesy of Trent Vanegas.

"Chris [Brokaw] and I barely knew each other," maintained Phair. "He had been the lead singer and visionary behind the coolest band at my college. I had seen some of his shows, but I really didn't meet him until he visited San Francisco. He heard me playing my guitar and asked me if I was singing songs I wrote. I told him yes, and he said I should record them. I told him I couldn't do that, and Chris said, "Come on, do it for me. Just record a tape of your songs for me." That's really how the Girly Sound songs first came about because he basically dared me to do it for him."

You can read the rest of the interview at JAM Magazine.

You talk about the "Dogs of L.A." on Whip-Smart. Who are they, and where's the "shit-brown reservoir"?

We are all the dogs of L.A. Shit brown reservoir deceptively named "Silver Lake".

You can read the rest of the interview at Los Angeles Magazine.

For a lot of people coming for SXSW, they're playing some of their first shows ever. Do you remember your first show?

I remember it vividly. I don't remember the name of the venue, but I don't even know if you really want to call it a venue -- it was really just a bar that people could stand in. It was on Division Street in Chicago. My record [Exile In Guyville] was already made before I'd ever played my first live show. Matador had it and it was about to come out.

I remember my roommate, that I was fighting with at the time, John Henderson, he was so excited and laughing because he knew what I was about to experience. He's like, "You're so fucked. You better go play live because it's a benefit you know, like Adam Rich." I'm thinking, "Shit, okay. I'll do it, I'll do it." And my knees are knocking. I'm wearing this little pleated skirt with little white socks and clogs -- don't ask me why, but I thought that was really cute at that time -- and I just remember playing like six or seven songs on stage by myself. It didn't go as badly as I thought, but it was definitely kind of shocking to be playing my first show days before my record was coming out.

You can read the rest of the interview at Austinist.

So is it exciting to go back now and just be indie again? And it's kind of even more indie than you were, because you did this yourself. Like you made the move, you put Funstyle out on your own website, and then you found a label to put it out physically.

It's great! I have to say I'm loving my career again, because it's really all about the music. There's not all these people with all these vested interests and there isn't this huge amount of money. When you bring a lot of money into something, the pressures go up and the control goes up as well, so you're not as free. Everything is a trade-off. What I don't have is the cushy glamour fun stuff, which frankly I love. I really miss doing photo shoots. Those were always really fun for me!

You can read the rest of the interview at LA Music Blog.

She wanted to hear from her audience, asking what they wanted her to play, denying requests only when they were related to the late Jim Ellison of Material Issue ("It makes me sad") or when she just couldn't remember her own lyrics ("I write a lot of songs, I can't remember them all — obviously I don't know the scream-out favorites"). She almost had me thinking she'd satisfy a cliche call for "Free Bird".

You can read the rest of the review plus view photos of Liz from the show (taken by Robert E. Klein) at the Orange County Register.

The setlist:

• Supernova
• 6'1"
• Help Me, Mary
• Divorce Song
• May Queen
• Never Said
• Nashville
• And He Slayed Her
• Polyester Bride
• Perfect World
• Mesmerizing
• Oh, Bangladesh
• Extraordinary
• Stratford-On-Guy
• Fuck and Run
• Cinco de Mayo
• Why Can't I?
• Johnny Feelgood

"I'm way too old for that," she laughs. "Proving myself? That's gotta be a younger sport. I mean, approval? In general, approval feels like a really old thing I was involved in a lot longer ago. Jesus, I've spent a lot longer time thinking about the fact that I'm going to be dead soon. I don't have time to think about bullshit like proving myself. Who gives a shit? I want to do stuff that affects people. If anything, I'm into trying to get it right in terms of wht I want [people] to feel, be able to elicit that feeling. And I definitely don't always get it right. But I extremely love it when I do."

You can read the rest of (part two of) the interview here.

"As for any new CDs, we're starting to get ready to record again. We're testing those new songs out on this tour. But I have no clue when the new CD will come out. That's another thing about the excellent new climate – I just put things out when I'm ready. That's awesome! I don't have to fit into anybody's business formula."

You can read the rest of the interview at Boomerocity.com.

Well, I'm going to be playing some new songs that aren't recorded yet... that are for an upcoming album. We're going to start churning them out on stage and see how they do. That's exciting because that means we're heading to more recording and another iteration of my musical development, and it's definitely a sheer pleasure being in the studio. So, I always look forward to that and playing live has just been so... this for me after so many years of it being difficult for me... but it's also been a pleasure. I feel like I'm kind of having a moment of being mature enough and experienced enough and expectations being teared down, so that, you know, people expect to see me, not a big pop production and they get me and I feel adequate so that expection... it's just fun. And so beside touring and the new material, I don't know really what's going to happen in my life and I kind of like it like that.

You can read the rest of the interview at Examiner.com.

• It will be held at the 2.750-capacity ACL Live (Austin City Limits)
• The show, on Saturday, March 19th, will run from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM

More details as they become available...

"I've always been experimental, and I've always been someone that liked to provoke conversation or upend expectations," Phair says. "As I went from indie to pop to the more experimental kind of soundscaping that I've been doing lately, it freaks people out. They need to put you in a box, and they need to know if they buy this record, what dinner party they can play it behind."

You can read the rest of the interview at CNN.

If there was going to be a Liz Phair song on Glee, which one would you want it to be?

Oh, my God! "Hot White Cum" probably. [Laughs] I can just see them dancing to that. You know I love to break FCC statutes, so that would be perfect. [Laughs]

You can read the rest of the interview at OutSmart Magazine.

• Sunday, March 13, 2011 - The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA
• Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA
• Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Granada Theater, Dallas, TX
• Friday, March 18, 2011 - IFC Crossroads House (SXSW IFC showcase), Austin, TX
• Saturday, March 19, 2011 - One Night In Austin (SXSW Perez Hilton showcase), Austin, TX