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The Great Albums

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (w/ guest Jim Laczkowski)

The Great Albums

Bill Lambusta

Albums, Music Commentary, Criticism, Billlambusta, Brianerickson, Music

4.3749 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2016

⏱️ 128 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bill and Brian welcome the host of the podcasts Director's Club and Pop Culture Club (both part of the Now Playing Network, nowplayingnetwork.net) Jim Laczkowski to discuss Liz Phair's debut exile in Guyville (1993, Matador). Through talent and a little luck, Phair turned her demo project into being signed by Matador records. She took the $3000 given to her to record a single and instead did an entire album with producer Brad Wood. Hailed for its lo-fi charm and the brazen attitude of the the songwriter it showcased, the album, went on to find critical success and a devoted fanbase. Jim shares how he came across this album as a lucky 15 year old with cool friends. Bill, Brian, and Jim discuss Phair's career choices and her major label turn, how Guyville is supposedly tracked to respond to the Rolling Stone's Exile on Main Street, the difference between lo-fi and "hi-fi," Phair's low vocal tone, the acerbic Steve Albini, the atrociously 90s-styled video for "Never Said," how weird it is that some in the media have labeled Liz Phair a "sex kitten," Jim's favorite Chicago bands, and more as we make our way through the album track by track.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I never said nothing

0:03.0

I never said nothing Hello, welcome.

0:23.6

I never said nothing. Hello, welcome to the great albums podcast.

0:43.0

I am Bill.

0:43.9

And I'm Brian.

0:44.9

What are we just listening to right there, Brian?

0:47.1

That was never said by Liz Fair from her 1993 debut album, Exile in Guyville.

0:54.7

If you've never listened to the podcast before, what we do here every week is take a different

0:58.5

album of music and talk about what makes it great.

1:01.8

We are a fan appreciation deep dive podcast where we're going to talk about what we

1:08.7

love about an album, why we love it, and we're also going to do a

1:12.1

track-by-track review.

1:13.9

All right?

1:14.8

Yeah, sounds good, right?

1:16.0

Yeah, that sounds good.

1:17.1

I like that.

1:17.7

That butter's my bread.

1:19.2

We're actually not going to do it alone today, Brian.

1:22.0

No, we're going to beam in, uh, we're going to beam someone in.

1:25.6

Jim, Jimmy James, Jim Jam.

1:27.9

Jimmy Jam.

1:29.1

But not Jim James from my morning jacket.

...

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