Merch: July 24, 2008
Liz Phair
Exile in Guyville (ATO)
As far as musicians of the past 20 years go, none has had a career as full of letdowns as Liz Phair has. Ever since she made her splash with her debut album Exile in Guyville in 1993 and became the alpha-girl of the boys’ club of indie rock, each successive release has been one bigger disappointment compared to the one before it. Fifteen years later, Phair has returned to her roots, reissuing her classic album and embarking on a brief tour in support, all while constantly defending herself against the question, “So why did you sell out?” A word-of-mouth, music-sharing success story before Napster and bloggers, Phair garnered the attention of zine writers and indie labels with her much-mythologized Girly Sound tapes and eventually landed a deal with Matador. With the help of producer Brad Wood, those rough recordings would be developed into a double-LP of brutal honesty and insecurity; far from the feminist manifesto many perceive it to be. Though it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Wood “produced” the sparse record, the initial stab from the guitar riff album opener of “6’1”” still remains one of the most pleasurable sound bites in the history of music. Unfortunately, ATO Records’ reissue of this classic falls short of what it could’ve been. While dozens of Girly Sound tapes are probably still sitting in a desk drawer at Matador Records, we’re merely given three throwaway songs from the Guyville sessions along with a hopelessly dull DVD of interviews with figures from the early-’90s Chicago scene. Suffice to say, if you haven’t heard Guyville before, then obviously this is your chance to pick up this previously out-of-print (though easy to find in the used bin) gem. But for the few die-hard Phair phanatics left in this world, this reissue is about as disappointing as her career itself.
–Carman Tse
Various Artists
Hard + Heavy (Time Life)
Billed as “The Ultimate Rock Collection,” Time Life’s new infomercial-which-walks-like-a-boxed-set does indeed look expansive, once one opens the little metal (dude!) box that houses all the CDs. Scattered a mite too randomly across nine discs are 152 hard-rockin’ anthems that could be yours, all for that usual low, low price! Seriously, don’t we all know how plain difficult it would be for one of us to try to gather all these hair-metal/arena-rock tracks onto one iPod? Thankfully, Time Life has done the legwork for us … and hype aside, the schlock-to-substance ratio isn’t that bad. Sure, for every “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” there are five like Winger’s “Headed for a Heartbreak” or Giuffria’s “Call to the Heart,” or, hell, anything from disc two of the decked-in-dreck Power Ballads disc. Additionally, a bonus DVD of four unplugged performances from Poison’s Bret Michaels might appeal to someone, but it’s not something I’m rushing to play. As expected, the stuff from the ’60s and ’70s (Boston, BTO, Rush, Priest, Mott, and Purple all show up, but no Sabbath or Zeppelin, I see) still holds up better than the echoing-drum productions of the ’80s, but sometimes a 99-cent cheeseburger like Honeymoon Suite’s “New Girl Now” satiates a hunger that one can’t really explain. This set won’t get spun much unless you own a jukebox … but everything on Hard + Heavy sounds better with a bunch of drunken pals, anyway.
–Joshua Sindell
Adam Marsland
Daylight Kissing Night: Adam Marsland’s Greatest Hits (Karma Frog)
Formerly of Cockeyed Ghost (minor 1990s alt-pop heroes whose ’99 masterpiece, The Scapegoat Factory, tanked when their label disintegrated its week of release) and onetime keyboard player for the Negro Problem, Marsland has had career disruptions better plotted elsewhere, but his definite talent as pop-rock sardonicist is the main attraction here. Tracks like “My Kickass Life,” “Ginna Ling,” despite their slightness, have value as permanent as any other indie-noise made during the waning hours of the 20th century. Since there are no hits, every track promises the kind of giddy first discovery as takes the place of FM radio revelation these latter days.
–Ron Garmon
Zeigeist
The Jade Motel (Spegel)
Hailing from pop-culture vortex Sweden, Zeigeist unleashed The Jade Motel on a European audience, accompanied by a starkly innovative stage show aesthetically inspired by Mathew Barney, Andy Warhol, and David Lynch. Their sound is marinated in ’80s angularity and bathed in cold LED illumination. With melody lines like laser-beams and a brittle skeletal structure of synthetic percussion, it is dance music for ice castle discothèques. The knee-jerk reaction is to compare them to their fellow countrymen the Knife, and, truthfully, the similarities are undeniable and occasionally annoying. The track “Tar Heart,” in particular, is a shameless invocation of the Knife’s dark majestic ballad, “Pass This On.” However, Zeigeist’s ability to craft an accessible sound with such an avant-garde sonic palette is admirable, and on tracks like “Black Milk” and “Fight with Shattered Mirrors,” they show potential for crafting independently eccentric music.
–Ramie Becker
Gus Black
Today Is Not the Day to Fuck With Gus Black (Cheap Lullaby)
Gus Black’s latest release is a lo-fi folksy affair with thorns. Although Black’s trembling, soft vocals could easily be lullabies, the lyrics are surprisingly caustic, dealing with introspective and misanthropic issues, among other stinging, weighty subjects. Taking an approach similar to that of Jose Gonzalez, the locus of Today Is Not the Day … is a minimalistic mix of unobstructed vocals and raw guitar picking. But unlike Gonzalez, who sticks strictly to this formula in his seminal Veneer, Black allows this motif to vector out as the album progresses. Equally cottony female back-up vocals, subdued strings and muted percussion all seep in, making for a richer musical texture while maintaining the force and value of aural scarcity.
–Daniel Stainkamp
Published: 07/23/2008
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