Liz Phair

We Should Be Less Cynical About Albums That (Want to) Change The World

One of the most talked about songs on Taylor Swift's Speak Now was a ditty called "Mean," which my BFF Theon Weber focused on in-depth in his review for this paper. "It's chipper and funny, because the narrator is predicting escape from someone she dislikes: 'Some day, I'll be living in a big ol' ... More >>

Those "Influential" Albums Being Discussed on Facebook? They're Garbage

Influentialalbums.com is a "quiz" one of your Facebook friends might've posted, boasting "Very few people own 70 or more. How many have you got?" and listing 100 albums ranging from the duh (Blonde on Blonde, Pet Sounds) to the hmmm (Gerry Rafferty? Felt??) to the genuinely bizarre (well, see below) ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 10/26/12

Here's a list, in no particular order, of the ten best concerts to check out this weekend. Follow us @SoundoftheCity, like us on Facebook.

Those Darlins

Dear Beloit College: 1994 Was Also A Good Year For "Women Of This Generation" To Be Rock Stars

"Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers." —From the Beloit College Mindset List, in which two dudes at a Wisconsin college attempt to get a bead on What The Freshmen Class Might Be Thinking via the making of a list w ... More >>

"Beware The Spectre Of Polyphony": Seven Innovations That Have Been Accused Of Killing Music

People have been concerned for a very long time with what's killing music. The current boogeyman is undoubtedly Auto-Tune, the pitch-correction software that can both sweeten off-key voices and create new vocal effects. Some have long protested its ubiquity: It will kill real vocals! Live performanc ... More >>

Pazz & Jop's Album Results Get Soundscanned

The incredible shrinking album

STILL WHIP-SMART

Liz Phair just wants to have fun

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #1: Train, "Hey, Soul Sister"

F2K10 has been a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Relieve the journey here. The future of rock music, right here.​Here are some important things to know about Train's "Hey, Soul Sister."

Week In Review: Stop Looking At My Moms

​In the week we continued counting down the worst songs of 2010, noting atrocities from Susan Boyle, Liz Phair, Christina Aguilera, Jackyl, and NeverShoutNever, and Die Antwoord, we also began our overall year in review, listing the 10 biggest music stories of 2010, our 10 favorite concerts, t ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #14: Liz Phair, "Bollywood"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​If the New York Times called Liz Phair's 2003 pop album "an embarrassing form of career suicide," then "Bollywood" is her ghost coming back to toilet paper her grave. After all of indie-rock's circa 2003 hand-wringi ... More >>

Week In Review: We Also Accept Your Future Apology In Advance

Everybody just stop yelling, OK? Photo by Daniel Snyder.​In the week we talked about Odd Future, kidnapping and murder, and why we sometimes like the things that repel us, we also saw the group live--alongside every other music critic in the city. They struck a weird balance to the other big r ... More >>

Liz Phair Reviewed Keith Richards' Life

​As it turns out, Mick Jagger did not pen a response to the new Keith Richards autobiography, Life, and accidentally send it to a journalist, who published it on Slate. That was a joke (though the writer now calls his facts "fairly incontrovertible"). But Liz Phair, whose canonical album Exile ... More >>

Q&A: Liz Phair on Funstyle, Letting Go of Guyville, and Her Experience on Capitol

Darren AnkenmannWe were sent this. Over July 4th weekend, Liz Phair released Funstyle, her first full length in five years. For just five dollars for a full album download, the 11 tracks came with a message: the music within cost her relationships with her management company and ATO Records, who'd ... More >>

Live Streams From Matador 21 Start Tonight With Pavement, Sonic Youth, And Fucked Up

​It's understandable, your depression/jealousy/irritation at not being physically present in Las Vegas this weekend for Matador Records' bizarrely elaborate Matador at 21 spectacle, featuring just about every major label act you could possibly desire unless you're, like, a die-hard Thinking Fe ... More >>

Week in Review: Taking Our Talents To South Beach

Sam Horine​In the week we put the worst band name in New York to a vote (Phil and the Osophers, you are no match for Freelance Whales), we watched as LeBron James put his own name in as the most hated in New York, while Kanye West stood proudly at his side. The last place West was seen before ... More >>

Liz Phair Returns With Internet-Only Funstyle, Rhymes "Genius" With "Peen-ius"

​On Saturday, lizphair.com suddenly had a new album available via download for a mere $5.99, with one streaming track as a sample, or maybe a warning: "Bollywood" features our heroine rapping in different voices over, yes, a Bollywood tabla. This, in addition to the low asking price, prnt scrn ... More >>

Matador Records Is Threatening Some Sort Of "Lost Weekend" In Las Vegas To Celebrate Their 21st Birthday

​ Seriously. (We think.) Happening October 1-3 in Sin City. There's a mailing list and everything. Liz Phair at Luxor? Pavement at Treasure Island? Interpol at New York, New York? The New Pornographers meet actual pornographers? Book your tickets now, kids -- we're, like, 80 percent sure this ... More >>

"BLAZE THE FUCK PAST US": Jessica Hopper On The Lily Allen/Courtney Love War, a/k/a "The Blinded Nostalgia Trope Of The Aging Rock 'n' Roll Feminist"

Still a good song though right Pretty inspired mini-manifesto here about old-guard female rockers (looking at you, too, Cherie Currie) sassing the new, innovative, vastly underrated wave of female rockers, just because we're all too nostalgic for Liz Phair or L7 or whatever. Thesis in one line: "L ... More >>

The Worst Lyrics of the Decade

The Worst Lyrics of the Decade

​It has come to this: a brutal, single-elimination, March Madness-style tournament to determine the most appalling songwriting conceit of the past 10 years. With an assist from various online pals (especially our own F2K braintrust), we've waded through the torrent of political passions (and b ... More >>

The Raincoats

Grizzly Bear's Mellow Gold

Brooklyn quartet goes quietly, grandiosely epic

Live: Liz Phair Returns to Guyville

Exile in Guyville: The Oral History

Liz Phair indulges in a robust chat about her debut, with a brief side of yelling

Back to Guyville

Liz Phair performs your favorite album of hers

American Idol Week Three: "Hallelujah" and Bullshit

Breathy Heartbreak, Clever But Never Snide

Long Live Blowjob Nation

Proud cocksuckers share why they love going down

Ms. Liz to You

Liz Phair discovers that there are other ways to be honest than taking your clothes off

Christians and Heathens

Known quantities, brave genre experiments, program music, and a couple of Cairos

1993

All's Phair

Teenpop-inspired post-indie queen inspires post-Avrils

How to straighten your CD shelves, which isn't the point

A Critic's Job at Work

But Whatever Happened to Betsy Wetsy and Chatty Cathy?

Music

Music

Quirking Girls

(Ma) Trix of the Trade

The Naked and the Cred

Filler Bummer Hummers in the Hot White Summer With a Midlife Diplomat

Music

Auto-Erotic Fixation

Here in Her Car, It's the Only Way to Live

Letters

Music

Cash & Carry

Money For Nothing in Used-CD Central

Music

Wanna Love It, But I'm Getting Blown Away

A Terrible Beauty

Confess Nothing

The Diary of Elizabeth Elmore