Liz Phair will mark the 25th anniversary of her seminal debut album, 1993’s Exile in Guyville, with a massive box set and separate remastered double LP and CD reissue. Both will be released on May 4th via Matador.
Girly-Sound to Guyville: The 25th Anniversary box set comprises seven LPs, including the remastered double LP Exile in Guyville alongside music from the three Girly-Sound cassettes released prior to her debut album. The cassette material was restored from the original tapes and has never been previously released in its entirety. YO YO BUDDY YUP YUP WORD TO YA MUTHA is a double LP restored from the first cassette, the double LP GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! is culled from Girly-Sound cassette 2 and single LP SOOTY houses cuts from the third cassette.
The box set will come with a book containing essays, interviews and previously unpublished photos and artwork. Music critic Ann Powers contributes the essay Talking Back in Guyville, while the artist herself penned You Might Be a Lucky Star.
The book also includes an oral history, which features contributions from artists and others in the music community that were integral to the album’s genesis, including Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine), Tae Won Yu (Kicking Giant), Chris Holmes and Urge Overkill’s Nash Kato. There are also interviews with the album’s producer Brad Wood and engineer Casey Rice who both performed on the record along with Tutti Jackson, John Henderson who worked with Phair on early demos, and Matador co-owner Gerard Cosloy.
Phair rereleased the Girly-Sound version of “Divorce Song” to preview the box set.
Touted as a track-by-track response to the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, Exile in Guyville was assembled like a puzzle, where Phair imagined questions that Mick Jagger would answer. “I was like, ‘Oh that’s what you were doing last night.’ It fit so perfectly with our neighborhood and the age we were. We were living kind of outside of society, me especially,” she told Rolling Stone in 2010.
“I would write down the song from Exile and I had a code — there were stars, squares, circles, spiral lines, at least eight symbols that each meant something,” she added. “Let’s say a square meant it was a big song on the record in terms of fully arranged, and a wavy line would mean they used a lot of reverb and it was watery and atmospheric. Then I would go through my songs and do the same thing.”
Phair will embark on a brief tour beginning May 31st in Los Angeles where she will perform songs from this era.
Exile In Guyville Track List
1. “6’1″”
2. “Help Me Mary”
3. “Glory”
4. “Dance Of The Seven Veils”
5. “Never Said”
6. “Soap Star Joe”
7. “Explain It To Me”
8. “Canary”
9. “Mesmerizing”
10. “Fuck and Run”
11. “Girls! Girls! Girls!”
12. “Divorce Song”
13. “Shatte”
14. “Flower”
15. “Johnny Sunshine”
16. “Gunshy”
17. “Stratford-On-Guy”
18. “Strange Loop”
Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Mutha Track List
(Double LP, restored from Girly-Sound Cassette 1)
1. White Babies
2. Shane
3. 6 Dick Pimp
4. Divorce Song
5. Go West
6. Don’t Holdyrbreath
7. Johnny Sunshine
8. Miss Lucy
9. Elvis Song
10. Dead Shark
11. One Less Thing
12. Money
13. In Love w/Yself
Girls! Girls! Girls! Track List
(Double LP, restored from Girly-Sound Cassette 2)
1. “Hello Sailor”
2. “Wild-Thing”
3. “Fuck And Run”
4. “Easy Target”
5. “Soap Star Joe”
6. “Ant In Alaska”
7. “GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS”
8. “Polyester Bride”
9. “Thrax”
10. “Miss Mary Mack”
11. “Clean”
12. “Love Song”
13. “Valentine”
Sooty Track List
(Single LP, restored from Girly-Sound Cassette 3)
1. “Gigolo”
2. “Flower”
3. “Batmobile”
4. “Slave”
5. “Open Season”
6. “Suckerfish”
7. “California”
8. “South Dakota”
9. “Bomb”
10. “Easy”
11. “Chopstick”
Liz Phair – The Girly-Sound to Guyville Tour Dates
May 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge
June 1 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
June 2 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
June 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
June 6 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
June 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
June 8 – Wichita, KS @ Wichita Riverfest
June 9 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
