Right now, Liz Phair is in a good position with Exile to Guyville, her 1993 debut that catapulted her to the center of alternative music. “That it still resonates in the culture is a mixed blessing,” she tells me one afternoon, calling from her home in Los Angeles.“Sometimes we get along, sometimes we don't. But these days we're like those couples who have been together for a long time and we just really appreciate each other.”
Earlier this month, the 56-year-old embarked on a tour performing the classic album in its entirety, a short but meaningful series of concerts that she says could be the last time she presents the record as a full “immersive experience.” That doesn't mean it will be the last time Phair mines it Guyville time for the material – her forthcoming second memoir, Fairy talesit will make her revisit that moment in her life, too.
Three decades later, Guyville It's never ceased to be relevant as a rejection of indie rock beta-male faddishness, but also as an affirmation of something bigger: embodied female sexuality and a hard-won sense of autonomy. “Flower,” my personal favorite, remains a poignant song about desire, in part because of how simply and honestly it's said: “I wanna fuck you like a dog/I'll take you home and make you like me.” Phair sings-talks with sparse chords and her own girlish backing vocals. “That song blew a hole in my universe,” she says now, adding that it made her prepared and proper family very uncomfortable.
