Liz Phair - Live 2003-08-09 (concert)

For another installment in Women's History Month, I turn to Liz Phair, one of my favorite artists.  I've been meaning to get to her landmark LPs "Exile in Guyville" and "Whip-smart", but that's going to have to wait as well.  Also, as a preview, her 2010 LP "Funstyle" was pretty good too. She's scheduled to be in Va Beach this summer, but we'll see if coronavirus has other ideas (update: they're being rescheduled).  We saw her in 2011 when she was at the Norva and it was a great show (I found this version of "Nashville" from that show -- not my video).

Last week I also finished reading her memoir "Horror Stories" (reviews: NPR, NYT, Pitchfork, CBS This Morning).  When I saw that she was releasing a book I added it to my Christmas wish list and was happy to receive a copy.  I had not read that much about it before I started it -- I knew it was about Liz Phair, and that was all I needed to know.   As a result, I was rather surprised to learn that the choice of title was not arbitrary -- her collections of stories are more about personal loss, conflict, and "horror" than the Liz Phair-meets-Spinal Tap rock & roll war stories I expected (the chapter "sotto voce" being a notable exception).  I read the first three chapters in one sitting and decided it wasn't the soothing "escape-from-coronavirus" experience I was looking for, but I recalibrated my expectations and enjoyed the rest of the book.

I eventually determined that the stories reminded me of Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", one of my favorite books.  Even in Bradbury's childhood nostalgia, there is a fantastical and dark spectre (e.g., the "Lonely One") that hangs over the stories, and I connected that to the "horror" which glues Phair's stories together.  I posted this observation on Twitter and got a reply back from Liz, which made my day as well as making me the envy of Danette and my "cool" friends.

High praise indeed! Thank you 🙏

— Liz Phair (@PhizLair) March 24, 2020

To celebrate the book as well as Women's History Month, I decided to post about this lovely video I found on YouTube.  There are many Liz Phair videos online, but the lo-fi intimacy of this set (13 songs, limited instrumentation) shot in a record store some 17 years ago seemed to capture the spirit of "Horror Stories" better than a professionally shot video.  The video doesn't provide a set list, but it's:

• 6'1"
• Polyester Bride
• Rock Me
• Divorce Song
• Extraordinary
• Fuck and Run
• Perfect World
• Johnny Feelgood
• (a small segment of Patrick Park's "Thunderbolt")
• Why Can't I?
• Uncle Alvarez
• Glory
• Little Digger
• Supernova

 

Apparently this is the only photo I took from the 2011-01-27 show at the Norva in Norfolk.  It was a great show.

I'm not a great photographer.

Yo La Tengo - Yellow Sarong (the song remains the same)

photo credit

Continuing with the previous theme of Yo La Tengo and Women's History Month, today I'll focus on one Yo La Tengo's great cover songs: "Yellow Sarong", originally by The Scene Is Now.  My first experience with the song was Yo La Tengo's 1990 LP of covers, "Facebook".  The original version was from The Scene Is Now's 1985 LP "Burn All Your Records".  I prefer the YLT version over TSIN version: that could be because I heard YLT's first, but I also just love YLT and how they remake all the covers in their own idiom.

When Johan and I were practicing for our DJ premiere (ca. 2003), I always tried to find a way to work this song into the set list.  It never worked with what we were shooting for (Thievery Corporation-style, downtempo, coffeehouse jazz), but I kept trying because the song is that much fun.

The live 2015 version on soundcloud (from acidjacknyc) features a good shot of Georgia Hubley, so I chose that as the main image for this post.  I don't know that much about The Scene Is Now, but they do have a female member as well (Sue Garner), so much like my work with Johan, I'm going to shoehorn "Yellow Sarong" into Women's History Month, whether it fits or not, because the song is that much fun...

The Scene Is Now - "Yellow Sarong"
Yo La Tengo - "Yellow Sarong" (studio version), live 2015-10-10, live 2016-09-09

Yo La Tengo - Live KEXP 2013-01-18 (concert)

In the first installment for Women's History Month 2020 I'm going to feature Yo La Tengo, a band that I'm quite fond of but so far have only mentioned in passing.  At the core of YLT is husband and wife team of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals) and Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals).  Active since 1984, their discography includes 15 LPs and countless other releases.  Although Ira is the front man, singing most of the songs and playing guitar, Georgia also sings, and their combination really defines the sound of the band.

Herbert turned me on to Yo La Tengo around 2000, right after "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out" came out.  Herbert is a big fan of Yo La Tengo, but not a fan of Sonic Youth, which I consider strange since I find a lot of similarities in their respective sounds.  Sonic Youth might have a harsher, more aggressive, punk-influenced sound on some songs, but in my opinion if you like one band you'll the other.

This entry is from KEXP's excellent in-studio concert series, where they were supporting 2013's "Fade", one of the few LPs of theirs that I don't have.  Georgia sings on the last song, "Before We Run".