Best.

Song.

Ever.

Reminds me of one of my friends, too. Huh.

When I was eighteen, I was mad at all the guys that screwed me over, but in retrospect I wouldn't call it a basis for feminism--at least I don't think it should be.

Teenage guys can be jerks and break your heart sometimes. Feminism is not the solution to this. There have been jerky teenage guys since the dawn of time--this is never going to change.

If you're going to call yourself a feminist, do it because you believe women and men should get equal pay for equal work and be equal before the law. Do it because there are women in other societies who are treated like property because of their sex, and maybe you think something should be done about it. But please, don't do it because some boy didn't date you when you were 18. It's ridiculous.

Incidentally, just this weekend I picked up a used copy of "Become What You Are" by the Juliana Hatfield Three, which I thought was the most brilliant album ever during my alternateen days. I was amazed by how dated the thing sounds now. There's still some good songs on there--"Spin the Bottle" is pretty catchy--but I'm suprised that I never noticed how cloying the lyrics to "For The Birds" was. Isn't singing a song about a dead bird kind of cliche already? That and it seems like the 90's was just sick with cute-girl-fronted bands doing high-pitched vocals and trying to sound tough. It just seems very old now.

One of my favorite mid-90s memories was having Planned Parenthood call me for a donation while "Fuck and Run" was playing on the stereo. How could I not slip them some dough?

A great album, well written songs, but . . .

If guys like that piss you off so much, why do you hang out with them? Why do you avoid nice guys?

but I thought that whitechoclatespaceegg was truly outstanding. Too bad that Liz has basically imploded.

Peeking into these female only gabfests usually makes me quietly count my blessings for being born a man.

Then I hear snippets from Dr Laura's show and I'm almost ecstatic. Phew! That was a 50% chance!

No wonder that polygamist cultures where men are forced to live with large groups of women, men are also misogynists.

Now, I'm sorry but I gotta go and drink out of the bottle and scratch.

I still listen to Exile and love it.

What is most memorable to me was seeing Liz at a small college venue around '97 and she was so vulnerable and real; sort of pleading with the audience to like her songs--and we did. I think she was dealing with some stage fright back in those days and it just enriched the experience for me.

Such a juxtaposition to the bad-assery of the CD.

I love that album. Coincidentally, I have it in my car CD changer right now. I listened to it from start to finish just three days ago.

After "Guyville," Phair got increasingly poppy and increasingly soppy, so I took her out of rotation.

Liz Phair said she smoked weed constantly when she wrote "Exile in Guyville."

Then she stopped smoking weed and became a responsible adult. According to conventional wisdom, that should have made her music better, not worse.

Oh well. She still has time for a comeback, when she gets tired of her shiny corporate image and finds something to say worth listening to again.

You may think I was some creepy guy who hung around clubs at that time (still do). I was *thirty-nine* in 1993 (you can do the math), and that first Liz Phair recording was one of the most brilliant things I'd heard in a lifetime of listening to, studying, and even playing loud music that all parents traditionally loathe.

I will not give up my youth, never. In my mind, I'm still 17. I listen to 'Exile in Guyville' to this day.

ooh that article brought back so many memories of rocking out to the likes of liz phair, tori amos, pj harvey, and ani difranco when i was in high school and an undergrad. dar williams and the indigo girls, come to think of it, were singers/songwriters that had a tremendous effect on me. liz phair, i think, deserves the most credit in terms of giving me more confidence about my feminist leanings early on.

this wave of nostalgia makes me feel either really sad, or really out of touch. i don't know that i can think of many female singers or songwriters today that are as widely played or distributed as the ladies in paragraph one. is it that i'm older and more cynical and little can impress me? are there MORE barriers to women in alternative/mainstream music today than in the 90s? or is the type of subject matter frequently tackled by phair et al passe? lilly allen, i think, is the first female artist i've heard in a while that touches the same nerve in me...any thoughts?

...so my list is a bit different. I second the Indigo Girls and Tori Amos, and add Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman, k.d. lang and Sinead O'Connor. I still have my original cassette tapes of these ladies, and still listen to them all the time.

I was 23, and still reeling from being blindsided by the abrupt end of a six-year relationship with my only girlfriend. She left me for some guy she'd been having chat-sex with on the internet. Yeah! Even back in 1993.

That winter the east coast froze, it was all ice storms and glare ice on the roads. I took a road trip to go to a party with a bunch of strangers at an all-women's college. Halfway through the night, the two prettiest girls there sang an a capella version of 'Flower'.

"Exile in Guyville" is a terrific break-up album, even if you're a guy.

I'm still a little disappointed that Phair wasn't actually 6'1"

Dear Ms Kate,

Miss me old Ms Liz too before get Avrilavigned and snuggle up for pop chart. But no can blame her one bit. Critic darling only go so far.

Favourite song in Exile is Divorce Song. Never have divorce, but can sure identify with song about road trip that go on way too long. Special part about steal lighter and lose map.

Seem for me Liz Phair lie about steal lighter and lose map for avoid fight in car, then bring up later when have fight for rub in. Do me this too and call tactic "na-na-na-na-na"!

As Ms Phair say, "You put in my hand a loaded gun and told me not to fire." Sometime want fire.

Svutlana