A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the limited edition Girly-Sound To Guyville 7LP Box Set by Liz Phair. I confess that, when I first read about Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound cassettes in the SPIN Alternative Record Guide about thirty years ago (even in that, they only drew a passing mention in favor of focusing on Exile In Guyville and Whipsmart) , the whole idea sounded like an exercise in urban myth-making. Not that I hadn’t seen or heard an indie cassette before, it’s just that I hadn’t heard one which ultimately lead to anything before (not yet, anyway); and that I was supposed to believe these cassettes were “where it all started” for Liz Phair felt far out of reach.
Eventually, I did hear those Girly-Sound cassettes with the help of Napster though, and I discovered that what I’d heard was true; the Girly-Sound cassettes are excellent in spite of the sound quality of those downloads being less than stellar and the absence of cover art or, really, anything else to look at left a fair bit wanting about the experience, overall. Remedies for those shortcomings were parcelled out over time (some of the Girly-Sound songs appeared on the Juvenalia EP first in 1995, then a bunch more were made available on the reissue of Exile In Guyville that came out on ATO records in 2008, and some appeared on the second disc of Liz Phair’s Funstyle album in 2010 too) which were always warmly received like gifts which had stalled in, or otherwise diverted by, the mail, but the general absence of a complete presentation always loomed. Sure – the music was always good to hear, but that fans were always aware of the fact that there were pieces missing from those care packages always hung like a kind of malevolent darkness in the corners of the experience as a whole. Eventually, it began to seem like someone was holding Girly-Sound hostage – and would let fans know they were getting a gift in the listening experience, but they were getting that gift on someone else’s terms. Some listeners who were aware of that act of withholding of the music they wanted so dearly may have started to feel like Oliver Twist to every record label’s Fagan – listeners always wanted more, but it was not in any record label’s nature or best interest to give everything away.
With the Girly-Sound To Guyville 7LP Box Set, Matador Records has finally – finally – given fans what they’ve hoped so dearly for, for so long. In this set, fans finally get to learn all about the Girly-Sound cassettes properly – that there were three tapes released (entitled Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word to Ya Muthuh, GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS and Sooty), that the artwork associated with them was simultaneously collegiate and progressive [unlike the cut-and-paste nature of many of the concert posters and indie cassettes of the grunge era which often made the results look like ransom notes, the sketches and caricatures on the Girly-Sound tapes give the impression that time and care were put into their making –ed] and, while the recording was needs-first and production is non-existent, the result leaves a sense of relentless care employed (the tapes were all recorded in the attic of Phair’s home and done when no one else was home to eliminate any unwanted noise that might have been made during the recordings) over an all-consuming need to “just get something out.” The delicacy of the recordings sets up an excellent contrast in the music too; Phair covers a lot of thematic and emotional ground throughout these seven plates, but the focus never deviates and, even so early in her career her authoritative voice never falters. Phair can firmly assert herself as she does on songs like “Fuck And Run,” or try on a different persona completely without completely losing herself to it. That kind of masterful character development and presentation is the sort that many artists work their entire careers to even come close to realizing (see Billy Corgan) but, in this box, listeners get to hear that it arrived fully formed from day one for Phair and, while it would get refined and/or otherwise augmented by Brad Wood when he was helming the production of Exile In Guyville (as was the case for the incendiary “I’ll fuck you and your girlfriend too” like in the Girly-Sound version “Flower,” versus the “…Fuck you and your minions” line as it appeared in the same song on Guyville) and even for Whipsmart, it all starts here as cuts from this set got refined and seeded into both of those albums. With the knowledge of how it would play later in hand, this Girly-Sound to Guyville box set is pretty revelatory for the uninitiated, and absolutely priceless to those long familiar with the material but hoping for a presentation of higher fidelity. [Bill Adams]
Artist:
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