Girly-Sound

Recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder in her childhood bedroom at her parents' house, copies of the tapes were initially given by Phair to only two people in 1991: friends and fellow musicians Chris Brokaw and Tae Won Yu. However, copies of the Girly-Sound tapes were passed from person to person and became something of a sensation in the American tape trading/zine subculture.{{cite web|last=Reilly|first=Dan|title=Liz Phair Releasing Rare Girly Sound Demos With 'Funstyle' LP|url=http://www.spinner.com/2010/09/08/liz-phair-girly-sound-tapes-funstyle/|work=Spinner|date=Sep 8, 2010|access-date=September 13, 2012|archive-date=October 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011172915/http://www.spinner.com/2010/09/08/liz-phair-girly-sound-tapes-funstyle/|url-status=dead}} Brokaw later told Rolling Stone how he had urged Phair to record something and a few months later received a tape of 14 songs, with a second 14-song tape following a month later.Dunn J. That girl. (cover story). Rolling Stone. October 6, 1994;(692):42 In 1992, Phair signed a deal with Matador Records on the strength of a demo tape she had sent them of six Girly-Sound songs.Buckley, Peter, Rough Guide To Rock, p786

Phair has frequently gone back and reworked many of the songs for her studio albums throughout her career: she told Rolling Stone "I go in there and rip stuff off – it's like a library". Much of Phair's debut album Exile in Guyville contains reworkings of songs from these tapes. However, the content of some of these tracks was modified in ways that altered meanings and messages; in "Flower" the line "I'll fuck you and your girlfriend, too" was changed to "I'll fuck you and your minions, too."{{cite journal |author=Keenan, E. |title=If Liz Phair's Exile in guyville made you a feminist, what kind of feminist are you?: Heterosexuality, race, and class in the third wave |journal=Women & Music |volume=14 |pages=45–71 |year=2010|doi=10.1353/wam.2010.0004 |s2cid=191477695 }} In addition to this, the final chorus of "Bomb" which tells of a passenger on a plane sabotaging and taking it out was entirely removed; the title of the song was changed to "Stratford-on-Guy" and a new chorus was written. Reworkings of "Ant in Alaska" and "Wild Thing" appeared on the 2008 reissue of Exile in Guyville.{{cite magazine|title=Phair Signs To ATO, 'Guyville' Reissue Due|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1046022/phair-signs-to-ato-guyville-reissue-due|magazine=Billboard|access-date=13 September 2012|archive-date=1 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601120643/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1046022/phair-signs-to-ato-guyville-reissue-due|url-status=live}}

Five songs were officially released in 1995 on the Juvenilia EP and a bonus disc of ten Girly-Sound songs was included with the physical release of Phair's 2010 album Funstyle.{{cite web|last=Breihan|first=Tom|title=Liz Phair Finally Releases Girlysound Tapes|url=http://pitchfork.com/news/39963-liz-phair-finally-releases-girlysound-tapes/|work=Pitchfork|date=September 7, 2010|access-date=September 13, 2012|archive-date=October 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005084352/http://pitchfork.com/news/39963-liz-phair-finally-releases-girlysound-tapes/|url-status=live}}

Although originally consisting of a total of three cassettes, the most common version of the Girly-Sound tapes that circulated among Phair's fans was an incomplete two-disc compilation of songs from all three tapes, released on the Bliss and Fetish bootleg label, and processed with harsh digital noise reduction. An earlier bootleg compilation of Girly-Sound material, Secretly Timid, was also circulated. Early in 2006, mp3s of first-generation copies of the first two tapes were introduced via Phair's online community, bringing to light the original track listing, correct song names, tape titles, and introducing a number of songs that did not appear on the previous Girly-Sound bootlegs. Information about the third Girly-Sound tape, Sooty, was elusive until the 2018 release of Girly-Sound to Guyville, in which it was presented in its entirety.

On May 4, 2018, Matador reissued Exile in Guyville remastered for its 25th anniversary on CD, 2LP & digital (18 files). On the same day it also released a box set titled Girly-Sound to Guyville consisting of the original album remastered and Phair's three Girly-Sound demo tapes, available as a 7LP box set, a 3CD set and a digital deluxe edition (56 files).{{cite web|title=Girly-Sound To Guyville|url=https://shopuk.matadorrecords.com/products/liz-phair-girly-sound-to-guyville|access-date=May 12, 2018|website=Matador Records|archive-date=May 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513082200/https://shopuk.matadorrecords.com/products/liz-phair-girly-sound-to-guyville|url-status=dead}} At the same time, the tapes themselves were separately reissued ànd released digitally under the title The Girly-Sound Tapes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Girly-Sound-Tapes-Explicit-Liz-Phair/dp/B07CKRBP5F/|title=Girly-Sound To Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Box Set|via=Amazon|access-date=2018-06-16|archive-date=2021-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024235251/https://www.amazon.com/Girly-Sound-Tapes-Explicit-Liz-Phair/dp/B07CKRBP5F/|url-status=live}} This release omitted "Fuck or Die" and "Shatter" due to sample clearance issues.{{cite tweet|number=974382379136512000|user=PhizLair|title=@gloriousnoise Those lyrics ~understandably!~ didn't sit well with the Johnny Cash org. When I made those tapes I n… |date=15 March 2018}}

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AllMusic rated the demos 4.5/5, noting some weak tracks but finding others "as tuneful and provoking as anything on her official albums".{{cite web|title=Liz Phair – Girlysound|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/girlysound-mw0000886246|work=AllMusic|access-date=13 September 2012|archive-date=23 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120923214902/http://www.allmusic.com/album/girlysound-mw0000886246|url-status=live}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side A

| all_writing = Liz Phair, unless otherwise noted

| title1 = White Babies

| length1 = 3:06

| title2 = Shane

| length2 = 4:46

| title3 = Six Dick Pimp

| length3 = 3:19

| title4 = Divorce Song

| length4 = 3:47

| title5 = Go West

| length5 = 3:23

| title6 = Don't Hold Your Breath

| note6 = Stylized as "Dn'tholdyrbreath"

| length6 = 3:59

| title7 = Johnny Sunshine

| length7 = 3:51

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side B

| title1 = Miss Lucy

| length1 = 2:18

| title2 = Elvis Song

| length2 = 4:56

| title3 = Dead Shark

| length3 = 3:24

| title4 = One Less Thing

| length4 = 4:38

| title5 = Money

| length5 = 3:36

| title6 = In Love With Yourself

| note6 = Stylized as "In Love W/Yself"

| length6 = 3:58

| title7 = Fuck or Die

| writer7 = {{hlist|Phair|Johnny Cash}}

| length7 = 3:20

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side A

| all_writing = Liz Phair, unless otherwise noted

| title1 = Hello Sailor

| writer1 = {{hlist|Phair|George Harry Sanders|Clarence Kelley}}

| length1 = 5:57

| title2 = Wild Thing

| writer2 = {{hlist|Phair|Chip Taylor}}

| length2 = 3:41

| title3 = Fuck and Run

| length3 = 4:31

| title4 = Easy Target

| writer4 = {{hlist|Phair|Berry Gordy, Jr.|Rudy Clark}}

| length4 = 5:04

| title5 = Soap Star Joe

| length5 = 3:24

| title6 = Ant in Alaska

| length6 = 7:11

| title7 = Girls! Girls! Girls!

| note7 = Stylized as "GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS"

| length7 = 6:56

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side B

| title1 = Polyester Bride

| length1 = 7:39

| title2 = Thrax

| length2 = 4:35

| title3 = Miss Mary Mack

| length3 = 4:32

| title4 = Clean

| length4 = 3:59

| title5 = Love Song

| length5 = 6:20

| title6 = Valentine

| length6 = 4:15

| title7 = Shatter

| writer7 = {{hlist|Phair|Jagger/Richards|Carl Perkins}}

| length7 = 6:51

}}

Source:{{Cite web |title=Girly-Sound To Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Boxset Deluxe Reissue + Girly Sound Cassettes |publisher=Matador Records |url=https://store.matadorrecords.com/exile-in-guyville-deluxe-reissue-girly-sound-cassettes |access-date=2018-03-17 |archive-date=2018-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317170131/https://store.matadorrecords.com/exile-in-guyville-deluxe-reissue-girly-sound-cassettes |url-status=dead }}

Track order was obtained from the 2018 Girly-Sound to Guyville release.

{{Track listing

| headline = Side A

| all_writing = Liz Phair, unless otherwise noted

| title1 = Gigolo

| length1 = 3:25

| title2 = Flower

| length2 = 2:48

| title3 = Batmobile

| length3 = 3:10

| title4 = Slave

| writer4 = {{hlist|Phair|Jim Reid|William Reid}}

| length4 = 3:50

| title5 = Open Season

| length5 = 2:59

| title6 = Whip-Smart

| writer6 = {{hlist|Phair|Malcolm McLaren}}

| length6 = 3:30

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side B

| title1 = Suckerfish

| length1 = 1:49

| title2 = California

| length2 = 2:51

| title3 = South Dakota

| length3 = 4:21

| title4 = Bomb

| length4 = 3:21

| title5 = Easy

| length5 = 3:16

| title6 = Chopsticks

| length6 = 2:00

}}

• "Ant in Alaska" and "Wild Thing" were both re-recorded for Exile in Guyville, but did not appear until the 2008 reissue; "Wild Thing" only appeared on advanced promotional copies of the reissue.
• The verses in "Thrax" were reused in "Jealousy", featured on Whip-Smart. The interludes were rewritten and used for "Tell Me You Like Me", recorded during the whitechocolatespaceegg sessions.
• "Gigolo" was re-recorded as "Can't Get Out of What I'm Into" for Somebody's Miracle, though the song was only included on the Japanese release and advance promotional copies.

• Fragments from "In Love With Yourself", "Johnny Sunshine", and "Money" appeared on the "Supernova" single, condensed into one track called "Combo Platter (Girlysound)". The "Johnny Sunshine" fragment is played backwards.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.girlysound.com/ Listen to Girly-Sound; Girly-Sound official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831151605/http://girlysound.com/ |date=2011-08-31 }}
• [https://www.lizphair.net/discography/compilations-liz-phair/girly-sound-to-guyville/ Girly-Sound to Guyville]
• {{Discogs artist|Girly Sound}}

{{Liz Phair}}

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Category:Liz Phair albums

Category:1991 albums

Category:1990s demo albums

Category:Self-released albums