Liz Phair

In April 2020, it was announced that Liz Phair would appear on a cover version of Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie (band) and The Nerves) with former friend and collaborator Jim Ellison of Material Issue. The song will be released along with the bio-documentary on Material Issue entitled, Out of Time: The Material Issue Story. It marks the first song to be released with Phair and Ellison since their earlier covers of Turning Japanese and The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana).

In April 2019, Phair announced via her Instagram that she had been working on new studio material with Brad Wood, who produced Exile in Guyville, Whip-Smart, and parts of whitechocolatespaceegg. On October 8, 2019, Phair shared "Good Side," a song from these sessions. Her seventh album, titled Soberish, will be released in the summer of 2020..

On October 8, 2019, Phair shared "Good Side," a song from these sessions. Her seventh album, titled Soberish, will be released in the summer of 2020..

In an April 2018 profile by Billboard, it was revealed that Phair had also signed a two-book publishing deal with Random House, and that she planned to release a memoir, tentatively titled Horror Stories, in November 2019. Horror Stories saw release on October 8, 2019.

In 2018, it was announced that Phair's former label, Matador, would be releasing a 25th-anniversary retrospective set for her debut album, Exile in Guyville; the set, titled Girly Sound to Guyville, includes remasters of Phair's 1991 demo tapes recorded under the moniker Girly Sound from the original sources, and was released May 4. In support of this retrospective, Phair embarked on two North American tours — the Girly Sound to Guyville Tour and the Amps on the Lawn Tour. Phair has continued tour over the summer of 2019.

In spring of 2016, Phair supported The Smashing Pumpkins on their In Plainsong tour, performing as the opening act.

In late 2015 and mid-2016, Phair stated on her Twitter that she intended to release two albums by the end of 2016. It was confirmed via Twitter that Phair was working on a double album, produced by fellow singer-songwriter Ryan Adams in his PAX-AM recording studio.

The dystopian holiday song "Ho Ho Ho" was released by Phair in late 2014. In 2014, Capitol released a greatest hits compilation of Phair's work entitled Icon.

In 2012, she co-wrote and performed the song "Dotted Line" with A. R. Rahman for the film People Like Us. "The song 'Dotted Line' I wrote with A. R. Rahman for Alex Kurtzman's film 'Welcome To People'," she said in an interview. "Both amazing. 'Welcome To People' is a truly powerful film. Very proud of being part of it."

On July 3, 2010, Phair's official website announced a surprise link to download her new album Funstyle, which she released independently after parting ways with Capitol Records and ATO. The song "Bollywood" was available to stream from the site for a limited time, before Phair took it down.

Phair went on tour to promote the album, playing many songs from Guyville and Whip-Smart, along with songs from the rest of her repertoire. The Funstyle Tour ran from October 2010 to March 2011. The tour's last show took place at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

In May 2009, Phair released a new song, "Faith and Tenderness," sold exclusively at Banana Republic on a compilation disc featuring other artists. Also in 2009, Phair began working as a television composer: Beginning with the theme song for NBC's The Weber Show she has also worked on the CBS show Swingtown, the CW reboot of 90210, for which she won the 2009 ASCAP award for Top Television Composer, the USA Network show In Plain Sight and most recently the CW's The 100.

Phair signed with ATO Records in early 2008 and re-released Exile in Guyville on June 24, 2008. Exile in Guyville was reissued on CD, vinyl, and in digital format. The special reissue package includes three never-before-released songs from the original recording sessions: "Ant in Alaska," "Say You," and an untitled instrumental. Phair also completed a documentary DVD, "Guyville Redux." This DVD features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records, and describes the making of the album in the male-dominated Chicago independent music scene of the early 1990s (which included Urge Overkill, Material Issue, and Smashing Pumpkins), associated with the Wicker Park neighborhood where many of these bands often performed.

After the release of her fifth album, Somebody's Miracle (2005), Phair left Capitol and released her sixth album Funstyle independently in 2010. In 2016, she toured as an opening act for the Smashing Pumpkins. In 2018, it was announced that Matador Records would be releasing a retrospective set for Phair's debut album Exile in Guyville which includes remastered recordings from her original Girly Sound demo tapes. As of 2011, Phair had sold over three million records worldwide.

In 2003, her self-titled fourth album was released on her new label, Capitol Records. Phair had not released an album in several years; she had been working on her record, as well as making guest appearances on other tracks (she lent backing vocals to the Sheryl Crow hit "Soak Up the Sun").

In 2001, Phair and Staskauskas divorced, after which Phair sold her home in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and relocated to Los Angeles, California. As of 2018, Phair resides in Manhattan Beach, California.

Phair's third album, entitled Whitechocolatespaceegg, was finally released in 1998 after some delays, which included a disagreement about content; at one point, the label rejected the album as submitted, and asked Phair to write a few additional radio-friendly songs for the set. The album displayed a more mature Phair, and reflected some of the ways marriage and motherhood affected her. While the single "Polyester Bride" received some airplay, and the album received many positive reviews, it was no more successful commercially than her previous records. To promote the record Phair joined Lilith Fair. Phair performed on the main stage along with acts like Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Missy Elliott. She also opened for Alanis Morissette on her 1999 Junkie Tour.

In 1995, Phair married film editor Jim Staskauskas, who had worked on her videos. They had a son James Nicholas Staskauskas on December 21, 1996. Phair and Staskauskas divorced in 2001.

In 1994, Phair began dating film editor Jim Staskauskas. The couple married on March 11, 1995. Phair gave birth to a son, James Nicholas Staskauskas, on December 21, 1996.

The release of Phair's second album received substantial media attention and an advertising blitz. Whip-Smart debuted at #27 in 1994 and "Supernova," the first single, became a Top 10 modern rock hit, and the video was frequently featured on MTV. Phair also landed the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline "A Rock Star Is Born." However, the album received mixed reviews, and although it was certified Gold (shipments of at least 500,000 units), it ultimately did not sell as well as expected, as it was hoped the album would introduce Phair to a wider, more mainstream audience. Following Whip-Smart, Phair released Juvenilia, a collection of some early Girly Sound tracks and several B-sides, including her cover of the 1980 song by The Vapors, "Turning Japanese."

In 1994, Phair made several live television and radio appearances in an effort to promote Exile in Guyville and Whip-Smart, including David Letterman performing "Never Said" and "Supernova" and Jay Leno performing an acoustic version of "Whip-Smart." She even performed "Alice Springs" live on Good Morning America.

She also appeared on the MTV alternative rock show 120 Minutes performing "Never Said", "6'1", "Cinco de Mayo" and "Supernova" live at various times during 1994 and early 1995.

Her 1993 debut studio album, Exile in Guyville, was released to critical acclaim; it has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Phair followed this with her second album, Whip-Smart (1994), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998). Ten years after the release of her debut, Phair's fourth album, Liz Phair (2003), released on Capitol Records, moved towards pop rock, earning her a mainstream audience; the single "Why Can't I?" peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Exile in Guyville was produced by Phair and Brad Wood, and released in 1993. The album received uniformly excellent reviews. The album received significant critical acclaim for its blunt, honest lyrics and for the music itself, a hybrid of indie rock and pop, and established Phair's penchant for exploring sexually explicit lyrics. By contrast, her trademark low, vibrato-less monotone voice gave many of her songs a slightly detached, almost deadpan character.

After asking Wood who the "coolest" indie label was, Phair called up Gerard Cosloy, co-president of Matador Records, in 1992 and she asked him if he would put out her record. Coincidentally, Cosloy had just read a review of Girly Sound in Chemical Imbalance that very day and told Phair to send him a tape. Phair sent him a tape of six Girly Sound songs. Cosloy recalls: "The songs were amazing. It was a fairly primitive recording, especially compared to the resulting album. The songs were really smart, really funny, and really harrowing, sometimes all at the same time. ... I liked it a lot and played it for everybody else. We usually don't sign people we haven't met, or heard other records by, or seen as performers. But I had a hunch, and I called her back and said O.K."

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Phair was adopted at birth and raised primarily in the Chicago area. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1990, she attempted to start a musical career in San Francisco, California, but returned to her home in Chicago, where she began self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly Sound. The tapes led to a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records.

Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw was dating one of Phair's friends, and stayed at their loft in SoMa one weekend. After living in San Francisco for a year, Phair went broke and returned to Chicago, moving back in to her family's home. There, she began writing lyrics and playing guitar, recording songs on a four-track tape recorder in her bedroom. She used the name Girly Sound on these recordings. She became part of the alternative music scene in Chicago and became friends with Material Issue and Urge Overkill, two of Chicago's upstart bands to go national in the early 1990s, as well as Brad Wood and John Henderson, head of Feel Good All Over, an independent label in Chicago. (A later attempt at re-recording the Girly Sound tapes failed after arguments between Henderson and Phair.)

Phair spent her early life in Cincinnati until age nine, when her family relocated to the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. She graduated from New Trier High School in 1985. During high school, Phair was involved in student government, yearbook, and the cross country team, and took AP Studio Art her senior year, among many other advanced-level classes. She attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, where she graduated in 1990 with a B.A. in art history.

Elizabeth Clark Phair (born April 17, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter known for her blunt, honest, and explicit lyrics about sex and relationships.

Phair was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on April 17, 1967. She was adopted at birth by Nancy, a historian and museologist, and John Phair, an AIDS researcher and head of infectious diseases at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; her mother later worked as a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has one older brother, also adopted. On being an adopted child, Phair commented: "My parents were very responsible ... They were perfect about it ... I've never tried to find [my biological] parents. My friend who was adopted from the same home requested information and got back a four-page letter about her mother's life. She said it was jaw-dropping."