Onion interview with Liz Phair

http://www.theonionavclub.com/current_feature1.html

I love the Onion's interviews, but I think this poor interviewer got a bit intimidated, didn't ask the really tough questions. For example, Avril Lavigne was never mentioned, standing in instead as the proverbial elephant in the corner which no-one talks about.

The interviewer started out strong, with "The reviews of the new album have been pretty brutal.", but then got more and more softball. Easy to do, though, if the person gives you the idea that they're going to clam up or call it off after you even hint at a tough question. Liz Phair must be getting pretty tired of defending herself in every interview.

Surreal moment, watching VH1 the other day. Rachel Perry introducing Phair's new video with "And now my home girl, Liz Phair." yikes. TRL here we come.

Well that's what happens when you start writing songs that end up on teenybopper radio programs -- Open House Party, for example. I didn't even recognize her when I heard her new song. It took my friend a while to convince me it was her and not Jewel or Kylie Minogue.

I miss the raw, edgy, college-band Liz Phair.

[Edited for typos]

[Edited on Aug 28, 2003 by Sorcha]

That was a shity interview. Pretty sad that the first eight questions were about other interviews and not her music. What is more important?
I do not understand your Avril comment though. Have I missed something? Or is it just Avril = sell out = Liz. If thats the case that is sad. Like the music you like not what you think is cool.

Her new single and several of the songs on the new album were produced by the Matrix, Avril's producers, and that, taken with the video, seem to indicate Liz is going for the same sortof young-teenage-girl/Hot Topic market as Avril.

The progression of Liz Phair makes me want to cry.. Dam those kids and diviorce,they ruin everything.

Oh, I didnt know that, or pay that much attention to things like that.

I can understand why this interview went soft for many reasons. I've helped produce one of her shows, and surprisingly, she is really intimidating in an on-the-edge-of-freaking-out way.

Moreso, though, I think it's difficult to respond to an interview subject's complete cynicism. An interesting juxtaposition, these two:

"…interviewing as performance art."
"You watch a lot of people sort of posing, and I just say what I'm doing."

Interviewing is a weird thing, and an artist who's done loads of them can easily turn them around on you. They know you need an interesting interview, so what they do is reward you for softball questions with a long, detailed answer, and punish you for tough questions with a short, sharp barb.

Didn't everybody get enough of the Liz Phair debate when the album first came out? For the record, I think the new album is great. The songs are well written - catchy and insightful. Just because the production is a little slicker than her earlier records, it doesn't bother me a bit. What is she supposed to do, put out the same album over and over again for the rest of time? Liz Phair's talent is too big to be confined to the indie rock lo-fi ghetto. I have read numerous rave reviews of the album, including the dean of all rock critics, Robert Christgau in the Village Voice. The only negative reviews have barely addressed the quality of the music, they have merely whined about her working with the Matrix and not being the "blow job queen" of the writers' lost youth anymore.

Oh come ON! Dean of all coasting blowhards, maybe, but there's at least a dozen other writers out there that anybody who gives a crap would listen to before Bobby and his stupid articles about baseball and Jones Beach.

But, uh… "anybody who gives a crap". Yeah. That's the problem.

I love Liz Phair. I don't care what you say.

http://suicidegirls.com/members/Keith/161699/