Return To 'Guyville': Liz Phair Packs Unreleased Demos Into New Box Set

Return To ‘Guyville’: Liz Phair Packs Unreleased Demos Into New Box Set

March 18, 2018 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Singer-songwriter Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville is about to turn 25, and Matador Records is making sure that anniversary doesn’t go unnoticed. On May 4, the label will issue Girly-Sound to Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Boxset, a 7-LP or 3-CD (or digital) collection tracing her artistic evolution from her three pre-Matador demo cassettes (originally released under the name of Girly-Sound) to her acclaimed debut album.

Girly-Sound to Guyville kicks off with each of the three privately-pressed cassettes remastered and restored on vinyl, and now titled Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word to Ya Mutha (Girly-Sound 1), Girls Girls Girls (Girly-Sound 2), and Sooty (Girly-Sound 3). Volumes 1 and 2 are pressed on two vinyl LPs, while Volume 3 takes up one LP. The box is rounded out, on two LPs, with a remastered version of Exile in Guyville.

Additionally, the box set will feature a book with an oral history by Jason Cohen, drawing on interviews with Chris Brokaw, Gerard Cosloy, John Henderson, Chris Holmes, Tutti Jackson, Nash Kato, Mark Ohe, Casey Rice, Brad Wood, Tae Won Yu, and of course, Phair. Essays by Phair (“You Might Be a Lucky Star”) and Ann Powers (“Talking Back in Guyville”) are also included, along with rare photographs and memorabilia. For her June tour, Phair will exclusively perform material from the Girly-Sound tapes.

For those interested in having the Girly-Sound tapes in their original cassette format, a bundle of three cassettes can be ordered directly from Matador to add to a box set pre-order. Lastly, the original Exile in Guyville album will be reissued on double-vinyl or single CD, also on May 4. Amazon links are currently available below for the vinyl and CD editions of the box set; the standard reissue isn’t yet available for preorder at Amazon. You can also peruse the track listings below!

Liz Phair, Girly-Sound To Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Box Set (Matador, 2018)

7LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD

LPs 1-2: Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word To Ya Mutha – Girly-Sound 1 (self-released cassette, 1991 – Track 10 released on Juvenilia EP – Matador OLE-129, 1995)

White Babies
Shane
6 Dick Pimp
Divorce Song
Go West
Don’t Holdyrbreath
Johnny Sunshine
Miss Lucy
Elvis Song
Dead Shark
One Less Thing
Money
In Love w/Yself

LPs 3-4: Girls Girls Girls – Girly-Sound 2 (self-released cassette, 1991)

Hello Sailor
Wild-Thing
Fuck and Run
Easy Target
Soap Star Joe
Ant In Alaska
GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS
Polyester Bride
Thrax
Miss Mary Mack
Clean
Love Song
Valentine

LP 5: Sooty – Girly-Sound 3 (self-released cassette, 1991 – Tracks 3, 8-9 and 11 released on Juvenilia EP – Matador OLE-129, 1995)

Gigolo
Flower
Batmobile
Slave
Open Season
Whip Smart
Suckerfish
California
South Dakota
Bomb
Easy
Chopsticks

LPs 6-7: Exile In Guyville (released as Matador OLE-051, 1993)

6’1″
Help Me, Mary
Glory
Dance of the Seven Veils
Never Said
Soap Star Joe
Explain It to Me
Canary
Mesmerizing
Fuck and Run
Girls! Girls! Girls!
Divorce Song
Shatter
Flower
Johnny Sunshine
Gunshy
Stratford-On-Guy
Strange Loop?

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Cassette, Vinyl

Genres:

Rock

Tags:

Liz Phair

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.