Back in 1993, Liz Phair’s debut Exile in Guyville was hailed as a breakthrough in feminist rock. Here was a well-heeled woman from the tony suburbs of Chicago, rocking hard as a man while lusting after, hooking up with and discarding her prey as callously as any frat boy.
Her impact on male music geeks was just as strong. For Liz Phair was the woman of their High Fidelity dreams: cute, funny, into the Stones, potty-mouthed and super-horny.
After three wonderful, offbeat albums, Ms. Phair went as the (Sheryl) Crow flies to quixotically chase mainstream commercial success and financial freedom. Her music grew irrelevant in the process, and she lost her perch as the rock snob's alterna-kitten of choice.
Fortunately, a redheaded, extremely talented young lass named Jenny Lewis has stepped in to fill her role. Like Ms. Phair. Ms. Lewis’s voice is full of longing, she plays a nice guitar and writes lyrics full of insight and innuendo.
After years as a successful teen actress, Ms. Lewis and her band Rilo Kiley broke through with the 2004 album More Adventurous. On Rabbit Fur Coat, her 2006 side project with the Watson Twins, she displayed an impressive talent for Loretta Lynn-ish classic country, as seen here in this Hee Haw parody hosted by Sarah Silverman.
YouTube: Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins, “Rise Up with Fists”
Ms. Lewis most recently worked her male fan base into a lather by shooting a porn-themed video for the Pat Benatarian “The Moneymaker,” lead single from Rilo Kiley's 2007 release Under the Blacklight.
Her newfound taste for the ribald led sexagenarian critic Robert Christgau (“X-gau” to the rock cognoscenti) to speculate with Woody Allen-ish inappropriateness that “Jenny Lewis slips four songs about dangerous sex in which she herself might be indulging -- right now, in her pretty prosperity -- into music that's defined rather than just decorated by its stylistic flirtations.” Eek.
And in an article about talented non-jazz musicians on the site All About Jazz, writer Jeff Fitzgerald notes that Lewis “is hotter than Bix Beiderbecke's solo on ‘Singin' the Blues’”. What red-blooded woman could resist a line like that?
Jenny Lewis seems poised for big-time rock stardom, or at least a Lucinda Williams-like level of commerical and critical respectability. Word has it that Lewis is working on a new solo project with her growing list of high-profile admirers, including Elvis Costello (who normally shies away from collaborations). The still-kittenish (and MILF-ish) Ms. Phair, in the meantime, is supposedly label-less, and we eagerly await her return to the one-of-a-kind rock she does best.
Congratulations to Jenny Lewis on winning the Liz Phair “Alterna-Kitten” T-Neck Award.
As befits an award for talented eye candy, some video highlights from the Lewis and Phair canons.
YouTube: Rilo Kiley, “Silver Lining,” Under the Blacklight (note the Harrison-esque guitar figure)
YouTube: Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, "The Big Guns," Late Show with David Letterman, 2006
YouTube: Liz Phair, "Never Said," Exile in Guyville
YouTube: Liz Phair & Material Issue, "The Tra-La-La Song" (Theme from the Banana Splits), 1995
Can still rub one out to LP. What a mink.
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