And he got me to take my shirt off while I was doing this and I went back into the booth and I had my big coat on and stuff, and then I brought out the product and we were all just sitting around and he was like, “This is the album cover! This is the cover!” I don’t know if you know him, but he has this brilliant sort of way of just being like, “This is absolutely…and this is so ’90s! And we, Urge! If anyone knows what ’90s are, Urge are!” I mean I don’t think that is particularly true, but he cropped it, he said, “You have to crop it exactly like this!” We’re just going to stick in some now.īut I’ve been doing this for months, going to the Rainbo and doing some more photo essays as I like to call them. It sort of fully didn’t come off so I’m going to probably do it in the next video. Put it this way, we were at the Rainbo taking pictures because I’m doing some sequences for my video of me singing into photo booth pictures mouthing various parts of the sentence, which we were going to like flip in. (The album cover) was Nate Kato’s (of Urge Overkill) idea. After Matador rejected that concept, Nash Kato of the band Urge Overkill, was asked to suggest a new approach. Instead of the iconic cover that is now immortalized, her initial concept was to use a still from a friend’s student film which depicted an orgy of Barbies floating in a pool. Phair was heavily involved in conceptualizing the cover and album packaging of Exile in Guyville. Later pressings would replace this image with a white and blue version of the flamenco dancers. Label: Matador (OLE 051-1, OLE 051-2, OLE 051-4)Īll songs written and arranged by Liz PhairĮarlier pressings of the album depicted a Barbie and Ken doll in a compromising position on the CD face. Together, Phair and Wood began formulating each track and determining the right sound. Liz PhairĮxile in Guyville was largely recorded over the summer of 1992 in Chicago at Wood’s Idful Studios.

I took the same situation, placed myself in the question, and answered the question. Later, many critics would question how the songs actually correlated with one another-often taking things far too literal, and Phair would find herself explaining the parallels. Phair decided to make the album mirror the 18 tracks of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street-making each of her songs representing a response to the setting or situation that the Stones’ songs elicited. With that, Phair and producer Brad Wood began to work on recording the songs that would ultimately become one of the strongest debut records ever released.

Having freshly signed to Matador Records upon the strength of the Girly-Sound cassette tapes, Gerard Cosloy, then-president of Matador, offered Phair a $3,000 advance to begin working on her debut album.

Exile in Guyville by Dave White