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Exile in Guyville,

Liz Phair, 1993

There was a time when the "indie" part of "indie rock" meant something like artists scratching out a living on their own, unspoiled amateurism with little pretension that their fame would ever reach beyond their own city or a loose string of small, regional clubs.

Liz Phair could have been a poster child for this model, and her 1993 debut Exile in Guyville teems with a blunt aesthetic that she admits would have been buried had she known her album would sell beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

Hoping to eventually sell out a pressing of 2,000 units, Phair was amazed when her album caught fire on the college-rock circuit and earned her a deal with Matador Records. Within a year, Exile sold 200,000 copies, opening a new chapter in the riot grrl and femi-rock movements that had been dominated by artists such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Tori Amos, Sinead O'Connor, and 7-Year Bitch.

A song-by-song response to the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. (or so Phair claimed), Exile in Guyville's success was due partly to Phair's stark, assertive songwriting, and partly to the lo-fi production by Phair's friend Brad Wood. Soon lo-fi became all the rage at the small labels, popularizing the form among alternative rockers and cementing a legacy for Phair as an icon of independent rock.

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