Liz Phair- Whitechocolatespaceegg Sessions

 

 I used to consider myself not much of a reader, sure, I read the newspaper everyday and read articles in magazines and on the computer, but when I really think about it a lot of my day is spent reading (in some form). We read more than we give ourselves credit for, you need to have at least basic skills of literacy to survive day to day life and our mind is busy processing information all the time. To sit back and open a book to read for pleasure has become a enjoyable leisure activity to allow ourselves to imagine other peoples lives or fictional accounts of experiences we wish we can participate in...or not. I prefer non-fiction, but I have been trying to balance my palate as I seem to alternate between biographies of athletes and musicians, graphic novels (and comics), pop culture (music, art, film etc.) and classic novels. Biographies (and auto biographies) fascinate me to explore the story behind the music and the game and this usually leads to more respect for the subject. 

 

 

 

I checked Liz Phair's memoir, Horror Stories out the library back in July and finally finished it last week. I read the first couple chapters, and at first found it a difficult to read as memoirs are different from straight-up auto biographies. I renewed the book four times and finally connected with the narrative and cruised through the rest of the book and found it an enjoyable read. This wasn't an ordinary story that bios cover, but she shares stories and experiences of uncomfortable, awkward and dis-empowering moments in her life that most authors avoid when they write about themselves. The writing is honest and unpretentious and a very intimate and unique self-portrait of her life.

 

(quote from Horror Stories) Horror stories is my effort to slow everything down and take a look at how we really become who we are. It's more than just my personal story. It's about the small indignities we all suffer daily, the silent insult to our system, the callous gestures that we make toward one another. Horror isn't necessarily the big, ghoulish waiting to pounce on you in the dark. Horror can be found in brief interactions that are as cumulatively powerful as the splashy heart-stoppers because that's where we live most of lives.

The stories are interesting, no real order, both chronologically or of importance. Each chapter is a glimpse of a certain episode in her life such as, navigating through a blizzard in NYC, going into labor, blackout in NYC, a crush on a guy that worked at Trader Joe's (who later killed himself) and her #metoo moment. The #metoo chapter is especially interesting because the accused was to produced her next album at the time. They were working on what would have become a double album and then the New York Times published an article about his inappropriate interactions with young female artists, sexual harassment and communicating with an underage girl online. Phair doesn't name him, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out who it is (click to NY Times link). Obviously, the project was scrapped and the album wasn't released. 

  Since this isn't a book review blog, I'm posting tracks from her Whitechocolatespaceegg sessions. Apparently, there were a lot of tracks recorded and these demos were uncovered by sheer luck with the discovery by a former roommate of some original studio tapes left behind by Jason Chasko, who produced some of the songs on WCSE. (read the notes for a full breakdown of all the tracks in the file). This turned out to be 7 cassettes that the poster purchased and converted the tracks to two CD's. The tracks are fascinating, some are rough mixes, early versions, alternative mixes and unreleased. If you're a fan of demo and session tracks, like I am, this is the holy grail of Liz Phair unreleased tracks. I had earlier posted the original version of WCSE that was rejected by the record label that had to be re-recorded and mixed, so this is a nice companion piece. Extra bonus, these tracks are all lossless!

Enjoy!

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use

Please share!

 

LIZ PHAIR

WCSE Sessions (1996-1997)

Disc One
1996 Studio Recordings (taken from tape 7)

  1. Oh My God
  2. Headache
  3. Desperado Theme
  4. Ride
  5. Hurricane Cindy
  6. Rocket Boy
  7. Perfect World
  8. Fantasize
  9. Russian Girl
10. Stuck On An Island
11. Tell Me You Like Me
12. Girls' Room
13. I'm Like That
14. Waiting For The Bird (White Bird Of Texas)
15. Freak Of Nature

Sidenote 1: I only used the Studio Recordings
portion of this tape.  If you are interested
in the Demos portion...

1997 Studio Recordings
16. White Chocolate Space Egg (tape 1)
17. Big Tall Man (tape 1)
18. Tell Me You Like Me (tape 2)
19. What Makes You Happy (tape 2)
20. Bars Of The Bed (tape 3)
21. Blood Keeper (tape 4)
22. What Makes You Happy (tape 5)
23. Big Tall Man (tape 5)

1998 whitechocolatespaceegg Rough Mixes
24. Johnny Feelgood
25. What Makes You Happy

Disc Two
1997 whitechocolatespaceegg Running Order (tape 6)
1. White Chocolate Space Egg
2. Fantasize
3. Headache
4. Big Tall Man
5. Baby Got Going
6. Only Son
7. Bars Of The Bed
8. Oh My God
9. Ride
10. Waiting For The Bird
11. Perfect World
12. Desperado Theme
13. Tell Me You Like Me
14. What Makes You Happy
15. Freak Of Nature
16. Girls' Room
17. Russian Girl

Bonus Tracks
18. Blood Keeper (tape 4 - same as disc 1 track 21)
19. Greased Lightning (from Japanese Polyester Bride CD EP)
20. Hurricane Cindy (from Japanese whitechocolatespaceegg CD)

(Tracks 19 & 20 are not included because they were "officially" released and were removed...sorry)

LIZ PHAIR- '96-'97 WCSE Sessions FLAC. rar