BORN: April 17, 1967, New Haven, CT
Liz Phair (full name: Elizabeth Clark Phair) was born April 17, 1967, and adopted in New Haven, Connecticut. She grew up in Winnetka, IL (a suburb of Chicago) with her father, Dr. John Phair, mother, Nancy Phair, and her brother, Philip. Liz attended New Trier High School in Winnetka and later attended Oberlin College in Ohio. She majored in Art History/Studio Art and graduated in 1989. After graduation, Liz and three of her classmates moved to San Francisco. Here Liz supported herself by making Charcoal drawings.
When Liz returned to Chicago, she began to make some demo tapes on the dare of a friend who was impressed with her playing. The resulting demos (three cassettes containing a total of 32 songs) were dubbed the Girlysound tapes. Liz originally made two copies, and gave one to Chris Brokaw (the friend who convinced her to make the tapes) and one to Tae Won Yu. They each made copies and gave them to friends. John Henderson, who runs the Chicago indie record label Feel Good All Over, got ahold of the tapes and offered to re-record some of the songs with Brad Wood. Nothing ever became of these recording sessions (save two collaborations with the band Ashtray Boy) because Henderson and Liz had a falling out over the manner in which the songs should be recorded.
Liz continued working with Brad Wood and in 1992 sent a tape that had six songs on it to Matador Records. She was signed for two albums and an EP. Liz immediately started work on her first album, Exile in Guyville. The name comes partly from the Rolling Stones album, Exile in Mainstreet, but the term guyville refers to the male-dominated indie music scene. Liz's debut album, Exile in Guyville, got a lot of good reviews, and it is considered one of the 200 essential albums by Rolling Stone. In 1994, Liz released her second album, Whip-smart. This album was released to a lot of bad reviews. Many critics considered it a flop, but many of her fans enjoy the album very much.
In 1995, Liz married Jim Staskausas, and had their first child, Nick, on December 21, 1996. Liz resides in Chicago with her Jim, Nick, and Jim's teenaged son, Aidan.
In August of 1998, after four years, Liz released her third album, whitechocolatespaceegg. She toured with the Lilith Fair in the summer of 1998 to support the album, and then began a national tour in September.
