Billboard ran an interesting story a few days ago about the new "Chicks With Attitude" tour. The tour (basically a LIZ PHAIR headlining thing with a few openers) is set to hit 18 major US cities from August to September. The strange aspect of this isn't Liz touring in front of a giant Maybelline billboard as much as who the support acts are... NINA PERSSON (yes THAT Nina of the Cardigans), Katy Rose, and Charlotte Martin. A "preview" show will be happening next week in NY's Hudson Theatre. Pardon the skepticism but wouldn't "The Blond Lillith" tour be a better name?

In other road outings, THE CARDIGANS are headed stateside next month and we have the specific dates up on the tour page. Perhaps US fans will finally be able to pick up their latest record before it gets released here (with a bonus DVD) on May 25.

Liz Phair has done it again, but perhaps not for the reason she hoped for. Her new album has caused quite a stir on basically every indie mailing list and message board that exists. Between bad reviews (ahem, Pitchfork ["It's sad that an artist as groundbreaking as Phair would willingly reduce herself to cheap publicity stunts and hyper-commercialized teen-pop."], AllMusic ["...such sentiments sound painfully trite coming from a 36-year-old woman"], and let's not forget The New York Times [" In the world of "Liz Phair," banality wins the day"]) and interview after interview where Liz goes on about money and sales "I wanna sell some records, goddammit" (Rolling Stone, 03/20/03). She is not being portrayed in the best of lights...

After months of concerning news stories about Liz Phair, she apparently has some new material to show for it. Released a few weeks ago on a Capitol Records promotion was a new song by Phair entitled Take A Look. It's been a long wait, you can make your own judgment.

Hot off my confession of having listened to 'Exile In Guyville' an ungodly number of times recently is a news bit on Pitchfork Media about LIZ PHAIR. She is apparently collaborating with The Matrix (think April Lavigne, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, etc.) on some new material for her upcoming album on Capitol.
Editorial: Come on now... has she really fallen so far from the Girly Tape days? This is disturbing. Seeing her backup Sheryl Crow recently on Leno was bad enough, but employing other people to write and produce her music? Words cannot describe the pain....