If you're anything like me, you don't need to be reminded that yet another record that shaped your musical upbringing is twenty fucking years old. But Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville was recorded in 1993, and it's a good thing because Jessica Hopper has pulled together an oral history for Spin that will make you forget all about whitechocolatespaceegg and send you careening back to the days when indie rock was a dude thing and girls didn't play guitar and a record by a young lady that mentioned sexy parts but also wasn't explicitly for dancing was novel enough to merit attention from NPR and ladies like Liz Phair were hanging out with Winona Ryder and Rosanna Arquette backstage at Beck shows (above).
Liz Phair: I remember some guy had come back to my apartment after the bars closed, and we were going to get high or something, and this happened a lot, and I took great pleasure in this. They'd be like, "Blah blah my music, I'm going to do this, blah blah." And then I would be like, "Oh, I'm recording a record too," and they'd be like, "Really?" I'd put it on and they'd be, like, "Oh my god, you really are recording a record." And that was always a proud moment, because I could blow them away because it was a totally good record.
It was indeed, a totally good record.
[Photo via Getty]