Some people are grousing about Liz Phair revisiting her debut, 1993 album Exile in Guyville. "She's just cashing in!" they say, scandalized by the idea of touring in support of a re-release. But honestly, I'd rather hear Phair rehash a classic album from the '90s than shit out an all-new collection of songs co-authored by the people who write for Avril Lavigne.

 

Now it seems that, while Phair is wading into the pond of nostalgia, she's also been spending some time in Swingtown (you know, that other '70s show, that debuted last night on CBS). She and her partners Evan Frankfurt and Doc Dauer contributed the series' instrumental score. It all seems very appropriate, as Phair grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, the wealthy Chicago suburb where the program is set. Though she spent the '70s there, the singer told the Chicago Tribune that she doesn't remember much wife-swapping occurring during her childhood. “For my parents, they’re just like, ‘What?’... We all thought it happened in Lake Forest," said Phair.

And as for the score itself? “I’m cannibalizing a lot of the songs I’m writing now, and I’ll go in and rip off some three-chord thing from a song I’ve written before,” Phair told the Tribune. “It comes out sounding totally different and it’s a lot of fun.” So basically, just as she's revisiting Exile in Guyville 15 years later, she's recycling shit she's already written for Swingtown soundtrack. I guess I can see where that line, "I want to be your blowjob queen" might come in handy on a show about group sex, but jeez. You know, I initially said that I wasn't bothered by Phair's now entirely backward-looking career, but this may be enough to tip the scales. Is it time to plan a "writer's block" intervention? Or just convince her to get a real goddamn job like everyone else who hasn't had any genuine inspiration in about 10 (and here I'm being generous) years?