I guess this is a trend? I kinda like it.

To commemorate the 15 year anniversary ATO reissue of the had-been-out-of-print Exile In Guyville, Liz Phair recently announced a second round of shows that will feature a beginning-to-end performance of the album.

In celebration of the 15th year anniversary of the groundbreaking album Exile in Guyville and its reissue by ATO Records, Liz Phair will perform the entire album at three engagements: August 27 at Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia; August 28 at 9:30 Club in Washington DC; and August 29 at The Paradise in Boston. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, July 23 via Ticketmaster.

These three additional shows come on the heels of four hugely successful sold out June events - two in New York City and one in each San Francisco and Chicago. Said Jon Pareles of The New York Times in his recent review of one of Phair's Exile in Guyville shows, "After 15 years of other people's indie-rock idiosyncrasies, "Exile" still holds up in all its conflicting impulses: its determination to be 'adamantly free' and its longing for someone to trust, its swagger and its pain." A modern classic, Pitchfork recently gave the album a 9.6 rating while both Rolling Stone and Blender gave Exile in Guyville a perfect score of five stars ("*****").

A few notes:

1. I never knew Exile In Guyville was written as a song-by-song response to Exile on Main St. before. I guess there really are things to be learned from press releases after all.
2. I'm sure he wasn't the first to do it, but the first guy I recall recently doing full-album performance of records that weren't by Pink Floyd was Ben Kweller a while back. This could be an ATO thing, then? Or maybe just coincidence. What am I, motivated to do research? If it were an ATO thing, though, It'd be rad to see Mike Doughty do all of Skittish.
   
3. Here are 5 other records I'd like to see performed in full (off the top of my head):

• Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
  
• Idlewild - The Remote Part
• The Format - Dog Problems
• The Decemberists - Castaways & Cutouts
• Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music...Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop (Quiet, you.)
• *BONUS SIXTH* Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
  

Note: this is not just an excuse to post a bunch of Amazon links in fact The Format's link is to Amie Street, this is a prompt for discussion.

Denoument: Mike Doughty is forgiving

Because what good is a story without an ending?

Subject:	Please be nice to Maïdi Roth.
Body:	We've been communicating in Frenglish, and she's being very cool. We're gonna sort this out. I am so happy that so many people have been jumping to my defense. Most awesome. I am lucky to be with you. Mike

All's well that ends well, I say. Mike Doughty is a class act, and Ms. Roth, it would appear, is saving some face. Chances are that someone else ganked the music on her behalf and she never knew about it.

[Mike Doughty @ MySpace]

Mike Doughty gets his rock ganked

A MySpace bulletin from the unspeakably good Mike Doughty:

Subject:	French lady ganks my rock!
Body:	Listener Sigz, in France, hipped me to this. A French singer/songwriter named Maidi Roth has done, uh, I spose you could say a very faithful homage to "I Hear the Bells." Check out this extremely ballsy song called "Aprés Toi". Most of all, I have to say, I'm happy that somebody in France is listening. Thanks Sigz!

In this day and age, you have to be out of your goddamn mind to lift a song that was on Grey's Anatomy of all shows (even my Mom knows this song) and not think anyone will notice. But Maidi Roth truly seems to have done exactly that.

Listen to "I Hear The Bells" at Mike Doughty's MySpace.

Then listen to "Aprés Toi" here.

Come on.

**UPDATE** So the song has now been disabled on Maidi Roth's MySpace page, but if you still haven't heard the ripoff, here's a YouTube video for it that will also probably be disabled soon: