Liz Phair Lost Her Record Deal Thanks to 'Funstyle'

It turns out that Liz Phair's 'Funstyle' album, which she unexpectedly dropped on the music world just 10 days ago, wound up costing her both her manager and her record deal. Phair -- who linked up with Dave Matthews' ATO label two years back for the reissue of her iconic 'Exile in Guyville' -- says that the people in charger of her record company just didn't dig her new, rap-inflected musical direction.

"You were never supposed to hear these songs," Phair wrote in a post on her website titled "How to Like It." "These songs lost me my management, my record deal and a lot of nights of sleep."

Phair also insisted that she's being true to herself on her album. "Here is the thing you need to know about these songs and the ones coming next: These are all me," she said. "Love them, or hate them, but don't mistake them for anything other than an entirely personal, untethered-from-the-machine, free-for-all view of the world, refracted through my own crazy lens ... This is my journey. I'll keep sending you postcards."

Phair blamed her split with ATO on a changing of the management at the label in an email interview with the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy. Still, she says she has no hard feelings about parting company. "The people who were still there didn't like, or didn't know what to do with the music I was making, so we just stalled out and I asked to leave," she said, before revealing that some of her old chums at ATO really liked her new record. "A few of them just contacted me after I put out 'Funstyle' to tell me how hilarious some of the songs were. All good."