Our Phair lady

What: Liz Phair

When: Jan. 20, 8 p.m.

Where: Fine Line Music Café, 318 First Ave. N.

Cost: $20

You probably missed it. Liz Phair’s reign of rock ‘n’ roll stardom that is.

But, believe it or not, iGeneration, Lily Allen is not the pioneer of potty-mouthed pop poetry.

With her 1993 Stones-inspired album, “Exile In Guyville,” Phair not only earned a coveted spot on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest rock albums, but also unabashedly turned to the prude pre-Spears/Madonna repudiating generation of Americans and proclaimed: “Hey, guess what? Females enjoy sex too.”

Eighteen years after the release of her highly acclaimed album, Phair will grace the stage in Minneapolis at the Fine Line.

In the last five years since her previous album, “Somebody’s Miracle,” Phair has kept busy, utilizing her artistic talents in everything from scoring television shows to writing book reviews.

Of course, making music was on the agenda too, and this fall she dropped her sixth album, “Funstyle,” an experimental stride away from the moody, sexual pop of “Exile in Guyville.” Some of the influences she attributes to her experiences scoring for TV.

“It was almost like, all of these bitching complaints I had about the industry or points I had,” Phair said. “I decided to score my own points.”

These points confront issues like ownership and limits to creative expression, frustrations that Phair has certainly encountered in her relationships with various record labels.

“There’s a lot of people in the music business, the industry side, that are just constantly packed in this tiny way that reminds me of hamsters or gerbils,” Phair said. “No you can’t go down this tube, I’m gonna block you!”

Phair has never been the type that could be shoved into a box or stifled by the man, which is part of the reason that to release “Funstyle,” she completely left her management and record label, ATO. Her new material just wasn’t the kind of product that they were equipped to market, but there’s no bad blood.

“I just couldn’t see myself putting on appropriate clothes and sitting quietly at the dinner party,” Phair said. “It wasn’t easy. It was the right thing to do.”

So far this has proved to be true, and life has been nothing less than peachy for the ‘90s star. Her album, though a bit wacky, has been well-received by audiences so far; she’s secretly penning the great American novel, and she’s become a budding book reviewer for the New York Times.

In November, this gig landed the noted Rolling Stones idolizer an especially sentimental project: the chance to review Keith Richards’ autobiography, “Life.”

“It was a pretty massive moment for me on so many levels,” Phair said. “It was a massive moment to be able to do it for the Rolling Stones, for Keith, because of my ties to them and how important they’ve been as artistic inspiration for me.”

There’s something to be said about the New York Times seeking her out to voice the experience of a man who defined a generation, and it’s proof that, though her heyday has long passed, Liz Phair is not exiled from relevance. She has valuable things to say.