[Artist] Gossip

Gossip is a band consisting of: Beth Ditto (vocals), Brace Paine (guitar, bass, sp-555) and Hannah Blilie (drums).

platter--simply titled "The Gossip"--with prominent Olympia producer/In 1999, after living a life feeling like lonely coyotes and huggy bears in Searcy, Arkansas, the radical feminism-infused punk unit Gossip relocated to Olympia, Washington where the trio recorded its first trash-ed out soul 7"indie music titan Calvin Johnson for his influential K Records label.

In a celebrity-obsessed age of product placement and plastic pop stars, Gossip are arguably the realest band in rock ‘n roll. Led by the Arkansas-born Beth Ditto, an often naked, unapologetically overweight outspoken feminist named NME’s coolest person in rock, Gossip have been breaking boundaries with their fiery soul-punk since 1999. Not because they’re bleeding heart activists (although they do wear their politics on their sleeves) or out to shock people, but because they just are who they are — not out to please anybody or make a million fans — totally real. As guitarist Brace Paine, original drummer Kathy Mendonca (now replaced by Hannah Blilie) and Beth put it, way back in the beginning, “We started a band ’cause we were bored. Our mission is to make you dance, and if you’re not gonna dance, just stay at home and listen to the oldies station.”

Although obviously not your average spotlight stealers, Gossip have more than earned their infamy. Formed in Arkansas back in ‘99, they relocated to Olympia, Washington where they signed with Calvin Johnson’s legendary indie label, K Records. Their big break came six years later by way of third full-length, Standing In The Way Of Control. The title track, an all-out anthem, quickly hit #1 on the UK charts and became the unofficial theme song of British teen melodrama, Skins. This was a particularly major breakthrough because the song was written as an angry response to the US government’s refusal to allow gays the right to marry. Again, not your average spotlight stealers.

Let’s get back to Beth a minute because she deserves way more than one run-on sentence. One of the music world’s fiercest individuals, the powerhouse has appeared nude on several magazine covers under unflaggingly punk circumstances. In interviews she has admitted everything from a distaste for deodorant to having eaten squirrels (although she later claimed it was her cousin who ate the critters). But she’s not all outrage all the time. What her philosophy really comes down to may have been revealed in her regular Guardian column, “What Would Beth Ditto Do,” where she said, “Women aren’t cats, we aren’t pets, we are just people trying to cross the freaking street to get an ice-cream.”

Fronted by the brash and unapologetic Beth Ditto, Gossip is simultaneously iconic and iconoclastic, a musical and aesthetic equation of sensibilities drawn from Yoko Ono + Kim Gordon + Tobi Vail + Roseanne Barr. Forged from new visual and musical templates, Gossip is one of pop music's most uncompromised bands since the Shaggs. The members of Gossip have come to accept the fact that they can never be Grace Jones. "We can only close our eyes and stand on stage," they exclaim, "and pretend to be Grace Jones!"

Gossip released its first full-length collection of never would-be hits, "That's Not What I Heard," in January 2001 and its successor, the feedback layered salute to The Stooges "L.a. Blues" EP "Arkansas Heat," in 2002 after touring with the White Stripes, The Kills, Chromatics, Les Georges Leningrad and Sleater-Kinney. The group's second full-length collection, "Movement," was released in May 2003.

Gossip achieved a threshold of slashdance with its last studio LP/CD, 2006's "Standing In The Way Of Control," which crawled up the UK album chart (eventually peaking at 22) while the album's title track became a UK chart slayer in its own right. After becoming the unofficial theme music for the popular British television teen drama, "Skins," the track danced over to the UK indie chart, heating up Billboard's European Top 100 Albums and the European Hot 100 Singles charts while selling copies in the UK. Gossip turned in a fractured rendition of "Standing In The Way Of Control" during the group's national television debut on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" in April 2008. Paul Schaffer was staring their eyes the whole time making them wholly uncomfortable. Following the performance, Letterman told the group how much it made him want to climb into the back of a van with Gossip and head out on tour, going so far as to offer to pick up the tab. The band have plans to call him every single about this alleged offer until he accepts or files a restraining order against the band.

Gossip appeared on the cover of the UK's prestigious music bible NME no less than three times in 2007, with the June 2nd issue notoriously featuring Beth Ditto dressed proudly in her "birthday suit." The NME pronounced Beth its 1 choice for "Coolest Of 2007" while, back in the States, Spin featured Beth in a six-page spread.

Now living down in Portland, Oregon, Gossip has opened for and toured with: Le Tigre, Chromatics, Tracy and The Plastics, Sonic Youth, Pre, YYY, Sleetmute Nightmute, Glass Candy, the White Stripes, CSS, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Erase Errata, Stereo Total, and The Kills among others.

During the summer of 2007, Gossip was a part of the True Colors Tour 2007, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. Gossip members generally loved the cafeteria food served backstage and found great friends in some of the cafeteria workers while vowing to stay away from the gambling machines at the casinos. Headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the True Colors Tour also featured Debbie Harry, Erasure, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The Misshapes, The Cliks and other special guests. Profits from the tour went to benefit the Human Rights Campaign. The Gossip kept proclaiming during the tour, "Why aren't Yaz and a Klaus Nomi tribute playing this damn festival".

On June 24, 2007, Gossip closed the Glastonbury Festival, with Beth Ditto paying tribute to legendary DJ John Peel during the group's set exclaiming "JOHN PEEL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UNDERGROUND!!!"

April 15, 2008 saw the release of "Gossip - Live In Liverpool," a deluxe Live CD/DVD combination package from Portland's premier soul/experimental unit. Captured live at a real concert on July 9, 2007, "Gossip - Live In Liverpool" focused on the deep raw power, energy and intensity in the heat of Gossip's chains + eyeliner meld of noise + politics + rhythm. This incendiary show broke out killer performances of Gossip soul/rippers including the band's chart-slaying "Standing In The Way Of Control"; the UK Top 40 hit "Listen Up"; and the 3 UK Indie track, "Jealous Girls," as well as minimalist renditions of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper" and Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?"

"Gossip - Live In Liverpool" included a DVD of the concert, lensed by documentary filmmaker and music video director Lance Bangs (Sonic Youth, Green Day, R.E.M., Death Cab For Cutie, Kanye West, Pavement, Mike Watt and more).

In April 2008, Gossip put all of their personal relationships and other commitments on hold to jump on a plane, land, bundle up in a van and then drive to a city near you in celebration of "Gossip - Live In Liverpool." Gossip's mini-tour of select US cities included gigs in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in addition to the group's watershed performance on Letterman.

Gossip - Listen Up!