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07/03/09
Heineken Opener Festival Gdynia
Discography
07/04/09 MainSquare Festival Arras 07/04/09 Beauregard Festival Caen 07/05/09 Furia Festival Cergy 07/08/09 Hultsfred Festival Hultsfred 07/10/09 Les Ardentes Liege 07/11/09 Musilac Festival Aix les bains 07/13/09 Razzmatazz Barcelona 07/15/09 Spaziale Festival Turin 07/17/09 Melt Festival Gräfenhainichen 07/18/09 Garden Nef Party Angouleme 07/19/09 Latitude Festival Suffolk 07/21/09 Paleo Festival Nyon 10/09/09 Terminal 5 New York, New York
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I've been listening to The Gossip
since I heard "Dressed in Black" from their self-titled original EP on
a compilation my friend Celeste made for me (she felt she owed me for a
Sleeper b-side compilation I made for her a while back). There was a
few I liked right away, like ESG's "Dance", Anna Oxygen, and, of
course, The Gossip's "Dressed in Black" and "Red Hott".
I got a hold of their debut album, That's Not What I Heard, from one of my favorite label, Kill Rock Stars, a few years later... by that time they had dropped the "the" part of their name and became simply Gossip, starting with their 2002 EP Arkansas Heat.
Ever since I discovered Britpop, I have been keeping an eye on UK pop music, and I can tell you that Gossip is huge in the UK. This was quite evident with their last album, Standing in the Way of Control, which had a huge buzz overseas, where their song, "Standing in the Way of Control", became the theme song of the British show Skins. The album instantly hit #1 on the UK Indie Charts.
With mass appeal,especially in the UK, the band recently signed with major label Sony Music (under the Music With a Twist umbrella). Their major debut is called Music for Men and it was released last Tuesday on CD and digital in the UK. As for the US, you can legally purchase the album last Tuesday - but the physical CD won't be available in the US until October 6th on Columbia Records. I am assuming around that time, you'll get to see the band on their promotional tour dates. As of this writing, there is one sole New York date.
So what is it about this three piece from Olympia, Washington, that's so appealing? I will ask you: what's not to love?
First off, their lead singer, Beth Ditto, is unabashedly lesbian, proud of her weight, and unapologetically outspoken. To be honest, none of that really matters to me, because I just enjoy hearing her vocals.
Second, backed with bassist (but will occasionally play guitars), Brace Paine, and drummer, Hannah Blilie, their songs comes off as raw, but always with a jerky dance groove.
Compared to Gossip's earlier work (especially on their first few EPs), they have gone from a sort of rockabilly soul to simply disco soul. I also felt Music for Men to be very polished and each sound can be heard loud and clear. This is possibly due to that the majority of the album was written and recorded at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, a first-class studio that Ditto admitted "the first time we ever had access to a studio like that".
I think it's a great direction for the band, because it gives us the opportunity to hear more of Ditto's soulful pipes and hear every bass and drum beat. Also, I felt that the disco/synth plays a more important role in Music for Men, compared to their earlier works.
Some stand-out tracks is the love song "Love and Let Love" (I just really love hearing "It's a long way until February") and "2012". I don't know if you knew about the end of the world, but according to the Mayans, they seem to think it ends on December 21st, 2012. This will shed some light on Gossip's song "2012", which sings and dance and celebrate as if the year is 2012.
I don't know what the Gossip's next single will be, but I would guess it would be something poptastic and easy as "Pop Goes The World" since "Heavy Cross" was released as the lead-single for the album.
If you're in the UK, you're in luck as the album is available to buy right now and that, also, they're doing all the major festivals. For US fans, just wait a little bit longer - or if you're impatience, the MP3s are available on iTunes and amazon (both stores sells the full album for $8).
I got a hold of their debut album, That's Not What I Heard, from one of my favorite label, Kill Rock Stars, a few years later... by that time they had dropped the "the" part of their name and became simply Gossip, starting with their 2002 EP Arkansas Heat.
Ever since I discovered Britpop, I have been keeping an eye on UK pop music, and I can tell you that Gossip is huge in the UK. This was quite evident with their last album, Standing in the Way of Control, which had a huge buzz overseas, where their song, "Standing in the Way of Control", became the theme song of the British show Skins. The album instantly hit #1 on the UK Indie Charts.
With mass appeal,especially in the UK, the band recently signed with major label Sony Music (under the Music With a Twist umbrella). Their major debut is called Music for Men and it was released last Tuesday on CD and digital in the UK. As for the US, you can legally purchase the album last Tuesday - but the physical CD won't be available in the US until October 6th on Columbia Records. I am assuming around that time, you'll get to see the band on their promotional tour dates. As of this writing, there is one sole New York date.
So what is it about this three piece from Olympia, Washington, that's so appealing? I will ask you: what's not to love?
First off, their lead singer, Beth Ditto, is unabashedly lesbian, proud of her weight, and unapologetically outspoken. To be honest, none of that really matters to me, because I just enjoy hearing her vocals.
Second, backed with bassist (but will occasionally play guitars), Brace Paine, and drummer, Hannah Blilie, their songs comes off as raw, but always with a jerky dance groove.
Compared to Gossip's earlier work (especially on their first few EPs), they have gone from a sort of rockabilly soul to simply disco soul. I also felt Music for Men to be very polished and each sound can be heard loud and clear. This is possibly due to that the majority of the album was written and recorded at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, a first-class studio that Ditto admitted "the first time we ever had access to a studio like that".
I think it's a great direction for the band, because it gives us the opportunity to hear more of Ditto's soulful pipes and hear every bass and drum beat. Also, I felt that the disco/synth plays a more important role in Music for Men, compared to their earlier works.
Some stand-out tracks is the love song "Love and Let Love" (I just really love hearing "It's a long way until February") and "2012". I don't know if you knew about the end of the world, but according to the Mayans, they seem to think it ends on December 21st, 2012. This will shed some light on Gossip's song "2012", which sings and dance and celebrate as if the year is 2012.
I don't know what the Gossip's next single will be, but I would guess it would be something poptastic and easy as "Pop Goes The World" since "Heavy Cross" was released as the lead-single for the album.
If you're in the UK, you're in luck as the album is available to buy right now and that, also, they're doing all the major festivals. For US fans, just wait a little bit longer - or if you're impatience, the MP3s are available on iTunes and amazon (both stores sells the full album for $8).
06/27/2009 00:00:36 ♥ vu (
)
♥ thegossipmusic.com
♥ myspace.com/gossipband
♥ twitter.com
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