Before we run off to the combination Pizza Hut / Taco Bell with our copies of Infinite Jest tucked underneath our arms, a few links worthy of your clicking / browsing:
• Steve Sanders may not have been much of a fan of alternative music, but rest assured that Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne is super-into the “kind of absurd extras that come with being in a rock band”–i.e. being on Beverly Hills 90210. [Spinner]
• A fan was so pissed about the new fan-funded album by Idlewild leaking, he posed as frontman Roddy Woomble on Twitter and threatened legal action against the villainous uploader. [paidContent UK] More »
Beth Ditto’s performance in the Gossip’s video for “Still Standing In The Way Of Control” “Heavy Cross,” from the band’s forthcoming major-label debut Music For Men, is weirdly reminiscent of American Idol–namely, all those moments when singers are trying to prove to you that they really feel a song, only the smile playing across their lips directly contradicts the seriousness / bummer quotient of the lyrics. I get that Ditto here is trying to play to the type of the all-seeing disco oracle here, but “Cross” is something of an odd contrast with both the glitter-and-gold motif of the clip and her almost-too-knowing grin. Particularly when she’s really trying to belt out that bit at the end–I don’t even think Whitney keeps a smile on her face while she’s really giving her songs their all. [YouTube] More »
The studio version of the Gossip’s new single “Heavy Cross”–teased last week in this space–is now streaming from the band’s MySpace page. The nervous interplay between the twitchy disco guitars and Beth Ditto’s strangely neutered voice sounds straight out of a freestyle comp –but then the rest of the band kicks in, and… well, if you liked “Standing In The Way Of Control” but thought that it just didn’t sound flattened-out enough, “Heavy Cross” may be for you. An embed of the track is after the jump. More »
Beth Ditto has been transformed into a limited-edition doll for the purpose of promoting her upcoming clothing line for the British plus-sized clothing chain Evans. “Ditto’s curves have been translated into pint-sized proportions,” says Vogue UK in its writeup of the doll and Ditto’s “slouchy, rock-inspired clothes and accessories,” which is a nice way to allude to the Barbie-like makeover she’s been given–I guess because making clothing for “big girls” an acceptable topic for fashion magazines to even think about is tough. The full doll after the jump. More »
The major-label debut by the Gossip, the bluespunk-cum-disco outfit that launched (for better or worse) Beth Ditto into the UK’s celebrity stratosphere, is finally coming out, after many magazine covers and unfortunate dalliances with Perez Hilton. Music For Men comes out in England June 22, but US fans of the band will have to wait if they want to legally acquire the record from a non-Amazon UK source—until October. Say what?
