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 »
Yesterday’s Observer had a piece on the musical tastemaking enterprise within the UK TV show Skins, which chronicles the debauchery-filled lives of nihilistic kids who represent “Broken Britain.” The good thing for the music business: They’re partying to the likes of Crystal Castles as they spiral ever downward! Which may mean record sales, or at least that elusive currency known as “awareness.” Sure, the whole thesis of the article can be summed up by one statement about five-sixths of the way down—”In the UK, we’re coming round to the notion that instead of another doomed attempt to make music TV popular, a more profitable use of time would be trying to fit music to TV that already is popular”—but there were some other choice lessons along the way.
Guess who? Does the National Enquirer actually expect its readers to be familiar with The Gossip?
In what I think must be the first time a track from the Kill Rock Stars catalog has appeared on a Pop Idol satellite–unless some brave soul out in Finland tried to tackle Karp’s “Gauze” (hey, they love the metal out there)–Australian Idol contestant Holly Weinert gave her all to “Standing In The… More »
As you may have heard, Gossip singer Beth Ditto has displayed the majesty that her momma gave her on the cover of the NME this week. So wait, a few years ago, nudie shots of Ditto were confined to the lesbian sex mag On Our Backs and now she’s being anointed the “Queen of Cool” by the U.K.’s most toilet paper-worthy tabloid while wearing nothing but painted-on kisses? Did we miss a meeting?
popbytes’ Mashup of the Week cuts and pastes together NME darlings past and present, mixing Beth Ditto’s vocals from “Standing In The Way Of Control” into Elastica’s Wire homage “Connection.” More »
