Archive for the 'Beth Ditto' Category

Finally!!!!!!!!

After a painfully long absence - over two years! - The Gossip is back and ready to conquer the world with their upcoming album.

Lead singer Beth Ditto may be a media darling, but she's all about the music - first and foremost. Her voice is raw and powerful on the band's new single, Heavy Cross.

The song is quintessential The Gossip. It's got a killer bass riff, simple instrumentation, garage-sounding but with a danceable beat.

It kills!!!!!!!!

The Gossip are back - and they do not disappoint!!!

Beth Ditto has managed to become a beauty and a fashion icon while refusing to accept the conventions.

Her sincere rebellion has caught the attention of the world and the likes of designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and, now, Alexander McQueen - for whom the above photos were created.

Speaking with Black Book, Beth offers some refreshing insights.

Do people tell you all the time that you’ve really opened their minds to broader definitions of beauty?

Girls in general have really nice things to say—especially big girls. It’s mostly men who aren’t as open. I think men fear me sometimes. I played in Greece last summer and, I swear, when I went into the crowd, people actually ran away from me. But things like that make me really happy. You make a decision: if you are going to participate in the music industry and put yourself out there, you have to know that it’s all full of shit.

There is a lot of power in the shock of being unashamed. A friend told me that flaunting a big girl body in a punk-rock way is kind of a libertine thrill, like a drug.

It’s kind of like a drug… it’s a performance. It’s funny how something so normal and mundane that you see every day—your body—can be controversial. The shock value is intense. It’s like carrying an art piece around with you all the time.

Are you rubbing people’s noses in their own prejudices?

I don’t really care about other people’s prejudices. I don’t take things super personally, unless it’s someone I really respect. It’s really about making an art piece out of what you’ve been handed. It is about being resourceful. When all you have is an ugly sweater-vest, cut it up and make a really cool skirt out of it! When all you have are these really hateful people, cut them up and make something funny out of them.

You’ve called gay men out in the fashion world for turning women into size 0 paper dolls.

It’s not the fault of gay men. That’s a symptom of the problem… As kids, we’re not allowed to express ourselves, because we’re put in these binary boxes of what our gender is supposed to be.

Cardboard is so boring anyway!

Get, it Beth!

[Images via Black Book.]

Gay and proud singer Beth Ditto gives divaness on the cover of the new issue of Out magazine.

It is her first cover on a major US publication. But the musician isn’t expecting the story and accompanying shoot to rattle the denizens of her Bible Belt home town. “I’m almost positive they don’t even carry gay magazines there,” she tells the mag. “This Christian college still runs everything, and when I lived [in Judsonia, Ark.] you used to have to ask for gay magazines.”

In her Out interview, Ditto described her experience coming out in Judsonia as one of seven siblings. “My mom was this incredible island surrounded by redneck conservative America. She taught me what it must be like to be a flaming homo and bullied walking down the hallway at school. My other brothers and sisters were brought up like that too, and they treated me normally.”

The singer, who is in a relationship with a transgendered partner, traced her punk rock sensibility to her high school experience. “I was really obsessed with how there were way more poor kids than rich kids, but somehow it was always the pretty girls who got voted into student faculty and the rich kids who were popular. That made no sense to me because we, the poor kids, were the majority.”

And, good news! We are finally getting a new album from The Gossip some time this year.

Yay!!!!!!!!

The Gossip singer Beth Ditto and her bold fashion choices have helped her find a way into the fashion world!

Never shying from flaunting her figure, Beth donned a Herve Leger bandage dress for Fashion Week in Paris at Stella McCartney Ready-to-Wear A/W 2009 on Monday.

We think that the form-fitting frock looks awesome!

Rock those curves, momma!

[Photo via Getty Images.]

Our girl Beth Ditto puckered for the camera while hanging out in the front row of Uncle Karl's show Sunday night at Paris Fashion Week.

Why the sour face, Beth?

You look pretty fly!

We especially love the shoes!!

[Image via WENN.]

Stunning!!!!!!

The Gossip lead singer proudly bares all for the cover of the new issue of Love magazine.

CLICK HERE to check out the uncensored photo.

Never one to shy away from making a bold statement or taking risks, Beth Ditto debuted a drastic new look last night, Wednesday, at Love magazine'sChristmas Tea And Treasure Hunt in London.

The Gossip lead singer is now sporting flame-colored hair and a pixie cut.

We likes!

Do U?

P.S. The shaved eyebrows, though, still kinda freak us out.

[Photos via Getty Images.]

The fierceness that is Beth Ditto is featured in the new issue of Spin in an interview that's too juicy for words.

Here are some HIGHlights:

- BETH DITTO of the Gossip has outspoken opinions about whether she finds it marginalizing being on a label for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender artists…
"No, I love being on a queer label. You're sitting in a room with a group of people who have all the same reference points as you, you don't have to explain anything about your identity to them, and people aren't
like, "What's a tranny?"

- About her band, the Gossip, being much more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S…
"Sometimes I think of America as this imperial child of England that doesn't know what to do until England tells it. But I'm ready for the backlash over there. It's coming!"

- About stripping during her live shows…
"I don't think the rules are the same for me as they were for Courtney Love or [Bikini Kill/Le Tigre frontwoman] Kathleen Hanna, because I don't think my body was accepted in the same way. In the beginning, people were really uncomfortable with a big girl, so it was a radical political statement; and it's even more radical to not be objectified with your clothes off. Also, onstage, it's so hot we're dying. It just feels nice sometimes."

- About Keira Knightley calling her "sexy" and saying that she had "the most amazing body", and this coming from someone who looks like she might have an eating disorder…
"The way I feel about Keira Knightley is that even if she has an eating disorder, it's good for people to hear her say something like that, because people listen to people like her."

- About being friends with Perez Hilton…
"Let me tell you how I stay friends with Perez: I don't look at his blog. I don't agree with what Perez says a lot of the time, and I think he knows that, but we really appreciate each other."

- About how she thinks Britney Spears is rad and should never have had her kids taken away…
"People fail to see that regional culture is a massive part of a person's experience. She is just trash. And when I say trash, I mean that in the most positive way, as in, I was trash, too."