QUTE

Don't question why Gossip have started making upbeat, euphoric disco-inspired pop records. Just live it and love it.

Gossip

 They've come a long way. A long way since their humble beginnings as a riot grrl hipster alt underground cult punk band from Portland, Oregon. Now Gossip, although their mainstream peak seems to have come and gone in the UK, have experienced great success elsewhere worldwide with "Heavy Cross" from their last album becoming a smash hit in Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium (Wallonia), France, Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Italy, Australia, Israel, New Zealand and The Netherlands.

Yep.

Anyway their new LP is out here soon, it's called A Joyful Noise, it has that lead single produced by Xenomania that we quite liked that was released a few days ago and seemingly sunk without a trace.

Here is a tracklisting:

1. "Melody Emergency"
2. "Perfect World"
3. "Get a Job"
4. "Move in the Right Direction"
5. "Casualties of War"
6. "Into the Wild"
7. "Get Lost"
8. "Involved"
9. "Horns"
10. "I Won't Play"
11. "Love in a Foreign Place"

 Lovely. You can actually listen to the whole thing at the Guardian website. What do you think?

FLAWLESS GOTHIQUE MASTERPIECE

Situated somewhere between surrealist masterwork "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Adele's slightly odd "Rolling in the Deep" video, the new Gossip visual is a strange, gothic meld of smoke! hair! eyes! lips! drums! rainbow! choreography! choreography! lips! hair! eyes!

Beth looks beautiful and we watched it all the way through without getting bored so it's a 21st century vidular win!

Is that all there is?

We LOVE (the) Gossip. We do. They were our first 'amazing' gig, Beth Ditto was our first lesbian icon and their emergence in 2006 was one of the biggest catalysts for our explosion of homodom and interest in homo music. We wrote our A-level English Language coursework on the band's history and while instantly we were never into their real early Olympia riot grrl material we've learnt to appreciate it with time. Standing in the Way of Control was our mid-teen years, and as for Men in Love; flawless flaw-free sans flaw. Let's not even get started on the auditory ambrosia which is Beth Ditto's solo EP (should've been titled 'Goddess'). So... why aren't we creaming our knickers all over "Perfect World", the lead single from the forthcoming Joyful Noise?

The song is great. Extremely enjoyable, and a more than worthy album track - or even follow-up single. But we're just not feeling it for 'first single' material. This is a problem we've had with a few bitches lately, and we don't know whether it's us or them. Are our expectations just too high or is the material actually sub-par? Usually we'd look to other peoples' opinions for a watermark but general feeling seem to be just as mixed about this material as our own. I mean, so what if our expectations are high? We've loved each Gossip album more than it's immediate predecessor, so we've become used to hearing even better shit, and not only that but HELLO XENOMANIA. The closest thing we have to modern day House of Motown or Stock Aitken Waterman (shudder), our favourite Kentish producers in the world and the Girls Aloud behind Girls Aloud have their fingers in this massive Gossip pie and we were SO excited. Maybe we're being too negative. We're enjoying the song. It's a lot more lush and 'full' than they've done in the past, which is good we guess.

Maybe we're just fucked off cos we know we probably won't be able to see their imminent supporting tour. Damn gap yah.

(oh, hello Shiny and New's two thousandth post!)

This song is about our lives...

And not only was it one of the best offerings on CSS' third album but it features SSION, the fabulous band we saw supporting Gossip back in November 2009 who sang "Keep It Together" with us. Yeah.

Also, get your orders in for the zine pronto! It's going to press within the week to be sent out for the first week of January. Hurry!

(Nearly) all of our dreams have come true.

When we heard news of this possibly happening a few weeks ago, it genuinely felt like some higher power had delved into the Files of Things We Really Want to Happen and agreed. Beth Ditto is one of our genuine heroes - when we were beginning to develop individual ideas and thoughts on what it's like to be a teenager who happens to be gay in 2007, she was the first figure in music we encountered who seemed to make it fucking cool. "Standing in the Way of Control" was the anthem of that year, and we followed Gossip obsessively from that point onwards. A gig in September of that year saw her jump, writhe and grind on the faces of my friends and I (we were on the front row, duh), before we had a Spontaneous Crazy Moment and threw our t-shirt (which we had written our MySpace address on - bless - and pleaded with her to contact us on it) onto the stage. She picked it up as she left the stage, before coming back on for the encore - wearing it. Actually... *scurries to YouTube* oh no, someone had uploaded a video of her actually wearing my t-shirt but it seems that in the three years that have since passed it has disappeared into the ether. Hang on... *checks photo archives on computer and travels back in time to MySpace* OH MY GOD

We feel sixteen again! We used to exchange MySpace messages occasionally as well, during which (upon asking her what her favourite Madonna song was) she said that we would completely re-think our opinions of Madge if we watched Paris is Burning, the famous documentary about the underground vogue ballroom dances held in the late eighties/early nineties - we still love Madge because she steals everything and we've always known that. This all came about the years during which our musical taste directions were solidifying, and having such interaction with a genuine musical hero of ours was phenomenally exciting. Messaging on MySpace in 2007 was as liberating to interacting with musicians as Tweeting them is in 2011. We had a chance to meet last year when we won tickets to see Gossip in Manchester which included a meet & greet afterwards, 'cept from post-gig, it seemed like they couldn't be bothered as the manager came out and told us they were too tired. Extremely disappointing, but it couldn't dim our love for her.

We have always thought she had a voice perfectly suited for throbbing, dance-floor magic; people have been saying for years that she is one of the few white singers who could pass for black, such is the power of her voice box. Gossip's most recent album, Men in Love, took us as close to dance music as her voice had ever come before, with "Love Long Distance" being a particular highlight, yet it was last year's collaboration with Simian Mobile Disco, "Cruel Intentions", which was Beth Ditto doing dance. It was incredible, powerful, spine-tingling stuff, which was a perfect evolutionary step towards completing her first solo EP with the dance outfit. Cleverly entitled The Beth Ditto EP, it's comprised of four wonderfully crafted pop-dance tracks; "Open Heart Surgery" and "I Wrote the Book" press all the right buttons in terms of euphoric melodrama melded with stomping floor-hitters, while the remaining half "Do You Need Someone" and "Goodnight Good Morning" are more than good.

Beth Ditto EP preview by Deconstruction Records

We love Beth Ditto, and if you don't - you're mistaken.
PS, thanks for coming on this little journey through the past few years of our musical life, we didn't plan for the MySpace/PhotoBucket hacking to cut in half way through!

A year or so later..

I once passed a hairdresser's in Lewisham that had the following quote enscribed on its window: 'When great art speaks for itself, don't interrupt.' Not sure who said it or when (I hope the proprietor penned it whilst creating an elaborate mohawk) but, in the context of the Gossip's new video, it's pretty apt.

Alright, it may not come under any National Gallery definitions of art since it lacks waterlilies, warring titans, baby oiled warriors and or lots of naked people looking angry/bloated/both whilst wearing a jewel encrusted diadem, but it is a sort of chaotic, panoramic Last Debauched Supper, but with no supper, lots of hipsters, urination, vomit, suspect behaviour taking place in a 'moving' vehicle. And in place of Jesus there are just lots of Jesus haircuts, framed artfully by vintage 1970s sweatbands.

Even if it is a year (A YEAR!!!) late-something which could have been easily rectified if Beth hadn't been ensnared by glorified energy, personality and creativity vaccum that is Plant Planton aka Fearne Cotton and the atomic brain-melt that is ITV2-it is still very good. Something could be said about the Divine drag-channeling, something could also be said about the sad yet inevitable infiltration, in just about every 'topical' 'on trend' music video today, of studio's corporate handpicked hipsters as seen in Kylie, Kesha, Katy Perry etc etc etc, something could also be said about the bizarre dichotomy between the progressively direct sentimentality (no longer making sense) of the song and the deliberately perverse and provocative visual depravity placed against it, something could also be said about Beth's amazing dress/bus/hair/key collection/EVERYTHING, but then again, something could just as easily not.

Albums of the Year '09!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's late! But 'better late than never' is what they say. So it's what we shall deliver. Here are our top 10 albums of '09. Twas a stellar year! Gushing and platitudes start here:

Blue Roses – Blue Roses
You may not have a clue who Yorkshire singer and multi-instrumentalist Blue Roses is, but if anybody can lay claim to Kate Bush’s ethereal, British folk throne it’s her. Her alternately wild, then almost classical voice and sound, contrasted with cut glass piano and spindly violin make for a debut album of authentic and sheer beauty.

Ellipse – Imogen Heap
We can’t think of another album we have waited as much for as this one. A mixed bag of emotions and moods like it’s predecessor, Ellipse brings us a song titled “Swoon” which somehow makes us actually swoon, a song named “First Train Home” which actually makes us want to go home and a track entitled “Canvas” which while having nothing to do with canvases, takes us to an Ibiza beach round about sunset, mojito in hand. Bliss.

Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Karin Dreijer Andersson has stated that this may be the first, last and only album she’ll release as solo witch doctor-cum-electro warrior Fever Ray. If it is, then what a rare and troubling treat. Ms. Andersson had always made music as beautiful as it was horrifying as one half of The Knife, but here she did it alone, and created a unique and wonderful soundscape in doing so.

Lungs – Florence + the Machine
We began the year with a poisonous dislike for Ms. Florence due to a certain “Kiss With a Fist” being a pile of utter shite, but that was easily mellowed into a blossoming, ever-growing (even to this day) affection for what a million and one people have already termed “the new Kate Bush”. Plucking away at our heart strings with the same ease she shows with her harp, Lungs can do no wrong. A genuine classic.

Music For Men – Gossip
While the year may have seen a rollercoaster in terms of how popular Gossip stand with your S&N writers, this record is undoubtedly a step in the right direction and completely their best work yet. Whoever’s idea it was to bring synthesisers, house pianos and just a tad of disco into the mix deserves a big sweaty motorboating on Ditto’s tits.

Rated R – Rihanna
Thought you were left reeling in shock at Rihanna’s transformation from just-another-R&B-label-puppet to world’s biggest and bestest popstar in 2007? Well how about when post-trauma and publicity whirlwind, she came out with an album brooding, dark, cohesive, challenging, clever and still unmistakeably her?

Speech Therapy – Speech Debelle
Say what you will about Speech Debelle, but any woman willing to rap so candidly about trouble and angst against a backdrop of baroque strings, shuffling cymbals, sugar-spun guitar and haunting piano without ever bragging about or glorifying gratuitous sex or violence was brave and brilliant indeed.

xx – The xx
Minimalist name, minimalist album. From reading their influences (Aaliyah, Mariah Carey, Ginuwine) you’d be forgiven to think they would be bordering on N-Dubz territory. Couldn’t be further apart. A sparse, sweeping landscape of blips and beeps, contrasted with two hauntingly beautiful and moving voices make for a prime revision soundtrack and the finest companion of 2009 to fall asleep with. That’s a compliment by the way.

The Bachelor – Patrick Wolf
There are those who would have you believe that it doesn’t matter what an artist does in their private life, if the music is good, it’s good. And there are others who would have you believe it’s impossible to separate an artist’s body of work from their lifestyle choices or shenanigans. If you’re going to enjoy Patrick Wolf’s work you’re going to have to be firmly in the former camp. Mr. Wolf has made it increasingly difficult to like him over the past year or so. Fabricating stories for attention, showing his bare bottom in seedy and unsexy S&M videos, throwing multiple hissy fits, and lobbing heavy electronic equipment at music professionals in a seeming attempt to create an air of rebellion. Erratic and confounding behaviour.

Despite this The Bachelor is Patrick Wolf’s most coherent, lush and exciting album. From the pulsing, fluttering strings on energetic “Hard Times” to the exotic and glittery sitar on “Theseus” there is delight and cloudless beauty on almost every track. Tilda Swinton’s spoken interjections have not been to everyone’s tastes, but are chilling and reminiscent of Kate Bush and Eliza Carthy’s husky raucous cameo is both exhilarating and wonderfully pitched. Wolf may have parted ways with his major label for this work, but you wouldn’t guess. Here the string arrangements are thicker, deeper and more evocative and the songwriting more inventive and sophisticated. You may not see eye to eye with Patrick, and increasingly even his fans do not, but you can’t argue with an album so perfectly wrought and aesthetically stunning.

Two Suns – Bat For Lashes
From the moment you are introduced to this record with blood-chilling, mesmerising verse and lead into a trail-blazing, hairs-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck inducing rollercoaster ride through all manner of instruments and vocal contortions, you will be in love with Natasha Khan and her two suns. “Moon and Moon” is a three minute lump-in-throat moment through and through, “Siren Song” is desperately gorgeous and “Daniel” is officially the most fabulous 80s throwback of 2009 – and we all know 2009 was the year of 80s throwbacks. The video for “Pearl’s Dream” has to be one of the fiercest pieces of celluloid put to music of the decade – that blonde wig, that snarling wolf... ooh it always gets us going! – and “Sleep Alone” is leering, intimidating and gorgeous in all the right places.

There seems to be this magical crossing of wires between Khan’s ethereal elfin voice, the vast array of intricately played instruments utilised and the lyrical atmospheres effortlessly evoked with ease. Her 2006 debut Fur and Gold presented an undeniably interesting character – an artist with a bag of tricks which seemed to show promise for many further, better creations. Two Suns can only be a step in that impending process. In the wake of Kate Bush’s departure from our musical landscape (ignoring for a moment her recent fabulous “comeback”) we were presented with countless ‘quirky’ individuals clawing for a piece of her crown. Bat for Lashes is no Kate Bush – she seems to be in a league of her own. She has complete control of the music she creates and it seems to be coming from a genuine, entrancing place – she isn’t being ‘weird’ for the sake of being weird, Natasha Khan is a weaver of the most delicate tapestries, pieces of art which can take you from your desk chair or your train seat and push you through a tunnel of breathless emotions.

Two Suns is not only one of the finest albums of 2009 but of the decade, and we are pleased to say it seems the British public have recognised this with the success the album found upon release. We can only hope this provokes further, what we can only term as, genius from Bat for Lashes. We await eagerly.

A glamorous Gossip video...

There's a lot of gold in this video, and a fair amount of glitter: two things you can never have too much of. There are also some shots of people standing in front of eachother moving their arms around so it looks like they are a Hindu god with 6 appendages. Let us tell you, readers, that when we were a wee child and saw both Kylie Min-ogg-yew and S Club Juniors (bear with us) recreating this exotic and mesmerising visual trickery on Top of the Pops we were inspired to take up a career as a popstar, just so we could do this on stage. That'll be all.

We forgot to mention...

We were on the front row for the beyond-existing-words Gossip gig at the Scala in Kings Cross on Thursday night, and were blown away all over again by the tremendous amount of energy the entire band, particularly everyone's favourite skinny-bitch-destroying-vagina-inclined-towards-diva, Beth Ditto, emits. We were especially pleasantly surprised with the new material the band played from the eagerly awaited Music for Men. The band have infinitely improved by adding a fourth member to their live band, with a new guy taking over Brace Paine's former bass duties, allowing him to add a guitar, synths and keyboards to the formerly-destined-to-grow-stale-very-soon mix. While their older material still holds up to it's thumping, aggressive power of pre-Standing in the Way of Control days, an injection of new aural adventures were required and they work to impressive effect. Two of our writers were stars of the show for brief moments during new song "Men in Love" when they demonstrated their own 'love' for La Ditto. Ahem!

Of course, as with every post-2006 Gossip gig, the atmosphere and energy of the crowd is quadrupled with the Standing climax, as still three years after it bombarded it's big lesbian boobs through the UK charts and Skins adverts alike, 60% of Gossip 'fans' were only at the gig for that song. We weren't complaining as it's acceptable that these 'fans' will only learn the brilliance of their new material through attending the gig in the first place. It's enjoyable to see them still performing the material from the days when they were actually still an independent label band, something rarely seen in bands who 'hit the big time' for want of phrase less loaded with fromage, particularly slow burner "Yesterday's News" and stomper "Fire/Sign". The material from their 2006 album was also much appreciated, however the new material shone like a big gay diamond dangling from Ditto's left lobe. We cannot wait to get our grubby hands on a fresh copy from HMV (yes, we are making a point of purchasing a physical copy from a physical shop, physically!).

Closing the set with a rendition of Tina Turner's "Private Dancer", sung from the middle of the crowd, Dittodonna left the stage with her bandmates to hang out with the glorious likes of Peaches "Massivest Twat In London" Geldof (unfortunately for their street cred, but we've given up trying to look for that!) and we went home enormously satisfied on a belly full of chicken baguette, donuts, McDonalds fries and human persperation all the way from Portland, Oregon. Apologies for the blurriness of the photos below. The purpose is to demonstrate the energy of the show (evidently there), and how close we were!

Recommendations
"Heavy Cross" - Gossip
"Yr Mangled Heart" - Gossip
"Private Dancer" - Tina Turner

Stuck In Our Head: "Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)" - Gossip

After only just getting over the brilliance that is the brand new, re-recorded high quality version of long-circulated Gossip demo "Heavy Cross", we are faced with the unbelievable Fred Falke remix we've just got our greedy little hands on. Transforming the almost sinister, ruthless tone of the original into a euphoric, upbeat yet unmistakeably confident dance floor filler, which we hope is exactly what is does. Fills dance floors.

Eargasms abound!

More fabulous cover art!

The long-awaited artwork for the fourth Gossip album, Music for Men, has been released and is tremendously lesbolicious. Surprisingly the artwork is devoted entirely to gorgeous drummer Hannah Blilie, who we've had the pleasure of receiving a (blown, albeit) kiss from in past encounters, and is rather refreshing after the past couple of years of tabloid-Beth-Ditto-bigfatlesbian-shock onslaught we've had. Go Hannah!

Now can we have the rest of the album plz.

A Genuine Vision of Beauty

This was the highlight of Radio 1's so-called Big Weekend. We weren't there, but we still know.

Public announcement

As warm-up preparation for the lengthy list of dates they are embarking on at festivals around Europe this summer, Gossip have announced a short tour of the UK. When we say short, we mean two dates. Manchester and London. We have tickets for the latter.