Beth Ditto (middle)
If you’ve been to a dyke bar in the past few years, you’ve probably danced to one of The Gossip’s infectious tracks featuring Beth Ditto’s tough, soulful belt. But her sound has transcended those haunts; The Gossip’s last studio album, Standing in the Way of Control, reached dance floors clear across the pond, hitting number one on the British indie chart. Along with band mates Brace Paine and Hannah Blilie, Ditto has toured with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the White Stripes, and Sonic Youth (to name a few), as well as the 2007 True Colors Tour benefiting the Human Rights Campaign. This April, they released Live in Liverpool, a 2007 concert recording that captures the intensity of their blistering live sets. Ditto has been lauded as a voluptuous, feminist, lesbian pin-up, posing on the cover of the British music paper NME in nothing but her tattoos and a lipstick kiss on her ass. –KL
In no particular order…
