By
Phil Leckman
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Washington group sings about issues facing fat, queer, sexy girls
Like a million rock bands before them, The Gossip is all about getting it on.
But while the Olympia, Wash. band, who play Tucson's Solar Culture tonight at 9, travels a path that's been well-worn since the days when Chuck Berry sang about "My Ding-a-ling," The Gossip's raw rock-and-roll takes that classic yearning for "knockin' the boots" to places that old Chuck probably never intended.
"It's not just about sex, period, but about being queer and being fat and being sexy - that's the deal" said Beth Ditto, the band's singer and chief songwriter. "My point is that I'm fat, and I'm sexy - fat people can be sexy, and fat people are sexy."
That sentiment is on full display on That's Not What I Heard, the band's debut album.
"There's a statement there, even if it doesn't really just say 'I'm fat' - I like sex," Ditto said. But the stripped-down, bluesy rock of songs like "Got Body If You Want It" and "Where the Girls Are" does little to candy-coat the raw yearning at the core of the band's sound.
"It's like, 'Well, here it is - this is what's going on,'" she said. "It's important for me to stress that through playing shows and the songs that we do - just put it out there."
Such a message is right at home in Olympia - local label Kill Rock Stars, which put out That's Not What I Heard, has long been home to riot grrrl, an alternative, feminist, punk-rock mentality, and queer bands like Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. But while its new surroundings are certainly lesbian-friendly, the band originally hails from Searcy, a rural town in central Arkansas.
"A lot of cruisin' around the square by the Piggly Wiggly - that's Searcy, Arkansas, for you," Ditto said. "That's all there was to do, seriously, drive around in circles - I would get motion sickness sometimes."
Ditto said the prospect of playing in the band's hometown this month makes her "nervous, but excited."
"When our first (single) came out, it was for sale in Searcy, and I wasn't out to a lot of my friends yet," she said. "They didn't know yet, and I'm sure it hit 'em like a fucking bomb."
Nonetheless, Ditto said support from her friends and family would ease her fears about the experience.
"I think it'll be great - my close friends are great, and my family's fucking awesome and amazing, especially when it comes to those kinds of issues."
But being queer isn't the only difficult issue Ditto faces with her singing.
"A lot of people focus on the queer part of it," Ditto said. "But they don't focus on the fat part of it, which is just as important and big to me."
In fact, she said even when audiences are comfortable with homosexuality, "they're not with the fat thing." She used an anecdote told to her by an audience member on the band's recent tour with Sleater-Kinney to illustrate.
"I was wearing a miniskirt and a garter belt with stockings, and I was barefoot," Ditto said. "And (the audience member) said that the people behind them were like, 'Oh my god, she is so fat.' But afterwards, once the music started, they were dancing their fucking asses off. Obviously we got through to them somehow."
Ditto said she hopes she can get more fans to make this transformation - to recognize that people being "appalled and disgusted" by fatness can be deeply hurtful to those who do not meet society's ideal.
"Looking at the girls skating on the boardwalk in bikinis - that's where the feelings come from," Ditto said. "Just being subjected to that for so long and feeling like 'why can't I do that - why won't people let me do that?'"
Ditto, at least, is done with letting society's ideals about body image push her around. She said she's hoping the weather is hot for the band's Tucson show - "I'm looking forward to wearing pedal pushers."
