In this week's paper, I write about Gossip, one of the many great bands playing the Capitol Hill Block Party this weekend.

About Music for Men, Gossip's new, Rick Rubin-produced major-label debut, I wrote:

Here is the great racket of Gossip boiled down to radio-ready form, and if this strikes you as nothing more than a sellout, please direct your attention to the adamantly out, plus-sized lesbian doing the selling. Pop's never been a dirty thing to Gossip—see the band's live covers of Wham! and Aaliyah—and Ditto can do far more important work hollering in the pop arena than screeching to the converted in the underground.

But before I turned in the piece, I bounced the theory off the biggest Gossip fan I know, former Stranger employee/beloved Seattle scenester Ari Spool, who'd loved the band since its inception, and to whom I sent this email:

I have a question for you, for something that I'm writing about the new Gossip album. My take: It's a big, brave, and powerful pop album, by what used to be a punk band with pop ambitions but is now a pop band with punk elements. I'M TOTALLY FINE WITH THIS! But here's my question, for you as a longtime, ground-zero Gossip fan: Does such a turn to "just pop" feel like a betrayal? Did Beth/the band ever explicitly aspire to serious political artistry, or were any such expectations just foisted on them by their post-riot grrl/Olympia connections?

Ari promptly responded with a wonderful and enlightening burst of text:

I think that Beth Ditto as a person has laid claim to those rigid politics, and has always been and will always be loud, brassy, and opinionated. She was like that before Oly, even. That's why she left Arkansas, but it also completely reflects the Southern Attitude that she embodies.

She hasn't been in Arkansas for a long time. Arkansas, to a big fat lesbian, is probably a place that makes you want to scream (I've never been, so this is an assumption). Beth Ditto has been among her people (liberals, lesbians, etc) for a long time now, and she is doing well financially and famous to boot. Punk always needs the fire inside. You have to hate something for that shit to mean anything, no matter if you are being funny when you hate it or what. On the new album, you are right, she's not screaming anymore, even when she's being wronged. "Love Long Distance" would be a lot more moving if she did, I think. But don't think this has changed her politics, particularly, because politics are something that you fight for forever, but I believe this has mellowed her out a bit musically. Hence, pop.

I'm not sure anyone so authentically politically radical has been in the public eye since Kurt Cobain, and I still maintain that if anything, he was too quiet about what he really thought, if he was even sure about his convictions.

Plus, the cover of the album is so indicative of their thoughts to me. Hannah! Not Beth, Hannah! Beth, because of her big ol' mouth and lead singer status, is so so so public. But the politics that Beth is propagating are not just about fat girls, which is where the media has been plugging her as late. They are actually about being gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay! GAY GAY GAY GAY

GAY.

I think that's where they're trying to go. Staying gay. Gay is where they came from, not radical punk stuff. Punk was gay again a few years ago, but gay is all about dance again these days. [this whole idea totally needs a bigger exploration. why is punk not as gay right now? why is it all about dance again? is this my feeling because i'm in NY? i feel like it's been going this way for a while, though.]

That's all. I think. Plus, I always thought the Gossip were going for Soul, but couldn't do it b/c they were white.

I heart Ari Spool.