Venus has posted an online review of last week’s Gossip show at the Abbey that mentions the trio’s recent major-label signing. Now, I took notice of this for three reasons: for one, I’ve felt bad for the Gossip ever since they had the misfortune of being booked at Metro on the last night of the Touch and Go festival at the Hideout; at the Reader booth we had a slew of tickets we literally could not give away (it’s not that people don’t like the Gossip—they were just burnt out). For another, Venus reports on the major-label thing as if it were an illness or a van accident, something with the potential to derail the band. Finally, the label in question is a subsidiary of Columbia, Music With a Twist, that focuses on gay and lesbian artists.
Music With a Twist? Ye gods, ick. What’s next? A jazz spin-off called Bent Notes? A dance/electronica division called Fruit Loops? I’m sure these people mean well, but does this strike anyone else as offensively kitschy, like Thomas Kinkade painting the Stonewall Inn? If you can say with a straight face (pun intended) that music by GLBTQ artists is by definition “music with a twist,” I’d pay good money to watch Rob Halford or Joan Jett kick your ass.