Witty Women: Quote of the Week

I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly.
Tunafish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.
~Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers! Wishing you a wonderful start to the holiday season!
~The Ladies of WOW

PS - Want some tunes to listen to while you cook? Check out these songs about food we recommended last year.

Witty Women: Quote of the Week

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature on the Women On Women Music blog - Witty Woman: Quote of the Week! Mondays are hard. Who couldn't use a little inspiration to start the week off, right? Here's our first edition -

The test for whether or not you can hold a job
should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.
~Bella Abzug

Friday Video: Peaches "Talk To Me"

Always a favorite of the ladies of WOW, Peaches is the kind of girl who says - nay, screams - what we're all secretly thinking. Looking for some of the harshest lyrics written by a woman in the last ten years? That's Peaches. Looking for an INSANE live show that will leave your head spinning? That's Peaches. Looking for a good time November 20 in Chicago? Peaches plays Metro. Here's a little taste - the video for "Talk to Me", her single off the latest album, I Feel Cream.

Help Community Radio Get Off The Ground!

Just a reminder that TODAY is the last day to donate to the Kickstarter campaign of the Chicago Independent Radio Project. As we mentioned before, there's lots of fantastic prizes to be had for donors, including a special women themed mix CD by yours truly! Head on over to the Kickstarter campaign page and pledge now - every dollar CHIRP raises today is a dollar they don't have to raise later on this year!

Lilith Rises Again - Tour Returns for Summer 2010

The rumors are true - Lilith Fair, the legendary all-female music festival championed by Sarah McLachlan, will return this summer! The new Lilith Fair website was launched yesterday, and although it doesn't have much in the way of details, Chicago is on the list of cities where Lilith Fair will stop. From 1997 to 1999, you may remember that Lilith Fair was one of the most popular and successful traveling music festivals in the world, with 1.5 million tickets sold, and $10 million dollars raised for charities. Pretty much every female musician who was around in the late 90s did a stint on the Lilith Fair tour roster.

So the question is, who will play this year? Tripwire is hosting a Lilith Fair Fantasy League contest with their predictions for 2010's lineup. Who do you want to see? Post your wishlist in the comments section!

Beth Ditto, Punk Princess

Earlier this month, Jenny and I spent a chilly Friday night at Metro Chicago, seeing The Gossip'se first Chicago show in years. Since they last played the Windy City, the Gossip has exploded, becoming a huge sensation in Europe and released their latest album, Music for Men, on major label Sony Records. The lead singer, Beth Ditto, has become a celebrity all to herself. Known for her feminist ethics and activism around queer and fat rights, Ditto has become a somewhat unlikely muse for the fashion world. With her face plastered on magazines and her own clothing line, Ditto is much more a household name than she was three years ago.

With that in mind, we weren't sure what to expect when opening act MEN (featuring J.D. Sampson from LeTigre) finished and The Gossip took the stage. Their shows have traditionally been intimate, even when playing large venues, with Ditto interacting with the crowd and smashing the fourth wall between the band and the audience to pieces by the end of their first song. I was concerned that, with their major label status and rapidly rising climb to fame, The Gossip would present a more polished, removed and ultimately less satisfying show.

There was no need to worry. Playing a mix of their new songs and old favorites, including covers of "Rebel Girl" "Psycho Killer" and "What's Love Got To Do With It", The Gossip has stayed true to themselves. Ditto engaged the audience, even pulling a boy on stage who was from her hometown and stopping the show to talk to him. Their lyrics about broken hearts and queer pride are just as strong as ever, and she serves as a strong role model for self acceptance, pride in all regards and using music as a way to celebrate community. Even though the 1,000+ capacity club was nearly sold out, it felt like it was a show in a local civic center. The sound was great, despite Ditto being sick, but the real strength of the show was the interaction with the fans. Despite what cynics might say, punk and riot grrrl are not dead - at least not as long as Beth Ditto and The Gossip have anything to say about it.