Ms. Led Combines Pop, Punk and Politics

These days, LGBT consumers are increasingly targeted by companies with dollar signs in mind, and the gay music arena is no different. But it can be a double-edged sword for musicians to be marketed strictly to gay audiences.

"I feel like what happened with [the] riot grrrl movement — people are profiting off of a marginalized community and ignoring the real issues," Wood said about the possibility of signing to a "gay" record label such as Sony's Music With a Twist. "I think we end up becoming a caricature of ourselves, stereotypes rather than palatable."

She continued: "I'm not against it; I'm just watching it happen really carefully. If they would be willing to put money towards issues that are big in the queer community, including gay bashing and issues that are important to us, then I'll be all for them and believe they are behind our music."

On the other side of the spectrum, Wood said that being in the closet as an artist was never an issue for her, and she finds it "unfortunate" that some choose to stay inside in order to cater to record execs and homophobes.

Luckily in a community like Seattle, it's as easy to be queer as it is to promote your band. "It never ceases to amaze me how tight the lesbian community is here," Wood said. "And [there is] a great music community. Once we started the band playing festivals, we were opening for major label bands."

With the new album release and nonstop touring through the fall, Wood will return to play in Pontiac, Mich., for the first time in 10 years.

"I am vegetarian and Michigan is homophobic and they hunt deer, so Seattle to me was paradise!" she said of her relocation. "I definitely remember getting a gig [in Detroit] was like pulling teeth. You would play with other bands, and they would walk out during your set. You could see how little people care, which is probably why I've heard it's gotten worse with clubs shut down constantly."

Ms. Led is prepared for the inevitable comparisons to lots of other girl bands in the press. Wood runs the band's MySpace page, and under the category of "Sounds Like" she wrote: "Decide for yourself. Lazy journalists like to just think of every 'girl' band they've heard of."

"Any time there's some new girl band and we have an album out, we get comparisons," Wood said. "I recently got Gwen Stefani. The only thing we have in common with her is vaginas, and so it is really ridiculous."

It's also an issue for Ms. Led at music festivals and concerts. "Any time there's a chick fest, people are always asking if we're going to play," Wood said.

"If it's a folk festival, no. If it's with bands of our genre, sure. Some of the bands we have been paired with that have girls in their band sound nothing like us. Their crowd hates us, our crowd hates them, and I have no idea what the booker had in mind putting a bill like that together. Like, I wouldn't just put a bunch of guy bands together — all metal bands together just because there's guys in this band."

Reviews are pouring in for Ms. Led's Shake Yourself Awake, and the general consensus is that it's perfect pop-punk rock and avoids being too preachy. Of course, there are the inevitable comparisons, this time to Sleater-Kinney — and if comparisons are to be made, surely there could be worse ones.

Watch Ms. Led perform "New Agenda" here:

For more on Ms. Led, visit their MySpace page or Lesli Wood's website.