The Gossip Rock Star Guide to Portland
Arkansas Heat saved my life. My most miserable summer ever happened back in 2002 in a place called Tempe, Arizona. It was hot. We were bored and isolated. Dancing in our underwear in the un-airconditioned apartment we called "it" and "there" but never "home," screaming along with Beth Ditto belting, "Gotta get yourself out of this hell," was our only reprieve.
I never imagined that some six years later I'd be talking to guitarist Nathan Howdeshell, aka Brace Paine, about the Gossip's Searcy, Arkansas, upbringing and the urgency with which he and Beth felt they had to leave that place. "Searcy was a nightmare," he says. It's a common sentiment among small-town disaffected youth I suppose, but fuel for the fire no less. Even after the band relocated to the greener pastures of Portland, Oregon, their music continues to speak for a generation of alienated people. "Yr Mangled Heart," on the recently released live album, starts with a dedication, "This is for the faggots," Beth screams,"the G.A.Y.!" It sounds like thousands of people who join in on the chorus of what has become a same-sex marriage anthem: "I only want what I deserve!"
