I took an informal poll recently among a few friends and IM acquaintances and asked what came to mind when I said "Baltimore." John Waters, The Wire and Michael Phelps were the most common answers (that's what I would have said too), which I suppose means nothing except that we all watch a lot of TV. The point I'm trying to make here is that none of those things were on Aaron Lacrate's list. That's because he's from there.

I took an informal poll recently among a few friends and IM acquaintances and asked what came to mind when I said "Baltimore." John Waters, The Wire and Michael Phelps were the most common answers (that's what I would have said too), which I suppose means nothing except that we all watch a lot of TV. The point I'm trying to make here is that none of those things were on Aaron Lacrate's list. That's because he's from there.

Read about Aaron Lacrate's Baltimore, and watch Part I of this Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy episode here.

There was a long time when I was hatin' on L.A. I guess if you're not from here (here being San Francisco), you don't know about this invisible line somewhere just above Santa Barbara that divides Northern and Southern California. It's where people's tans start to fade, their hair gets darker, and as Northern Californians will argue, they stop wasting so many natural resources.

I grew up in San Diego, but I've lived in San Francisco for some 10 years, so I was curious to ask the ladies of Uh Huh Her, both L.A. transplants (Leisha Hailey comes from Nebraska, Camila Grey from Texas), if they could dispel or confirm some myths about Los Angeles. Check out what they had to say about fact and fiction in SoCal, and watch Pt. 2 of their Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy after the jump.

There was a long time when I was hatin' on L.A. I guess if you're not from here (here being San Francisco), you don't know about this invisible line somewhere just above Santa Barbara that divides Northern and Southern California. It's where people's tans start to fade, their hair gets darker, and as Northern Californians will argue, they stop wasting so many natural resources.

I grew up in San Diego, but I've lived in San Francisco for some 10 years, so I was curious to ask the ladies of Uh Huh Her, both L.A. transplants (Leisha Hailey comes from Nebraska, Camila Grey from Texas), if they could dispel or confirm some myths about Los Angeles.

Read the replies from Uh Huh Her and watch Part I of this Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy episode here.

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!"