Three Beautiful Kids, R.I.P.
A writer remembers the Exploding Hearts.
September 7th, 2005
MUSICFEST DISTRESS | Forecasting a weekend of missed opportunities.0 comments
August 31st, 2005
JOHN, NOT JOHN | There's history in John Weinland's name, but you'll also hear its echos in the Portland folk-pop band's brilliant music.0 comments
August 24th, 2005
ON A REMOTE DESERT ISLAND | WW's comics journalist Ryan Alexander-Tanner washes ashore, only to find THE WATERY GRAVES.0 comments
July 20th, 2005
WHO ARE WE? | Don't listen to the journalists. Listen to the music.0 comments
July 13th, 2005
WHEN IN FOAM... | What do you get when you mix soap, water, a room full of 18-year-olds and a long-haired guy in a sports coat?2 comments
July 6th, 2005
THE COURT OF ROCK 'N' ROLL | How the Supremes accidentally saved music.0 comments
June 29th, 2005
BRIGHT EYES, BIG DITTY0 comments
June 22nd, 2005
COSMIC DANCE | Remembering Orion Satushek and the Spooky Dance Band.2 comments
June 15th, 2005
THE OFFSPRING EFFECT | How the hardening of John Askew's son's poop relates to the softening of Stephen Malkmus' sound.0 comments
June 8th, 2005
THE HOLD STEADY ALMOST KILLED ME | Redeeming and deceiving with America's greatest bar band.0 comments
 EXPLODING HEARTS, left to right: Matt Fitzgerald, Adam Cox, Terry Six and Jeremy Gage IMAGE: CHRYSTAEI BRANCHAW |
[July 30th, 2003] News of the tragedy that befell the Exploding Hearts in the early hours of Sunday, July 20, left me shattered, like so many others in Portland's music scene. And I really only knew those boys on a professional level.
My friend Louie Bankston was far more intimate with the three members of the promising Portland pop-punk band, all in their earliest 20s, who died in a van accident on I-5 that morning. On Monday, I briefly commiserated by phone with Bankston, once a member of the band, who now resides in his home city of New Orleans, La. Though he claimed this moment of loss left him without words, Bankston was able to put things in perspective.
"They should have lived to be able to look back and say, 'We did it all--we took it to the stratosphere,'" Bankston said. "Now these three beautiful kids are dead."
By all indications, the Exploding Hearts could have taken their adrenalized, melodic and infectious sound into the "stratosphere." Now there will be no major-label record deal. No video. No national appearances on the late-night TV circuit. Now there's no hope the kids of America will learn that pink and yellow actually do go together. That white jeans are cool. That good lyrics and sophisticated hooks make guitar-furious punk rock all the more powerful.
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For now, bubble-gum pop is dead. Whatever.
On the morning of July 20, we did not only lose an indisputably great Portland rock-and-roll band that was just starting to build a frantic national following. We lost Jeremy Gage, Matthew Fitzgerald and Adam Cox--"three beautiful kids."
I, unfortunately, am away this week. To the friends and family now grieving, please accept my sincere condolences. Talking to, writing about, and being a fan of the Hearts who have passed has been a privilege and a pleasure. The rumors in town are true: Hearts are exploding in Portland this week.
Two shows benefiting family members of the Exploding Hearts will be held Wednesday, July 30.
The Diskords, Electric Eye and the Spits (plus other guests) play an all-ages show at Meow Meow, 527 SE Pine St., 230-2122. 7 pm. $5.
The Epoxies, The Riffs, The Minds and Louie "King Louie" Bankston play at Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
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