THE WONG AND WINDING ROADDEAD HOT WORKSHOP MAKES THE JUMP FROM A TEMPE BAR TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

Because of a recent consolidation at Atlantic Records, 1001 will be released on Atlantic's subsidiary Tag label, which swallowed Seed Records, the imprimatur on River Otis. Babb says Atlantic is promising a big push considering 1001 will be Tag's first release. He's heard the record company plans, among other things, to target different songs for varying radio formats. Dead Hot's also supposed to have a new song appear on the soundtrack to Empire, a Breakfast Club kind of film set in a record store. The soundtrack disc should also feature a new Gin Blossoms song co-written by Marshall Crenshaw.

The pairing of Dead Hot and the Blossoms on the Empire soundtrack continues a relationship the bands have shared for years: The two often performed together on bills at the Sun Club, where Grippe used to work booking local and national acts; the cover art for River Otis featured a photo of a naked Doug Hopkins meditating on a rock; GB singer Robin Wilson plays with Dead Hot bassist Scott in the Tempe cover group The Best David Swaffords in the World; and Wilson wore a Dead Hot tee shirt in front of a national TV audience when the Blossoms made their David Letterman show debut three years ago.

The familiarity has led some critics to find Gin Blossom tendencies in Dead Hot's songs. Babb doesn't buy it.

"It's like comparing apples and bricks," he says. "It's just a narrow way of looking at things. If we were from Minneapolis, everyone would think we sounded like Soul Asylum, or if we came from Georgia, like R.E.M."

Babb says he gets questions on the road about the Gin Blossoms--though he says there seemed to be more interest in the Meat Puppets, especially in major cities back East. Is the rest of the country taking an increased interest in Tempe bands, new and unknown? Are out-of-towners conducting a Mill Avenue Block Watch in search of the Next Big Scene?

Babb, again, isn't buying it.
"No, not at all," he says, leaning back, exhaling another mass of cigarette smoke in the air. "Trust me. A lot of people out there don't even know where the hell Tempe is.