Even if he never considered himself sexy before, Johnny Temple finds himself smack at the center of what has fast become known as the "sexiest band in the land."
And he's not going to argue the point.
"I guess it could be worse," lamented 30-year-old Temple, bassist for Girls Against Boys about his group's constantly being pegged by the media as "sexiest band in the land."
The title apparently fits though, based on Temple's description of GVSB's new in-process album, which he tagged as having a "groovy, noisy, psycho sex vibe."
Currently holed-up in a Minneapolis studio with producer Nick Launay (PiL, Gang of Four, Silverchair), Temple said the New York-based quartet are more than two-thirds finished recording their Geffen Records debut, after a smash three-CD run on Chicago indie Touch & Go.
Temple said the band, known as much for its scummy disco-double-bass-and-keyboards grinding rock sound as it is for its sexy ways, chose Launay based not just on his resume of working with heroes such as Killing Joke and Minneapolis' Semisonic, but also because "sonically, his recordings are really interesting. He gets these really vibrant sounds from instruments and he knows how to work with rhythm-based bands, so we figured he'd be able to appreciate our sound."
Despite building their signature sound on the back of Temple and singer/bassist Eli Janney's double-bass attack, Temple said, with the exception of one song, the group is abandoning that working method this time around. "We always want to bring in new elements," said Temple, "and a lot of the material used to be very funky. This time instead of a lot of songs with two basses, we have these electronic noises and samples in most of the songs, which helps to push it in a new, funky direction."
So, since the beginning of the sessions in September, the group has been creating their own samples by recording bits of guitar and drum sounds, processing them through effects pedals and digital delays, then chopping them up, only to splice them back together again. Some of the tentatively-titled tracks resulting from this new method of working are "Park Avenue," "Sgary Nubian," "Cowboy's Orbit," "Exorcisto" and "Roxy."
The band is aiming for a March 1998 release.
Temple said he hopes the 13 songs Girls Against Boys is recording will represent some progress and growth with their sound. And as for the media's sex peg? "When you're doing a ton of interviews, journalists need angles and the sexy thing isn't bad," Temple said. "It does get comical at times, but it could be worse."