"The Right Stuff," by New Kids on the Block floods through the Arizona Mills mall on a Sunday afternoon, causing Joe Ging, singer and guitarist for the local group the Hot Guy Band (yes, you read correctly) reminisce about the New Kids' days.
"I'm the Danny of the group," the effervescent 22-year-old tells the State Press Magazine, referring to the former New Kids' most unattractive member.
But don't let this fool you. Ging is definitely not a "Danny."
In fact, the pop-rock Hot Guy Band - comprised of drummer Brandon Abbott, guitarist Jesse Mitchell and bassist Jake Wiedmann - isn't far from its name. But what's with the attention-getting moniker?
"Me and Brandon were just coming up with ideas for band names and nothing sounded good," Ging says. "At the time, everyone was picking serious names with months, like August Flower Theory. So we thought, let's just take a completely retarded band name - what if we had a band named the Hot Guy Band and we put out a CD called Let's Do Coke in the Bathroom? That would just be ridiculous."
And so they did. The group, which will mark its one-year anniversary in October, first formed after Ging and Abbott hooked up musically. Once a solid formation was in place, they released their debut album, Let's Do Coke in the Bathroom, which quickly became the No. 1 local seller at Zia Records for three weeks in a row.
But don't let the album title fool you. The back of the CD displays a picture of the guys drinking cans of Coke.
"Getting in there and recording after two months of forming the band, and then having such a great response after the CD came out, I never expected to get this kind of response," Ging says. "Especially with the sales. I'm really proud of us for that."
Though its title sounds a bit dark, Ging says, "Most of the songs are pretty upbeat and positive songs. There's nothing too deep about the album. It's just about having fun."
If you've never seen the Hot Guy Band in action, Ging recommends coming to a show, which can sometimes turn into mayhem when the front man tries to reach out to the crowd.
"I threw a drumstick at Brandon's girlfriend once," Ging says.
"And he threw a guitar at my head," adds Wiedmann, an ASU student.
The group jokingly describes their performances as a combination of MTV's Jackass and wrestling.
"We really pride ourselves on our live show and having fun," Ging says. "The most important part of our band is to entertain people when we play live. We have a lot of chemistry in our band and we try to get a lot of audience participation. Sometimes we'll even smash watermelons."
The group also says they fancy themselves as very approachable musicians, and they enjoy greeting fans.
"Obviously from the CD, I'm beautiful and people may be afraid to approach me, but I'm just a normal person like you," Ging jokes. "I take baths in wine, drink blood, you know. But seriously, we really appreciate meeting everybody. We don't have egos or anything. We're nice people."
So what's next for this rising rock and roll band?
"Like 'N Sync said, 'we're going to take it to the next level,'" Ging says.
Contact the reporter at Kelly.Ann.Wilson@asu.edu.
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Battle of the Bands with Hot Guy Band, at the Bash on Ash (230 W. Fifth St., Tempe, 480-966-8200) at 8 p.m. $5. |
