Tempted in Tempe
BY THOMAS BELL
Creative Loafing
August 8, 2004

Your attention please, for a brief informational announcement before we bring out the band: Arthur Edwards' debut rock novel, Stuck Outside of Phoenix, is not about a guy trying to get into Phoenix. Bassist Josh "Hote" Hotle is stuck in Tempe, which is about eight miles outside of Phoenix. Got it?

Hote is trying to leave his dead-end hometown and move to Seattle, where a gig with a promising new band awaits him. The story takes place in 1990, one year before Nirvana's Nevermind declared a decade of angry authenticity between the production pimps who brought us Milli Vanilli and C+C Music Factory, and their 21st-century "Making the Band" progeny.

But just before Hote turns his beat-up Pontiac Ventura onto the highway, he decides to make one last stop at the Circle K for some beef jerky and iced tea. Then everything starts to go right. Lola, the pretty, young single mom way out of Hote's league, suddenly has the hots for him. Lance, his fuck-up best friend and drummer, starts getting his act (and a new band) together. And Hote gets invited to play Tempe's sweetest venue.

Edwards was the bassist and co-founder of the Refreshments, a flash in the pan band that got some play on 99X in 1996 with "Banditos." ("I got the pistol, so I'll keep the pesos.") They're now a fixture on Fox playing the theme song for "King of the Hill." Stuck Outside of Phoenix is brief, breezy and at times a bit over-explained, but Hote's love for the music reads both sincere and substantial. With all this magic tempting him to tarry in Tempe, what's a brooding bassist to do? Hote's crisis of love and rock is a nice nostalgia trip for the grunge generation, and a good story for garage band romantics of any age.