Red Hot + Bothered

Red Hot + Bothered: The Indie Rock Guide Book to Dating is a 1995 benefit compilation produced and created by Paul Heck for the Red Hot Organization, the New York-based nonprofit founded in 1989 by Leigh Blake and John Carlin to fight HIV/AIDS through pop culture. Lisa Germano contributes “The Mirror Is Gone,” a non-album track from the Geek the Girl sessions, making this its first commercially available release.

By 1995, the Red Hot Organization had already made a significant impact with its benefit compilation series, which began with the Cole Porter tribute Red Hot + Blue in 1990 and continued with No Alternative, a 1993 compilation that tapped into the then-exploding alternative rock scene. Red Hot + Bothered represented a deliberate pivot: rather than courting mainstream acts, the organization went explicitly underground, targeting what the project’s press materials described as a younger audience less defined by “old definitions of straight and gay life.” The goal was to reach jaded youth on questions of relationships, love, sex, and the impact of AIDS — not through heavy-handed messaging, but through the language and aesthetic of the indie rock underground.

The compilation was released on Kinetic Records (a Warner Bros. imprint) and distributed in conjunction with the Red Hot Organization. Its executive producer was John Carlin, who had co-founded the organization six years earlier.

Lisa’s participation placed her in a snapshot of the 1994–95 indie rock moment that included Built to Spill, Caustic Resin, the Folk Implosion, The Sea and Cake, Gastr del Sol, East River Pipe, Future Bible Heroes, and Jay Farrar. Her inclusion among this roster—coming just months after Geek the Girl had established her as one of the more distinctive voices in independent music—was a natural fit. Geek the Girl and the world of Red Hot + Bothered shared a sensibility: lo-fi intimacy, emotional directness, and an implicit resistance to commercial polish.

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Vinyl Tracklist

No.	Artist	Title	Length
A1	Built to Spill + Caustic Resin	Still Flat	1:52
A2	The Verlaines + Shayne Carter	Some Fantasy	4:36
A3	East River Pipe	Miracleland	2:46
B1	Lisa Germano	The Mirror is Gone	2:43
B2	Cradle Robbers	Sotto Voce	3:40
B3	Jay Farrar + Kelly Willis	Rex’s Blues	4:38

CD Tracklist

No.	Artist	Title	Length
1	Freedom Cruise	Sensational Gravity Boy	1:52
2	Built to Spill & Caustic Resin	Still Flat	4:19
3	Lisa Germano	The Mirror is Gone	2:43
4	Noise Addict	Mouthwash	2:51
5	Folk Implosion	Indierockinstrumental	2:28
6	The Verlaines + Shayne Carter	Some Fantasy	4:36
7	Liquorice	Little League	3:41
8	Babe the Blue Ox	Hazmats	3:27
9	Juicy	Mainland China	3:19
10	The Sea and Cake	The Fontana	4:49
11	Cradle Robbers	Sotto Voce	3:40
12	Jay Farrar + Kelly Willis	Rex’s Blues	4:38
13	The Grifters	Empty Yard	4:14
14	East River Pipe	Miracleland	2:46
15	Heavenly	Snail Trail	3:08
16	Future Bible Heroes	Hopeless	3:34
17	Flying Nuns	Servicing Man	4:25
18	Gastr Del Sol	Quietly Approaching	6:43

“The Mirror Is Gone” was recorded during the Geek the Girl sessions and produced by Lisa Germano and Malcolm Burn, who co-produced and mixed four tracks on that album at Echo Park Studio in Bloomington, Indiana. The song was not included on Geek the Girl when it was released in October 1994, but surfaced the following year as a non-album track on two separate releases: the Cry Wolf promotional CD single issued by 4AD, and Red Hot + Bothered, where it received its first wide commercial availability.

On the vinyl edition of Red Hot + Bothered, “The Mirror Is Gone” appears as the first track on Side B of the first 10″ EP. On the CD, it is sequenced third, placed between Built to Spill & Caustic Resin’s “Still Flat” and Noise Addict’s “Mouthwash.” The track runs 2:43 in both versions.

The Red Hot + Bothered compilation was mastered by Howie Weinberg.

Personnel

Critical Reception

Red Hot + Bothered received generally positive notices, with Lisa’s contribution among those most frequently cited by reviewers.

“Every bit as geeky cool as it purports to be… [highlights include] Lisa Germano’s fragile, fractured acoustic ditty.”

Tim DiGravina
AllMusic

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