Mention bands like ABC, Haircut 100, A Flock of Seagulls or even Duran Duran in the same breath with the Fixx and Cy Curnin cringes. Comparing the so-called style-over-substance bands to *his* band, he believes, is tantamount to a slap in the face. "We'd be singing doom-and-gloom and Duran would be throwing their underwear on stage," says the band's forty-year old frontman with a straight face. Still, he adds, "if you give [the comparisons] too much credence, then it starts to take over."

They came from the Eighties but, after a seven year break -- not break-up -- the Fixx are back in the Nineties. Best known for songs like "One Thing Leads to Another," "Red Skies" and "Stand or Fall," the group has returned with Elemental, after fending off what Curnin called the band's "tiredness and lack of focus."

"The friendship survived the test of time and every single member of the band stayed available secretly wishing for us to reform," he says. During the hiatus, Curnin launched the clothing company Cy Wear and began a fairly lucrative business selling "keep-your-ears-kinda-warm" hats, or Urban Turbans. "Luckily, or by fluke, I didn't make any hats this year because I was so busy making the Fixx record," he says, blaming El Nino's warming trend for a crash in the market. "I thought, 'shit, if I can sell hats, I should really be where my heart is.'"

Elemental showcases Curnin's matured, brooding voice, with the group relying on longer, richer chords and less on curly guitars and keyboard-laden pop hooks reminiscent on songs like "Are We Ourselves?" and "Secret Separation." This summer, the Fixx will release their second album for CMC International, called 1011 Woodlands, named for the Nashville studio where the album was recorded. The twenty-one-song double-disc was recorded over a six-day period earlier this year and will feature re-worked, primarily acoustic versions of old Fixx material, such as "Saved By Zero," "Precious Stone," Stand or Fall" and "Cameras in Paris," along with demo versions of songs not included on Elemental.

1011 Woodlands will mark the band's fifth retrospective/live album/rarities compilation, a lot for a band with only seven studio albums: Can you say 'incremental cash flow?' Older, wiser and stingier, the Fixx are pinching pennies and looking for compound interest. During last summer's "reunion" tour and for the band's "Elemental" tour, which begins Saturday and includes radio show dates with the Foo Fighters, Bad Religion and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, the band won't be staying anywhere where they put mints on your pillows. "We used to spend all of our money on hotels," he says. "Now we go to the crappiest hotels, because you bring home the money."

And even though the Fixx made their biggest commercial racket as fixtures on early MTV, the band didn't make a video for Elemental's first single, the ballad "Two Different Views." "What we made those videos for is what people spend on the catering now," he says.

Curnin is full of perspective on Eighties music, beyond what it cost to market it. "Maybe if it was a color, it would be chrome or [have] a dark atmosphere to it," he says. "There's was a basic distrust to the revelry that was going on in the Eighties -- sort of deca-dance." That said, Curnin is still happy to unfurl Cold War anthems like "Red Skies" and "Stand or Fall" in front of a new generation of fans. "There's a kid in Alaska I talked to on the Internet," he says. "His parents were at a show that we did there in '84 and he was six years old and too young to come. Now he's become a Fixx fan."

"It's a great gig if you can get it," he adds. "Goddammit, we're gonna hang on tooth and nail."

BLAIR R. FISCHER