Business Up Front / Party In the Back

Album Review

How do you know that Family Force 5 are a funny bunch of fellows? Well, they name their album after everybody's favorite haircut, the Mullet, for one — and if that didn't tip you off, there's also the fact that they have a drummer called "Crouton." The band's manifesto is unleased on its MySpace page: "They decided to make world history by playing an concoction of blended sounds!! Our music b uplifting and has a great message!" (sic). Well, Family Force 5 do indeed play a concoction of blended sounds which, to the untrained ear, may sound like metallic riffs and rap rhythms learned from Limp Bizkit, but given a tongue-in-cheek makeover by piling up all sorts sounds from the '80s, from analog synths to the theme from Knight Rider to harmonies lifted from urban soul records to Beastie Boys samples to Speak & Spells, which are heard on about three tracks and name-dropped in the opener, "Cadillac Phunque." And their music is indeed uplifting, if your definition of uplifting is, to paraphrase Eddie Murphy, partying all the time — and that pretty much happens to be their message, too, since every one of the 12 songs on Business Up Front is about having a good time (even the "X-Girlfriend" and bitchy "Drama Queen" seem to get smacked down; they won't get with the program and party). So, Family Force 5 don't take things too seriously, which is fair enough — rock & roll gets boring when bands get serious. And, man, do Family Force 5 try to be funny! All three singers — Soul Glow Activatur, Crouton, and Fatty — sing in goofy voices that occasionally come across like the privileged bullies mocking the needy. They ironically sing "You cannot stop the body rock/You cannot stop the funk." They steal lines, even phrasing, from the Beasties, they tell all the ugly people to "put ur hands down." The jokes fly so fast and furious that it gets a little tiring, but they do manage a few hooks that stick ("Kountry Gentlemen" and "X-Girlfriend" chief among them). And they do have some musical acumen, enough to make Business Up Front/Party in the Back reasonable background noise at a party.