By: Josh Gloer

Say the words “Christmas Album” and you’re likely to invoke less than positive reaction. Lounge style rehashes of the same old tired “Classics,” laid down for the almighty dollar, these albums generally run the gamut from dull to dreadful.

Enter Family Force 5.

In early October, the boys of FF5 dropped a Christmas album of their own. Simply called Christmas Pageant, the album knocks the dust off the cliché and offers some music to truly be merry about.

Old standbys like “T’was the Night before Christmas,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Do You Hear What I Hear” get run through the grinder and come out mean, dirty and surprisingly fun to listen to. Some tracks grind while others thump, but none of them resemble anything you’ll hear at the shopping mall. Finally… some Christmas music that’s worth adding to the wish list.

The album also boasts the band’s own interpretation of the story of the three wise men. In “The Baby,” the majestic trio hales from the ATL and showers the baby like only kings from the “Dirrrty South” can. Front man Solomon Olds’ own baby makes his vocal debut on the track (his wife appears on another), making it truly a family affair.

Check out the tired Christmas CD’s you’ve got on the shelf. If you want to get into some Christmas crunk, show off a holiday hip hop routine or just keep grandpa up past nine, drop Christmas Pageant into your rotation – its about time. 

By: Josh Gloer

It’s February, almost a full calendar stretch until Christmas. Stockings are packed in boxes, next to bubble wrapped nativities and knotted strands of twinkle lights. The holidays lie dormant, waiting to be unearthed ten months from now. Right?

Wrong.

For Family Force 5, February was the time the band decided to start working on the most upbeat and unconventional holiday album to hit the shelves since… ever.  And in early October, the band’s hard work paid off as their Christmas album, Christmas Pageant finally hit the shelves.

“We decided to make a [Christmas] record because we were tired of listing to the same old Christmas music that we’ve always listened to for the last 80 years of our lives,” Solomon “Soul Glow Activatur” Olds, the band’s front man, said. “This one you pop in, and I think its very unexpected and refreshing to hear.”

Recycled, remixed and revamped, holiday favorites like “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Carol of the Bells” and “T’was the Night Before Christmas” fill the track list along with a FF5 holiday original entitled, “The Baby.”

“That track originally developed from trying to do a version of ‘We Three Kings,’” Olds said. “We thought why not do it our way and make the kings gangstas from ATL, bringing silver and gold and have them talking about it in their Cadillac.”

Appropriately, Christmas Pageant was born in motion. The band recorded tracks while on tour in Atlanta, Nashville and  the UK. Some of it was even laid down in a portable recording studio in the back of the band’s tour bus. It’s a blend of dance, “ghetto”, upbeat and infectious twists on the timeless tracks American’s associate with Christmas. But, get one thing straight — this isn’t your momma’s Christmas album.

“We wanted to create a Christmas album that you could throw on at a part, or rock at a club,” Olds said.  “Have a Christmas dance party with eggnog and all that – all the Christmas shenanigans that go on.”

According to Solomon, the album gets back to the band’s dirrrty ATL roots, straying from the dance licks of their last album, Dance or Die. But that doesn’t mean this album is falling back into old and stale territory as they boys of FF5 combine gangster and grunge.

“A lot of people expect us to do different twists on music,” Olds said. “Our fan’s are loving it. We’ve got ‘glee’ and ‘jolly’ written all over us.”

And keeping with the Christmas Spirit, Christmas Pageant is a family affair. Of course, the ranks of FF5 posess three brothers, but several tracks boast Jerome Olds, the Olds brother’s dad, Olds’ wife under the moniker “Lalipop,” and his baby exercising his young vocals on “The Baby. 

For more info on the Christmas Pageant show schedule, check out the band’s MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/familyforce5.

And remember, for FF5 fans, it’s never too early for Christmas.

“It’s been Christmas all year for us. It’s an overload on Christmas, but it was a very fun album to make.”

By: Josh Gloer

About 50 miles south of San Jose is the home of the Spirit West Coast Christian Music Festival – Monterey, California. Less than 24 hours from the show, Family Force 5 is in a van, headed for the show.

Dance, Rawr, Dance 3, an official tour, starts in September, but until then, FF5 is playing festivals like Spirt West, averaging 250 days on the road for the year.

“We’re a bunch of road dogs,” Derek “Chap Stique” Mount, the band’s guitarist, said. The band is dedicated to its fans, constantly playing shows and actively communicating with MySpace, Twitter and an open phone line fans can call and leave messages on. “We have incredible fans. We have a great relationship with them, too.”

But it’s a double-edged sword, as many of the band members have wives and families they leave behind every time they hit the road. So for their latest creation, a fantastic video for their song “Dance or Die,” they decided to get creative.

“We’re trying to make sure we put our families first,” Mount said. “So instead of trying to shoot on our time off we decided to shoot it on the road.” The band brought Director Steven Shultz, a lighting rig and a green screen made from bed sheets to shoot between rehearsals, sound checks and shows.

“We have a blast. We’re a very visual band and love the escapism element of videos. It’s a lot of fun, just a nice change of pace from writing recording and touring.”

And the video, something Mount said the band is very proud of, is out of this world.

“Its very Captain EO influenced,” Mount said. “It’s very Neverending Story-esque. We’re real excited about that. We got to feel like we’re on a different planet.”

And the video has been well received. An mtvU video of the week winner, the video has been featured on AOL and has kids mimicking dance steps. “Everybody’s loving it. All the kids are just really excited.”

If festival dates, and a brand spankin’ new video aren’t enough, the band is still finding time for the studio, and their new Christmas album will drop October 6th.

“Writing Christmas songs has been a hilarious process,” Mount said. “You’ve got really, really tough competition. You might write a killer song, but it’s definitely not as good as Jingle Bells.”

While Mount jokes about wearing Santa hats and breaking out the fake Christmas tree in July for inspiration as they work on the album, its clear that for Family Force 5, the real inspiration comes from a deeply rooted faith.

“We’re very much Christians, it’s a huge part of our lives,” Mount said. “A lot of our songs are about our spiritual experiences and its something we’re very passionate about. We want this band to mean something to everybody. We try to spread fun and hope and escape and joy.”

According to Mount, its an allegory best seen in their album, Dance or Die.

“You have life, and you choose what to do with it,” Mount said. “You can either sit on the wall watching every one else, drinking some punch, or you can dance and enjoy it.”

And FF5 is definitely not sitting any numbers out. Hard work and dedication to their fans is making this group of “robot” rockers a force to be reckoned with.

“There some thing much deeper than just trying to get up there and be famous,” Mount said. “We’re trying to hopefully touch people’s lives.”

For more on Family Force 5 or their up coming Christmas album and tour, check out www.modlife.com/familyforce5.

———–
Josh Gloer is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. Currently he’s a writer on his sixth season of MSNBC’s Lockup: Extended stay. He has also written for MTV, TLC, TruTV, HGTV and Oxygen. Josh has been a journalist for about 12 years, doing celebrity interviews with actors such as Djimoun Hounsou, Dennis Farina and James Marsden; and bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Orgy and sax guru, Carl Grubbs. Josh’s work has appeared in Filter, Car Audio & Electronics, Zink!, Item and many other publications and websites. This fall, his fiction is scheduled to appear in an anthology of LA writers, including Charles Bukowski. www.joshgloer.com