Family Force 5

Family Force 5 (often abbreviated FF5, formerly known as The Family and The Brothers) is a Christian crunk rock band from Atlanta, Georgia.

History

Early History and The Family (1993-2003)

Family Force 5 is from and was formed in Atlanta, Georgia. The three leading members of the band, Soul Glow Activatur, Phatty and Crouton, are sons of Jerome Olds, a Christian artist from the late 1980s. Prior to the formation of Family Force 5, the brothers were members of a "boy band" known as The Brothers, releasing Fact and Reality (1994) and RPM (1995). Both albums were released on Star Song Records, and produced by their father.

Between the Brothers and Family Force 5 the brothers had a band called Ground Noise, which they classified as "a really bad version of Third Day." Before the band chose the name Family Force 5, they had taken on the name "The Phamily". They had to change it later due to copyright issues with Prince's band, The Family.

A decade later, the band signed with Maverick Records for distribution to the mainstream market before signing to Gotee Records for the Christian market. Under the name "The Phamily" the band sought out a dual recording deal in order to better distribute their music to both the mainstream market and the Christian market. According to Soul Glow Activatur, "To me, and pretty much anybody that's under my age, most Christian music is a turnoff. I don't want to be affiliated with that. I want to be affiliated with something that is great music. I feel that Maverick and Gotee together can pull that off."

Family Force 5 and Mainstream Success (2004-2007)

On March 21, 2006 the band released their first full length Album Business Up Front/Party in the Back which was an instant hit in both the Christian and Mainstream markets. Spawning several hit singles such as "Love Addict" and Earthquake. Both of these songs, like many others on the album, are heavily focused around the guitar. Their debut album has been both disparaged and praised by Christian and non-Christian critics respectively for not containing overtly Christian content in any of its tracks (with the exception of "Peachy", which was apparently written to convert a friend to Christianity and calls God by name). In March 2007, their debut album was re-released as Business Up Front, Party In The Back: Diamond Edition, which contains three previously unreleased songs. During this time Family Force 5 contributed the song "Mind's Eye" for the compilation album Freaked! A Gotee Tribute to dc Talk's "Jesus Freak". For Christmas, Family Force 5 released a few Christmas-themed audio blogs. They also recorded "Grandma", a cover of Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. Also a new unreleased song entitled "Whatcha Gonna Do With It" was made available for download exclusively at the Wal-Mart music download store. Recently another unreleased song "Master of Disguise" has been posted on Youtube however due to mixed fan reaction to the song it was never slated for release.

The band also toured extensively around this time building up their fan base and building a reputation of wild energetic live act that helped thrust them into headlining shows throughout the US.

Dance or Die (2008)

In June 2008 the band released an EP entitled The Dance or Die - EP to debut three songs from their upcoming album Dance or Die the songs were; "Dance or Die", "Fever", and "Wake the Dead". On August 19, 2008 the full length album was released taking on a more club oriented, techno dance sound than Business Up Front/Party in the Back with less guitar. The full-length album, Dance or Die, received a favorable review in World Magazine.

Blake Soloman of AbsolutePunk.net had the following to say about the album;

"Even though Family Force 5 may be the musical equivalent of mixing Mentos and Coke ? lots of build up for something that only ever happens one way ? I find myself oddly pleased with Dance or Die."

Dance Or Die sold 17,000 copies in its first week and came in at 30 on the Billboard 200. By the end of January the album had sold over 50,000 units and during early 2009 the band embarked on the AP tour from march to May promoting the album and headling concerts throughout the US.

Dance Or Die with a Vengance and Christmas Album (2009)

In May 2009 The band debuted their remix album of Dance or Die; Dance or Die With A Vengeance. It featured remixes by The Secret Handshake, Sean Foreman of 3OH!3, Danger Radio, Jasen Rauch of Red, Matt Thiessen of Relient K, David Crowder of David Crowder Band and Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship. The first single, "The First Time" (Matt Thiessen from Relient K Remix), was released on the band's MySpace page on April 13, 2009. The second single, Get Your Back Off the Wall (Sean from 3oh!3 remix), was released on Altpress.

The Album debuted at #180 on the Billboard top 200, #15 on the Christian Albums chart and #6 on the Dance/ Electronic Albums chart.

Around this time Soul Glow Activatur also created a remix of the song "Best Night of Our Lives" by Everyday Sunday.

On September 5th the band unveiled a new song called "Keep The Party Alive" which is featured on an EP, titled "Keep the Party Alive EP". The EP was released exclusively at Target to promote the Halloween themed Skelanimals on September 15th. Other tracks on the EP include 3 songs from "Dance Or Die With A Vengeance" and 2 songs from "Dance Or Die".

The band will embark on their third Dance Rawr Dance Tour, along with Breathe Carolina, Cash Cash, Queens Club, and i-Rival.

On October 6th the band is set to release a Christmas Remix album titled Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant, it will contain ten tracks including a remix of "My Favorite Things" The band announced on August 29th that they had finished recording the album.

Musical style

Family Force 5 uses elements of rap, post-hardcore, alternative rock, punk rock, and club oriented crunk, electropunk, electronica and nu metal with positive, party lyrics in their music..

When asked about their "Love Addict" video and its relation to their Christian image, Soul Glow Activatur stated "They want Sandi Patty all over again. They want Amy Grant. And most times, its people that don't understand new art, new videos... We want to make music that is for God, but at the same time, we want to make music that people enjoy and that they're not turned off by."

Band members

Current members
Solomon Olds a.k.a Soul Glow Activatur (2001-present) - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar
Jacob Olds a.k.a Crouton (2001-present) - Drums/Vocals
Joshua Olds a.k.a Phatty/Fatty (2001-present) - Bass/Vocals
Nathan Currin a.k.a Nadaddy (2001-present) - Keytar/Vocals/Family Force 5000/Percussion
Derek Mount a.k.a. Chap Stique (2005-present) - Lead guitar
Former members
Brad Allen a.k.a. 20 Cent (2004-2005) - Guitar
Steve Heimler (2001-2003) - Guitar

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family Force 5