If groups such as the Spice Girls burst onto the music scene, then the Fun Lovin’ Criminals came in through the back door, hung up their coats, sat down and ordered three cocktails.
The band was formed in 1993 when Huey ‘DiFontaine’ Morgan, and Brian ‘Fast, Fisty, etc’ Leiser, drinking in a bar, met Steve Borovini, who was working in the bar. Steve and Fast were already playing in a Techno band, and were well endowed with knowledge of the production and electronical side of music. Meanwhile, Huey was playing blues guitar and writing with Fast. Huey and Fast recruited Steve to drum and assist with the programming, and the Fun Lovin’ Criminals were formed.
Two years later, the album Come Find Yourself was released, and spawned the singles ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’, ‘King of New York’ and ‘Scooby Snacks’. The Fun Lovin Criminal is the band’s self professed ‘redneck song’ and is an introduction to the ways of the FLC, and a good musical overview, containing funky guitar riffs, trumpets, harmonicas, a catchy bass line (the latter three all played by Fast) and Steve’s brilliant drumming. King of New York shows a slightly more political side to the trio,
Click here for sounds, videos, lyrics and tabs from Come Find Yourself with calls to ‘Lardy Dardy, Free John Gotti’ while reserving the story-telling rapping by Huey. This track’s music is equally diverse to The FLC, containing a piano (also played by Fast), and a flute. The other single was the UK number one Scooby Snacks. It is a humoured confession of a drug induced bank robbery, performed by the FLC themselves, and their efforts to escape the NYPD. This track, as Huey put it at Reading festival in 1999, ‘paid our rent for the last four years’ and laden with extracts from Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, and four simple chords, paved the way for the triumph of CFY. The remaining 12 tracks on CFY were a mix of the band's politics (see Passive/Aggressive, Crime and Punishment, I Can’t Get With That) the effects of drugs on NY society (see Methadonia, Bombin’ the L, Smoke Em’) and a couple about relationships (We Have All The Time In The World, Coney Island Girl.)
After the last release off CFY, the Criminals took a long pause. They made us wait two whole years for the follow up to CFY, 100% Colombian. The alternative title to this album was Ruffin’ Up Thugs, but, even after protestations from the Colombian government, 100% Colombian was chosen. This was a natural progression for the trio, with the album being a little more calmed down, and jazzy, but still retaining Rock and Roll in the form of Korean Bodega, and Huey claims that Southside is their ‘Heavy Metal anthem.’ The first single to be taken off the album was Love Unlimited, a tribute to how Barry White, who introduced Huey to the ways of women, and how they suddenly became ‘the most beautiful things on God’s green earth'.
Click here for sounds, videos, lyrics and tabs from 100% Colombian The next single was ‘Big Night Out’ which, even if slightly confusing, is a musical masterpiece, with the song split up into a rap half, with a sample from Tom Petty’s 'American Girl', and a rock half, with an interpolation of Chubby Checker’s 'Can’t You See'. It is when played live that this song is at it’s best, used as a finale. The final single to be released from 100% is the rock song Korean Bodega. This is an astonishingly technically simple song, with a fantastic chorus, even it is only two chords, and in my opinion, did not fulfil it’s potential in the UK singles chart. Somewhere between the release of Big Night Out and Korean Bodega, drummer Steve ‘went a little crazy and departed to Peru,’ in the words of Huey, and was replaced by an extremely compotent, and just as crazy drummer Maxwell 'Mackie' Jayson. The rest of 100% Colombian is in a similar vein to CFY, while being unique and fresh at the same time. The criminals show that they are capable of virtually anything, playing a Blu es song and something that sounds almost like skiffle at the end of the album.
With these two albums, FLC have created a refreshing, unique, and thoroughly brilliant sound, combining hip-hop and jazz rhythms with more traditional rock techniques. This is a style which is completely original and never done before. Now it seems that other bands, such as Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit have drawn their inspiration indirectly from the FLC, using the same mixture of beats, rapping and guitar to achieve a new style of music. But what sets the FLC aside from these bands is their ability to make a credible piece of modern rock music out of styles and instruments that were perhaps previously considered boring.
With the release of a ‘pay for Christmas’ album very soon, and a new full length LP out early next year, the Criminals are by no means finished. As their performance at the 1999 Reading festival proved, they still pack a huge punch live, and their ability in the studio is to be proved by Mimosa. What the Fun Lovin’ Criminals have to say is that they still mean business. And business is still very, very cool.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/7725/biography.html
