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Family Force 5 (often abbreviated FF5, formerly known as The Phamily and The Brothers) is a Christian Rapcore band from Atlanta, Georgia. Since its formation, the band has quickly grown in popularity.

Family Force 5 has played at Alive Festival, which was their very first festival, as well as Warped Tour, Creation Festival, Lifest, Rock the Light, Joshua Fest, Ichthus Music Festival, Cornerstone Florida, Portable Sounds, Purple Door, NewDay 2006, Elevation 2008 and performed on the Underground stage of Cornerstone Festival in July 2006 and the main stage in 2007. They also played at Rock the Universe in Universal Studios Florida in September 2007. Family Force 5 has appeared on mtvU's "The Freshman Class", DirecTV's CD USA twice (First performing Love Addict, and the second time, Kountry Gentleman), G4's Attack of the Show!, and CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on 14 July 2006. They have also played a concert on the one hour show "Front Row Live" on Gospel Music Channel.

Musical career

The three leading members of the band, Solomon, Jacob and Joshua, are all three sons of Jerome Olds, a Christian artist from the late 1980s. Growing up around music, the Olds brothers have been involved in it since a very young age. Prior to the formation of Family Force 5, the brothers were members of a "boy band" known as The Brothers, releasing R.P.M. (1995), and Fact and Reality (1996). Both albums were released on Star Song Records, and produced by the brothers' father, Jerome Olds.

Between the Brothers and Family Force 5 the Olds 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 brothers had teamed up with two friends, Nathan Currin and Derek Mount and taken the aliases Soul Glow Activatur, Crouton, Fatty, Nadaddy, and Chap Stique. Also, the band would not be complete without the help of friend Xanadu, who is a glorified stage hand. The band signed with Maverick Records for distribution to the mainstream market before signing to Gotee Records for the Christian market. 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 Solomon Olds, "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."

However, 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). Although "Love Addict," "Supersonic" and "Replace Me" are not necessarily obvious faith-based songs, they are simultaneously praised and criticized by Christian critics for their subtly Christian themes. However, the band often does talk about singing for Jesus during their shows and occasionally one of the members (usually Fatty) leads a prayer at the end of the set.

Family Force 5 has also 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, two of which ("Christmas Carol Blog" and "Christmas Memories Blog") are available to listen to on the Unofficial PureVolume (as of 18 January 2007). They've also recorded "Grandma", a cover of Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. In March 2007, they re-released their debut album called"Business Up Front,Party In The Back: Diamond Edition", which contains three previously unreleased songs. Two of the three songs ("I Love You to Death" and "Never Let Me Go") are available to listen to on their PureVolume, as well as their MySpace. A new unreleased song entitled "Whatcha G'on Do Wit It" can also be heard on their MySpace and has been made available for download via exclusively at the Wal-Mart music download store as an EP titled Business Up Front/Party In The Back (Diamond Edition) (Exclusive EP). This song will also be made available on a new compilation produced by Gotee Records labeled Hip Hope 2008.

They were the May/June Winner of Yahoo! Music's Who's Next?. Their next project, currently untitled, is set to release in June or July of 2008.

The music video for "Never Let Me Go" was leaked on YouTube on December 9th, 2007. It has since been removed. It made its world premiere at a Wesleyan convention in Orlando, FL on December 30, 2007.

Family Force 5 debuted a new song titled Fever on the Heart Support Tour at Spring Arbor University. During a pre-concert, informal interview with Soul Glow, he stated that a new album will be released sometime in Fall of 2008.

Musical style

Family Force 5 uses elements of Rap, Post-hardcore, and club oriented Crunk. The band often cites their own style as Crunk rock. Most songs contain heavy use of synthesizers and simple power chord riffs. Some songs make references to break dancing, the fact that they grew up in Atlanta, and the song Supersonic spells out the word Crunk in the lyrics.

Discography

Albums/EPs

Album Cover	Album Title	Date
	Family Force 5 EP	2005
	Business Up Front/Party In the Back	2006
File:Family Force 5 Diamond Edition.JPG	Business Up Front/Party In the Back: Diamond Edition	2007
	Untitled	June 2008

Music videos

Band members

Current members

• Soul Glow Activatur- lead vocals, guitar

AKA Solomon Olds (born April 14 1979) was married in January 2007 to his wife Lauren aka Lalipop, and they recently had their first child, Cash Solomon (aka Boopers), on September 6, 2007. Solomon was homeschooled as a child. He and Jacob sang scales backwards in their elementary years. Besides being the lead singer, Solomon is also a music producer, producing for tobyMac, John Reuben, and Falling Up among others. He is also featured in one of Showbread's new albums, Anorexia. Solomon and his family reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Solomon often gets the crowd pumped up by break-dancing.

• Crouton - drums, vocals

AKA Jacob Olds (born August 11, 1981) is from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the twin of Joshua Olds. He is missing a large portion of one of his teeth due to an accident on an unstable drum riser at Rock the Coast in May 2007. He often performs a handstand on his drums during the songs. He married singer/fiddler Bethany Dick on December 14, 2007.

• Fatty - bass, vocals

AKA Joshua Olds (born August 11, 1981) is from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the twin of Jacob Olds, and has filled in as front man for 5 shows to date. According to the Really Real Shows, he takes care of the band's accounting. His name is often misspelled "Phatty," but he has made it clear that it is spelled correctly as Fatty. He has three tattoos. He appeared as an extra in the children's TV show Zoobilee Zoo.

• Nadaddy - keytar, turntables, vocals, hardcore tambourine.

AKA Nathan Currin (born April 26, 1977) is from Ellington, Connecticut. He has many roles in the band, such as deejay, percussion, and his very own "hardcore tambourine" (which is basically a very violent version of everyday tambourine-ing).

• Chap Stique - guitar

AKA Derek Mount (born August 6, 1982) is from the Indiana. He is a self-proclaimed "health geek," but he will splurge for Red Vines. He is engaged to be married to his long-time girlfriend, Sarah, in March 2008.

• One of the band's greatest assets is its video man, "Tub-O" (aka Isaac Deitz), the mind and hands behind "Tub-O-Popcorn Productions". He hails from Syracuse, NY and has produced 21 Really Real Shows to date (11/03/2007)

• The band also includes "Xanadu" who is their stage tech, and primarily dances and plays tambourine during shows while checking monitor mixes and fixing any technical problems on stage. Xanadu is responsible for helping the band get through hectic touring situations. According to their Youtube series, Xanadu was formerly responsible for driving their tour van.

• The band also now includes "Tofu Pup", their merchandise girl and the replacement for Ziplok, named "Qwygon."

Former members

• 20 Cent - guitar

AKA Brad Allen (2004-2005), who was later replaced by Derek, can be seen in their 'Kountry Gentleman' video. He signals the start of the race. He left the band to join Everyday Sunday and is Currently a member of City Sleeps.

• Ziplok - Tour Manager

left in May 2007 "to spend more time with his family" and was replaced recently with "Qwygon." He returned for Really Real Show 21 in one of Crouton's nightmares.

• Intern - intern

was with the band for Warped Tour 2007; he left to return to school.

Notes

1. ^ Farias, Andre (2006-03).Business Up Front/Party in the Back. ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
2. FAMILY FORCE 5 HITS THE FALL TOUR CIRCUIT WITH “BUSINESS UP FRONT, PARTY IN THE BACK” WeSpreadTheWord.net. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
3. ^ Tobymac Rolls Out New Project with "Portable Sounds" Tour. BreatheCast.com. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
4. ^ Farias, Andree (2006-05-15). Break Dancing … With Jesus? Christianity Today. Retrieved 2007-02-05
5. Rapzilla.com Hip Hope 2008 Announced
6. FAMILY FORCE 5 winner of Yahoo! Music’s “Who’s Next”
8. "Family Force 5 Bringing Crunk Rock From The Dirty South". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• MySpace Page
• Tub-O-Popcorn's YouTube Channel
• Tub-O-Popcorn Productions
• Family Force 5's YouTube Channel
• Family Force 5 Gears Up For Amazing 2007

• 2000s music groups
• Gotee Records
• Christian rock groups
• Rap metal groups
• Christian metal groups