Boy bands were an American institution during the late 90’s. You had the originals who started it all with New Kids on The Block, powerhouses like Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC, B-listers like 98 Degrees and Five, and then various offshoots who were clearly following the trend and looking to make a quick buck. One of my favorites in that latter grouping was LFO. These guys had a little more edge and hip-hop in their swagger, looked like high school bullies who would be giving swirlies to nerds in the bathroom, and basically were the visual representation of the Abercrombie & Fitch chic that pre-dominated that decade (read: they looked like douche bags). But make no mistake, these guys were silly as the rest– their debut album featured insane non-sequiturs that pushed reasonable lyrical choices to their absolutely limits. Whether it be the utterly inane reference to beloved cartoon icons on their smash hit “Girl on TV” (“Shooby-doo-wop and Scooby snacks/I met a fly girl and I can’t relax“) or their equally awesome “Summer Girls” which got tremendous airplay on MTV during the time (“New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits/Chinese food makes me sick” and “You’re the best girl I ever did see/the great Larry Bird Jersey 33” were legitimate vocal lines that made it past their producer), these guys had no shame and no filter and I absolutely loved it. I smiled a country mile wide listening to this record again and wouldn’t expect anything less considering how much I got down with these dudes back in the day.
On a related note to the Boy Band phase in American culture– in elementary school one of my closest friends and I “formed” a boy band inspired by the sounds of that generation. We were named Kilimanjaro (for God knows what reason) and had a single song called “Acorn Tree” which was our pride and joy. For the life of me I can’t remember a single lyric to the song, but I can guarantee you it was probably better than LFO’s. And probably was on of the reasons we never got big. If you’re gonna be campy, then you gotta go all out. The boys from LFO could have told us that.
Standout Songs: “Summer Girls”, “Girl On TV”, “Your Heart Is Safe With Me”
