Fun Lovin' Criminals
Take their horseplay seriously

Rolling Stone : 13th June 1996 (Issue 736)

Before they worked together, the three guys in Fun Lovin' Criminals lived together.  That will not happen again in their lifetimes.  "It was hell", says Fast, the bassist.  He points to the vocalist Huey.  "I can't live with him, man" says Fast.  "No one can live with him."

Fast shakes his head incredulously.  "Him and his dog," he says, pointing to Huey's smallish light-brown mutt, Sugar.

Meanwhile, Sugar – who's first on Huey's list of Thank-yous in the liner notes to the Criminals' debut album, Come Find Yourself – is happily scarfing a gift from the owner of Nick and Joe's Pizzeria, a band hangout in Brooklyn, N.Y.  In one corner of the pizza joint, a gaggle of cops sits, chatting idly.  In another, a knot of employees plays poker.  "Sugar, looka this," says Huey.  "Pepperoni.  Eh, Sugar?"

Nowadays, the Criminals live separately, and although there's the more-than-occasional tiff ("We're like brothers," Huey says with a shrug), the trio has a way of working it out.  Take musical influences:  The happily schizoid blend of genres on Come Find Yourself perfectly reflects the Criminals' admittedly short attention spans.  "This album is like a pizza pie wid everything on it," states Huey.  Indeed Come Find Yourself seamlessly and unselfconsciously melds funk, rap, a dash of Casino Royale flair (the CD is illustrated like a roulette wheel) and gangster – not gangsta – posturing.  In "King of New York," the Criminals proclaim, "Free John Gotti," while in the album's loping, infectious single, "Scooby Snacks" they tell the cracked tale of a gang of Valium-addled bank robbers.

Most significant, however, is the Criminals' doting use of classic rock.  "Steely Dan's Aja is the best record in my collection," declares drummer Steve, who like his fellow band mates has apparently forgotten his last name.  You can hear the time-honoured rock traditions in FLC's samples (Lynard Skynard fans will recognise the sped-up "Lord, I can't change" in "Bombin' the L")and in the three-chord riffs that anchor most of their songs.

Livening up this pastiche are plenty of sly jokes.  In their rhymes, Fun Lovin' Criminals, named for a graffiti crew, refer to everything from Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to franks and knishes.  "Irony and comedy is something a lot of people don't have in their lives," Huey observes.  "but that's what this band is founded on."  One look at the guys' live performances confirms their irreverent attitudes.  When was the last time you saw the band grin through its entire set?  In fact, the Criminals seem so glad to be there, they barely notice the audience except when they pause to yell, "Who here is from Brooklyn?  How about Staten Island?  Queens!  How about Queens?"

Although New York is obviously dear to the band's heart, two of its members lived upstate for a while.  "I was going to Syracuse University:  Steve was at a community college," says the multitalented Fast, who plays keyboards, trumpet and harmonica as well as the bass.  "I lasted about a semester.  I discovered marijuana."  In the meantime, Huey was in the Marines.  "I don't like to talk about it," says Huey, restraining Sugar, who has spotted the cops and is attempting to lunge.  "When I got out of the service," he says, 'I was kind of insane.  I wanted to do insane things but not get in trouble for them.  So I figured, "well, either be a musician or a fireman.'"

After Steve and Fast left school and returned to New York, Fast met up with Huey whilst working with him at the Limelight nightclub.  On the pair's off hours, Huey says, they "played around, sampled stuff, started playing guitar."  When Steve joined the force, the trio "conned the club owners to give us a show" – ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom – and one night it found itself facing an audience.  "We started jumping around like idiots," Huey reports.

A few gigs later, Huey continues, the groups audience included "guys with beards and suite" who had been alerted to the band's antics by a Limelight DJ and field scout.  Voila!  The Criminals signed with a major label, which means, says Huey, that the band now has to contend with the "stress of the corporate world.  They aren't down with emotions to the extent that we are."  The Criminals have just finished shooting the "Scooby Snacks" video, which Huey describes as "Ferris Buellers' Day Off meets Cheech and Chong…"  "Meets Goodfellas," says Steve, completing the image.  There's also this summer's tour.  Since that will mean lots of time spent together, certain subjects should be avoided.

"His girl," says Fast, pointing at Huey.  "can't say nothin'."  Then he looks at Steve.  "His girlfriend.  Can't say nothin'."  Steve nods at Fast.  "His laserdisc player," he says "his Schwarzenegger collection.  Can't say nothin'."  "Don't say nothin'," retorts Fast.

Steve's love of prank phone calls can also fan the flames.  "when I'm bored, I call people and ask, 'Wassup?' and see where the conversation goes," says Steve.  "And I hang right up on his ass," says Fast.

by Jancee Dunn

meticulously typed up by Wenders