By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
October 6, 1999
Just when you think that Canadians really aren’t that different from Americans, there’s this little matter of ketchup chips.
Len vocalist Sharon Costanzo is munching on a big bag of this treat when she phones from Toronto for an interview.
“You never had ketchup-flavored potato chips?” Costanzo asks in a big, booming voice that belies her coquettish singing style. “You’re missing out, dude! They’re really good when you have the munchies. They taste just like chips dipped in ketchup.”
Her quirky taste is reflected in the band’s major label debut “You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush.” Driven by the catchy single “Steal My Sunshine,” the album has given the eight-year-old band its first taste of commercial success. An equal mixture of joyous pop and hip-hop beats, the album features cameos from Kurtis Blow and Biz Markie.
Oddly enough, former Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille makes an appearance as well.
Len will perform songs from this album, as well as their previous indie releases, when the musicians make their Chicago debut Thursday.
“We were never supposed to become a `big band,’ ” Costanzo says. “At first I played guitar, and then bass, and then (her brother) Marc took over on guitar. We were a joke band. We’d show up at a gig and there would be four stoners and 10 people who were alcoholics or something. Eventually it got to the point where industry people would come out. We couldn’t understand why people were cramping our style with seriousness.”
The group also includes primary songwriter Marc, 28 (who goes by the stage name The Burger Pimp), D-Rock, Planet Pea, DJ Moves and Drunkness Monster.
Which makes “Sharon” sound awfully bland by comparison.
“I know!” says Costanzo, 32. “The boys in the band are hip-hop heads and producers. And you don’t use your real name in the hip-hop world ’cause that’s too boring. I love hip-hop, but I don’t do hip-hop.”
So the boys don’t call you anything in private? Maybe something like The Burger Pimp’s Sis?
Laughing, she says, “Actually, the boys call me `Big Sha,’ but I would never call myself that. It just sounds like something you say when you’re tripping.”
Costanzo says they’re not “drugheads” anymore, but acknowledges that the band’s name sprung from an acid trip in which Marc’s friend Lenny walked into the room. As to the origins of the deliriously nonsensical “Steal My Sunshine,” Marc wrote it after a long night of partying.
“Marc came home from a party and dragged me out of bed at 6 in the morning,” Costanzo recalls. “He said, `You’ve got to sing this with me.’ We recorded it about three years ago and then he threw it under his bed. But the track you hear on the radio is that original recording we did on 8-track. We never redid it.”
Based on a sample from the disco tune “More More More,” the loopy song in which brother and sister trade verses was one of radio and MTV’s summer standouts.
“It’s weird to think that a song that was gathering dustballs under Marc’s bed has become our breakthrough,” Costanzo says.
Laughing, she adds, “Makes me wonder if he’s got any other hits hidden under there.
