LFO try to keep distance from 'boy band' tag

In the great -- or not so great, depending upon your perspective -- teen pop universe, it seems pre-ordained that LFO will become the next big boy band.

 Even though that tag doesn't sit so well with them.

 "Basically, I feel like if somebody wants to call us a boy band, then they haven't seen our show or listened to the album or they don't really know much about it," says band member Brad Fischetti, 23, down the line from L.A. prior to LFO's sold-out show on Wednesday night at the Opera House.

 "It's a negative term. It means you have a shelf life. It means you're fabricated. It means you're not real. So I prefer not to be associated with it."

 Still, LFO's trio of Fischetti, Devin Lima and Rich Cronin sprang from the same Florida music-making factory in Orlando that produced the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

 In fact, LFO (Lyte Funkie Ones) have even opened for the Backstreet Boys, giving them a sense of the screaming and hysterical female fans to come.

 "Yeah, us, Backstreet, NSYNC, all come from the same camp," says Fischetti. "It's nothing like it's perceived to be in the press, as far as like a factory, you know what I mean? It was nothing like that, maybe it is now. We didn't have these huge facilities to rehearse in and $3-million studios and all these cars and everything else -- flashy stuff. We had a warehouse to rehearse in. That was it. No air conditioning. We sweated and worked our butts off."

 In Orlando, harmony-guy Fischetti hooked up with hip-hop-oriented Cronin, 23, a childhood friend of former New Kids On The Block and fellow Bostonians Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood, who tagged him the Lyte Funkie One.

 R&B-leaning Lima, 22, is the newest addition after original member, known only as Briz and heard on the early hit song, The Way You Like It, didn't work out. The single is noticeably absent from LFO's self-titled debut, which has sold 1.3 million copies worldwide, including 26,000 in Canada.

 "It was really a different group back then," explains Fischetti. "We had a different member in the group and a different record company. That's a great song, but it doesn't really represent us very well. We were still LFO but you grow, and when you grow, you change. But we don't really get into that. People don't know about it so I don't think it's really necessary to talk about it."

 False start aside, further proof of LFO's ascension is a Teen People cover, the headlining spot on the teen-oriented Nickelodeon tour in the U.S. this summer and an appearance on the NBC TV special, 25 Years Of No. 1 Hits: Arista Records' Anniversary Celebration, which airs May 15. LFO sing their No. 1 hit, Summer Girls, best known for name-checking NKOTB and Ambercrombie & Fitch.

 "Rich wrote it and it's just basically kind of like a yearbook to our generation," explains Fischetti.

 As for Ambercrombie & Fitch's reaction, there was a chance for a tie-in between the preppy store chain and the band, but that now seems to have evaporated.

 For now, Fischetti says the trio has their heads screwed on straight in the face of all the female attention.

 "You just take it for what it is. Don't think it's real life. And if you start making yourself believe that that's real-life, you'll have a problem when it's all over. We appreciate it, we really do. We love it, bathe in it, bask in it. I love it but I know it won't last forever."