C Note's debut album, "Different Kind of Love," won't hit stores until May 18, but already the Orlando twenty-somethings have a reputation to live down and their manhood to defend. After all, the quartet is the latest creation of Louis Pearlman and his Trans Continental Entertainment -- a.k.a., the folks who launched the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync -- and the group wants to set the record straight. "C Note is not a boy band," Dru Rogers, the earnest blond member, tells EW Online. "We're more on the sexual side of urban R&B."

The guys got to strut their sexy stuff for music-industry insiders at a Manhattan showcase last week. As sirens blared, the ab four took the stage. Several carefully choreographed pelvic thrusts and suggestive choruses ("Wait till I get home/To that sweet, sweet lovin'/Gonna get it") later, it became clear that the soulful C Note is more Boyz (as in II Men) than Boys (as in Backstreet). The vocal four, who cite Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire as musical influences, may even play their own instruments on stage one day soon. Says Dru: "I'm learning right now how to sing and play guitar at the same time."

Meanwhile, the question is will C Note be the band that breaks the Pearlman hit machine? Probably not. The group's songs -- aided by savvy marketing and nonstop airplay -- will undoubtedly slip past their wariest listener's defenses and lodge deep in the subconscious. (Try as I might, I couldn't get the power ballad "One Night With You" out of my head.) And then there's the big plus of having four good-looking, hard-working lads who believe that C Note stands for "Creating Nothing Other Than Excellence."

"Oh, man. It's just overwhelming," says bass singer David Perez of the band's imminent launch. "For years, we would go to work (as a waiter, bus driver, hotel auditor, and girls' basketball coach), go to school, rehearse till three in the morning, then have to wake up three hours later for work again. So this is just like the greatest thing in the world to us." Adds Dru: "Something's going to happen. Whether it's good or bad, we're gonna pull through it."

When EW Online asked the real Boyz II Men if they had any advice for boy-rock newbies such as C Note, the old pros jokingly agreed, "Run!" That's make your money and run, boys.