Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Most Popular

Reader's Picks

Top Recommendations

A short list of San Francisco's most popular hot spots.
user content provided by: LikeMe.net & SF Weekly

National Features >

  • City Pages

    Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled

    You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.

    By Matt Snyders

  • Miami New Times

    Pimp Daddy

    The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.

    By Natalie O'Neill

  • Riverfront Times

    Babe 'n' Arms

    Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Dallas Observer

    The Fight for Texas

    Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.

    By Sam Merten

The Fucking Champs

VI (Drag City)

Share

  • rss

Jonah Flicker

Published on April 03, 2007 at 2:27pm

The Fucking Champs lapped Led Zeppelin a few years ago in their quest for metal dominance. The muted power chord chops that the former band, now joined by Trans Am's Phil Manley, lift from weak, blues-based rock puts the Champs in the lead. Also, the Champs are two album titles past Zeppelin's IV. Do the math.

VI starts with a wallop of distortion. The Champs' double- and sometimes triple-harmonized guitars shamelessly recall the best moments of ...And Justice for All and early Iron Maiden, but with a musical intelligence and sense of humor that stave off any hesher cheese. But don't mistake musical jocularity for pandering to guilty pleasures. Even "Abide With Me," a 60-second national anthem, Fucking Champs-style, feels earnest in its awesomeness. And tracks like the fiercely rocking "A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Ideas" and the time signature-shifting workout, "Play on Words," are unaffected in their grandiosity.

Comedian Neil Hamburger puts in a guest appearance on "Fozzy Goes to Africa," although his contribution seems to be a single "hmm" midway through the tune (he reappears on a hidden track at the album's end). But the Champs' virtuoso shredding stands alone on this latest hard-rock symphony. Jonah Flicker