When The Fucking Champs first started playing music together, they were something of an anomaly. As a progressive hard rock band with no bass, virtually no vocals, and albums titled with Zepplin-esque Roman numerals, people really didn’t know what to make of the San Francisco trio.
Were they being funny? Were they being serious? Either way, was it OK to like them?
In the early to mid-’90s, “metal” had all but fallen from grace as far as indie rockers were concerned, despite the legions of hardcore, noise, and math rock bands that, without their catchy little subgenres, may have otherwise fallen under the umbrella term. But The Fucking Champs’ sound owed more to Thin Lizzy and even Van Halen than it did to any punk band.
Fast forward a few years, and it is the norm to see swarms of hipsters at metal shows, and most of them have even stopped annoyingly insisting that they only like the music in an ironic sense. In a recent phone conversation with ALARM, Fucking Champs guitar player Tim Green brushes off the notion that his band may have helped re-popularize the once ostracized art form.
“Trends come and go,” he says simply. “I really have no opinion on it at all.”
The Fucking Champs play what they have dubbed “total music.” Green describes total music as “a lot of harmony and linear movement. There’s not a lot of stuff that repeats, not a lot of verse chorus verse chorus. It just keeps going.”
Total music also refers to the tendency of people to describe music in terms of genre, which can be constraining when discussing music that derives its sound from many places. For The Fucking Champs, that could mean elements of progressive rock, metal, psychedelia, electronica, and classical all within the same track.
And though they may have originally coined the phrase with a little tongue in cheek, they’ve made a strong argument about the absurdity of trying to define sound using words in the first place. (What the hell does “post-post-rock” mean anyway?)
With their latest record, VI, The Fucking Champs continue to delve into new territory, blending even more psychedelic noises and adding strings into the already diverse mix.
Green explains, “We are pushing the boundaries of what the band is supposed to sound like. We’re writing songs that don’t necessarily ‘sound like us’ so we don’t get stuck in a rut.”
He points out tunes like “A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Ideas,” which transitions from a freewheeling, riff-heavy beginning down to an intense, dream-like cadence and the ten minutes of silence separating the epic-sounding first half of “Column of Heads” from the second, quirky section.
Sending reels back and forth across the country, the two bands took turns adding on to the other’s creations like a cross-country game of Exquisite Corpse.
Guitarist Josh Smith and drummer Tim Soete formed the band in San Francisco in 1992. Green says the two were inspired by a custom-built, nine-string guitar Smith found at the Subway Guitar Shop in Berkeley, California, and began writing songs primarily off of the unusual instrument. The music they wrote was centered primarily on guitar riffs with a metallic twinge, but never of a particularly heavy variety.
Originally known as simply The Champs, borrowing from the Fender Champ amplifiers through which they played, they eventually added “Fucking” onto the name to avoid confusion with another band under the same name. Green, who had played with influential Dischord post-hardcore quintet Nation of Ulysses, joined up with the Smith and Soete in 1995 upon moving to San Francisco from Washington D.C., and rounded out the band with a second guitar.
With the power trio complete, the band put out a few 7”s and homemade demos before releasing their first full length album, titled III, under the name C4AM95. Many early articles about the group seemed obsessed that the Champs didn’t look like a metal band (i.e. no spandex pants), and wondered aloud if the band was sort of an ironic joke on the genre, citing their outrageous song titles like “Andres Segovia Interests Me” and “Crummy Lovers Die in the Grave” as evidence.
Still, they developed a devoted fan base and garnered critical acclaim – even without the spandex.
For their part, The Fucking Champs have been unapologetic for their sense of humor and their unconventional song structures. Tech savvy and remarkably proficient on their instruments, Champs’ songs are often elaborately designed and expertly delivered.
Despite their more intellectual appeal, Green says that they do not begin albums with a grand scheme in mind.
“The album really starts to take shape about halfway through the songwriting and we start to get a picture of the direction the album is going. In the beginning, we don’t know. We just start writing songs.”
They released the more experimental IV in 2000 followed by the illustrious V in 2002. Despite their rigorous recording schedule, they found time to work with D.C.-based experimental synth-rockers Trans Am in between albums.
“The whole idea came up when this guy who owns a label called Temporary Residence [Jeremy deVine] had the idea that we do a split around 1999. We started thinking about it more and decided to make it a collaboration.”
Sending reels back and forth across the country, the two bands took turns adding on to the other’s creations like a cross-country game of Exquisite Corpse. The resulting EP, Double Exposure, delighted fans by highlighting the best aspects of both bands, although some wondered if the Champs were holding back too much in favor of Trans Am’s comparatively pop-based sound.
In actuality, Green saw the project as a chance to utilize songs he had written that were “a little too pretty or something for the Champs, a little too whimsical.” 2005 saw a second installation in The Fucking Champs/Trans Am group efforts appropriately renamed The Fucking Am. Enlisting the talents of Mars Volta/Golden drummer Jon Theodore, their full length album, Gold, was more collaboratively written than Double Exposure, and had a bit more of a rock edge than the slightly lighter textured EP.
Once Manley settled on the West Coast after completing a six-month tour with Trans Am, the Champs headed out on the road, spending most of 2005 circling the globe.
“People don’t really seem to like us much in Europe. We do pretty well in the UK, Ireland and Scotland, but in the rest of Europe we don’t seem to go over that well. I don’t know… They’re more used to defined genres, and if they have no idea what you’re doing, then they don’t really get into it.”
In all, it was a year and a half before they could begin to write the new record.
Even though The Fucking Champs as a whole may have been quiet during the last five years, each member has been fruitful in his other musical pursuits. Manley still plays with Trans Am and occasionally with Oneida. Green, a professional recording engineer, has just joined Soete in another San Francisco-based prog rock band, Crime in Choir, and is slated to release his fourth solo record under the name Concentrick on Drag City later this year.
Though earlier Concentrick records had more of a minimalist, electronic quality, Green describes this new record, his favorite so far, as “a total guitar rock record.” Balancing solo work with writing band material can be tricky, but Green takes it all in stride.
“Some of the songs that are on the Champs albums I originally thought would be Concentrick songs, but they’ve ended up working into the Champs albums. I guess I sort of make that my priority.”
The Champs have licensed three songs to the Sims video games, with Green contributing solo guitar work as well. They’ve also been approached on several occasions to provide music for television and film.
“We had seven to nine songs of ours used in a special feature on the end of a DVD, and, not only did they not pay us,” Green laughs, “but they never even sent us a copy.”
Even after that unsavory experience, the band remains open minded about any new opportunity that comes their way. Currently, the Champs are gearing up to tour in support of the new album.
As for his take on the new material, Green says, “I’m still a little too close to it. I wrote a lot of the songs on this one. It is usually more collaborative, but with Phil being out of town and Tim being busy with practice [with Crime in Choir], I ended up writing most of the rock songs on there, so it’s hard for me to tell if they are good or not. I’m sort of self conscious about them.”
Though Green may have his reservations, he notes that longtime fans have been quick to embrace the new material. He is also looking forward to the band’s future.
“When Phil gets more involved in the songwriting, I imagine it will take on a whole new dimension.”
And who can blame him for being excited? After all, isn’t VII the luckiest number there is?
– Story by Jamie Ludwig, photo by Becca Henry