To all the big-bosomed ladies who've learned that exercise and fad diets can turn mountains into molehills, Chunx feels your pain. On Ghost Boobs, a three-song 12-inch single, the Gravy Train!!!! MC tells the woeful tale of a woman who joined "the bulldyke gym cuz [her] boyfriend liked Sue Powter," only to discover that, while her thighs didn't budge, her "funbags" went AWOL. A battle with phantom-mammary syndrome ensues, as do the Oakland crew's usual tricks of the trade, namely chintzy keyboard riffs, no-fi production, and endearingly simplistic, old-school rapping that's as sloppy as it is smutty. The rest of the single doesn't quite live up to the title track's deliriously danceable laugh-athon, but it charms nonetheless: "Lick" is 59 seconds of shrill hysteria, and "Stop the Wedding" is the story of a well-endowed dude whose "prize baloney" impedes his ability to do jumping jacks. None of which will surprise anyone familiar with last year's equally raunchy and rudimentary Hello Doctor album, of course, but Gravy Train!!!! has always been less about artistic innovation than about having a chaotically good time. So don't, as Powter would put it, stop the insanity. Gravy Train!!!! performs Sat/24, Bottom of the Hill, S.F. (415) 621-4455. (Jimmy Draper)

Four Year Bender
Lucky (Greasy Spoon)

Sporting a delivery as honest and unpretentious as a hobo troubadour, Four Year Bender singer Ryan Smith breathes weary life and ragged joy into Lucky, the group's debut album. The songs were developed when Smith led local funk mobsters Boomshanka, a nationally touring outfit that had modest success a few years back. After Boomshanka dissolved in '01, parts of the crew plus a few friends regrouped and cut Lucky in living rooms and studios across the Bay. Amazingly, the album is completely unforced and natural, like these guys were meant to be rocking laid-back, rusty blues all their lives. Even "New Orleans Lament," about overwhelming rents forcing the singer's flight from San Francisco, makes perfect sense; as the album's most downtrodden number, it stands out in its defeatism. But mostly we get the kind of tear-in-ma-beer, down-but-not-out hopeful heartbreak that marks the best traditional country music. The piano and lap steel-embellished "Hey Bartender" reels with genuine twang, and the soft-strummed "Leaving Today" comes off tender and real. "Talkin' Bout" 's jazzy acoustic swing and the soulful buildup of "What's Good for You" are countered by the gorgeous ballad "Wine and Roses." There's no alt in this country – Four Year Bender are refreshingly uncomplicated, just the kind of gut-level authenticity music could use right now. Four Year Bender play Thurs/22, Thee Parkside, S.F. (415) 503-0393. (Jonathan Zwickel)

Mail stuff for review to Sarah Han, Bay Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., S.F. CA 94107.