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Friday Full-Length: Fu Manchu, We Must Obey

Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 20th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Fu Manchu, We Must Obey (2007)

I’ll gladly grant that there are way more obvious Fu Manchu records with which to end the week. Indeed, even the Californian fuzz legends themselves seem to have acknowledged by touring playing full records an audience preference for older material, if not actually the oldest, albums like 1996’s In Search Of…, their third, and 1997’s subsequent The Action is Go hailed as heavy rock classics while much of the rest of their catalog, particularly the three LPs they’ve released in the last decade, are viewed with interest varied from superfan loyalty to utter discount from those whose allegiance lies with their ’90s output.

Fair enough. I can’t and won’t argue that In Search Of… isn’t genre genius, but neither do I think Fu Manchu‘s contributions ended with what’s commonly considered their most highly-regarded material. Whether it’s the early rawness of their 1994 debut, No One Rides for Free, or the striving to breathe new life into their established wall of fuzz in 2009’s Signs of Infinite Power by means of focusing on the SoCal punk and hardcore influence that served as the band’s drive when they got their start as Virulence in 1985, it’s strange to think of a band as being both classic and underrated — unless you think of all heavy rock as underrated in the wider pop-cultural sphere — but Fu Manchu seem to be exactly that. It’s a fascinating position for a group who are past 25 years together, who’ve toured the world and who’ve influenced a generation of bands in their wake.

So yeah, I could’ve closed out the week with The Action is Go, and I’m sure at some point I will, but with “Shake it Loose,” the opening title-track, “Hung out to Dry,” the slow-grooving “Land of Giants,” “Sensei vs. Sensei” and a cover of The Cars‘ “Moving in Stereo” to its credit, I decided to roll with We Must Obey as an example of Fu Manchu‘s work that never quite got the attention it deserved. If that makes me a sucker for the band, I can think of far worse things to be. As always, I hope you enjoy.

I know I had that Queens of the Stone Age live review on Monday, but I only reviewed one record this week, and it was an EP. In fact, over the last few months, I’ve been doing fewer and fewer reviews from week to week, and I find it unacceptable. I don’t believe in “resolutions,” but I may start imposing a word count on reviews — 500-700 words tops, let’s say — until I can restore some balance. It would be an interesting challenge for me anyway I think to have to say what I want to say about a record without hitting 1,000 words, which is where most of them hover nowadays when I do get to bang one out. If I do or don’t decide to do that, I need to figure out a way to deal with the anxiety I’ve come to feel about writing up records and still manage to keep my critical voice, which apparently has a thing for compound sentences.

Or maybe I should cut myself some fucking slack and just try to live out my meager fucking existence in the best way I can.

Yeah, not likely.

This coming week is the inexplicable federal holiday Xmas. If you’re of a persuasion to celebrate that or its more Jesus-ified equivalent, Christmas, I wish you a happy one. I’m traveling — of course, because that’s what I do now; unfortunately it’s not to Europe — south to see family and coworkers in Jersey, but I’ll be posting where and when I can. I’d like to get a list together of the best EPs, demos, singles, etc. I heard this year, and I’ll do my best to make it somewhat less… elaborate… than the Top 20 albums list that went up on Monday. Thanks as well to everyone who commented and shared that link.

Double thanks to everyone who’s submitted a list to the Readers Poll. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the picks come in, the things people agree on, disagree on. I look forward to getting the final results together and sharing them when the time comes. If you haven’t added a list yet, the form will be up next week and then comes down the week after, so there’s time, but not too much.

Next week I review Clagg‘s new album and if I have a chance, do some more stuff to wrap up the year as well, best debut, favorite song live, etc., but it might have to wait until the week after. We’ll see how it goes with road time and all that.

Until then, I wish you a great and safe weekend and a great and safe holiday if you’re celebrating. If you’re not celebrating and you at least have the day off, I hope that’s at least relaxing. Cheers.

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