The truth of the matter is I could sit here and pile up words until I’m blue in the fingertips and it still wouldn’t necessarily come close to capturing the effect The Action is Go (previously discussed here) has had — continues to have — on heavy rock and roll and the lives of its devotees. Released Oct. 7, 1997, as the San Clemente, California, four-piece’s second full-length for Mammoth Records (under the Atlantic umbrella for a while, later bought by Disney, who I guess still own it?), the 14-song/55-minute offering is for sure of its era in structure and the crunch of its production, but it set a standard for fuzz that looked beyond the accomplishments of, say, Kyuss, Clutch and Monster Magnet, pushing toward a future for the genre and actively shaping it. Many listners will know or will have been exposed to The Action is Go simply because opening track “Evil Eye” was on the soundtrack for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 in 2000. Others will have come to it later, either through osmosis or having chased through Fu Manchu‘s catalog to get there, but it’s an album people cite as a favorite, and it is no less a generational landmark for the casual cool with which it unfolds.

One lesson The Action is Go teaches is that where strides Brant Bjork, groove follows. You might recall that the then-Kyuss drummer produced 1994’s No One Rides for Free (discussed here), Fu Manchu‘s first album. He would stay with the band through 2001’s California Crossing, while in the meantime launching his solo career in 1999 and releasing Ché‘s Sounds of Liberation (review here) in 2000. That he and still-in-the-band lead guitarist Bob Balch both made their first Fu full-length appearances on The Action is Go can be heard in the personality of the record. Up to that point, the shred had been handled by Eddie Glass — who after parting from Fu Manchu formed Nebula with fellow ex-members Ruben Romano (drums; now of The Freeks) and Mark Abshire (bass) — but Balch was and is a different kind of player, and as Fu Manchu began to expand on the shove that was 1996’s In Search Of… (review here), the malleability of his style let him adapt to what a given song needed. Thus the wah howl at the start of “Evil Eye” finds natural complement in the ending of “Urethane,” which follows, even though the two songs are working toward markedly different goals.

And that in itself is an important distinction. The first two tracks of The Action is Go set up a back and forth in tempo that runs throughout the tracklisting. The title-track is a shove, and “Burning Road” trades that for a slick, funky verse opening into a bigger sounding hook. It’s not all so black and white as they dig in, but the brashness of “Unknown World” and the outright funk of “Laserbl’ast” still apply, and the nascent heavy psych of “Saturn III” and punk thrust in 75-second finale “Nothing Done” (an SSD cover) perhaps make the statement most dramatically at the album’s conclusion. Fu Manchu were growing, had already grown much from their hardcore origins as founding guitarist Scott Hill already was the lone remaining founding member of the band — bassist Brad Davis had joined for 1995’s Daredevil (discussed here), locking in an essential piece of the puzzle — and in Bjork, they broadened their sound further with mid-tempo cuts like the start-stop nodder “Anodizer” and its bluesy complement “Trackside Hoax,” sounding aware of themselves in the doing in a way that speaks to maturity without actually being mature. That is to say, what they were chasing was still new at the time, to them and to the audience, and The Action is Go carries forward the urgency of its title regardless of a given track’s meter.

Balch gets something of a showcase in “Laserbl’ast,” but is right there with Hill tonally for the central riff of “Hogwash,” more patiently holding back for the solo to come. Even that choice, to momentarily hold back — don’t worry, there’s plenty of shred for everybody — is a shift in personality from where Fu Manchu had been to that point. “Hogwash,” “Grendel, Snowman” and “Strolling Astronomer” separate “Laserbl’ast” and “Saturn III.” The latter two are still featured in setlists, the three others not so much, but “Grendel, Snowman” brings a thicker, broader-sounding riff and “Strolling Astronomer” ignites at its start with an energy that is, well, about as classic Fu as you get; a skater/slacker vision of cool that rock and roll never managed to successfully replace. The flow these songs create between them, as a subsection of that of the album as a whole, isn’t to be understated, and it’s all the more crucial with “Saturn III” tucked away for the record’s apex of outreach.

I would put “Saturn III” in league with songs like Clutch‘s “Spacegrass” or Kyuss‘ “Whitewater” — a cosmic-toned jam that, for Fu Manchu, who came from punk and continue to foster a strong sense of structure in their work, was a departure in more than just its long fadeout. It brims with purpose on The Action is Go. It is a willful jam, included specifically to be a jam, and to be the grand ending ahead of the epilogue cover (again, that contrast, purposeful); it lets loose in a way Fu Manchu weren’t always willing to do. A special moment, preceded by a slew of shifts in character throughout the material, built toward and executed with vitality that remains satisfying 29 years after the fact. You could say the same of the whole record, I guess, and that’s a big part of what’s given it its staying power.

Because at least for heavy rock, The Action is Go doesn’t sound dated. It sounds quintessential. Exemplar. It is a record people are still finding — if you’ve never heard, please leave a comment, I’d love to know — and learning from, and it’s one that unmistakably helped set the path Fu Manchu would walk subsequent to it. Every accolade you’ve ever seen for it was earned.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

I’m really glad I reviewed that Abronia record. Next week, Summer of Hate (which is late, I know; welcome to The Obelisk), and premieres for Craneium, L’Ira del Baccano (full album) and Sun Voyager. That’s right. Pretty killer. Things have picked back up a bit after the January lull. I don’t know that I’m ready for it, but I kind of never am, so whatever. It’ll be fun.

Yesterday was The Patient Mrs.’ birthday. She didn’t have to go to campus, which was nice, but we ended up working most of the day anyhow and she had a school board meeting at night. The Pecan and I went shopping after school on Wednesday to get her a couple ridiculous little things — a floating jellyfish lamp that The Pecan subsequently tried to adopt, then yesterday forgot about; the fleeting joys of an ADHD childhood — and this morning I came with her to work just to hang out for the commute and run some errands when she’s done in class. A little shake to my own routine, which isn’t the worst thing in the world.

I think the president (and a slew of cohorts humanity ironically refers to as “elites”) raping children might be the worst thing in the world. At least this week. Surely some fresh new horror is on the way.

What’s the point of anything, I wonder. If there was a party that was “burn it all down” that wasn’t also terrible and racist, they’d have my vote. Was thinking I might run for office on a guillotine ticket, but I’ve shared too many of my actual opinions publically to be electable. Also I know nothing, but that doesn’t seem to stop others from governing. Not sure why it would hold me back, especially as a white dude in 2026.

A Zelda update: I beat Wind Waker again. Not really an accomplishment, but fun. I modded the game to get things like a fast sail and to negate having to chase down heart pieces across the Great Sea, put in cheat codes for infinite arrows and bombs, so it wasn’t like a ‘clean playthrough,’ but I was just trying to have a good time and did. I don’t know that I’ll do the Second Quest anytime soon, but I started playing it again because I lost the other game I had, so might do it eventually. In the meantime, I started a game of Link’s Awakening on the OLED Switch, since The Pecan isn’t interested in it in the moment and it’s relatively short and, unlike the open-air games (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom), not such a commitment of time or emotional labor. And I really like the style, the chibi Link and environment. I played A Link Between Worlds and I still want them to remake A Link to the Past with that aesthetic. It lags on the Switch, but so does everything.

I didn’t watch this week’s Starfleet Academy yet. It’s over an hour long, just the one episode, so when I loaded it up last night after bedtime (which is when The Patient Mrs. and I, also going to bed, will often put on a Star Trek together before actually going to sleep), I decided it was too much. I ended up conking out during Deep Space Nine‘s tribble episode — it was the lady’s birthday, after all; special occasion warrants special absurdity — and didn’t at all feel like that was a loss. I’ll get there either tonight or tomorrow.

Probably tonight, since tomorrow Nine Inch Nails are playing New Jersey and The Patient Mrs. and I were planning to go to that. I wasn’t going to review. I’ve seen NIN twice over the years, once for The Fragile (my favorite album) and once after that during the With Teeth era. Both times kinda sucked. I approach this show with a bit of trepidation, but I’ve seen the sets are focused around The Downward Spiral and such, and of course that record’s a classic, so we’ll roll the dice again.

The Pecan’s off from school Monday and I’ve got a boatload of homework for Hungarian class(es), but I’ll do my best to write as much as I can blah blah. Until Monday, then, have a great and safe weekend, unless you’re a bootlicker, in which case (1:) go away, you’re not welcome here and (2:) you can fuck yourself off the side of a cliff for all I care.

The rest of you, remain wonderful.

FRM.

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Tags: California, Fu Manchu, Fu Manchu The Action is Go, Mammoth Records, San Clemente, The Action is Go

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2026 at 11:40 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.