Is it too soon to talk about The Return of Tomorrow (review here) in hindsight? Probably. The album turns two next month (it was released June 14, 2024). Two years is a long time in pop, but in heavy rock circles it might as well have been on Wednesday. They’re still touring for it, though really it’s not like the San Clemente four-piece whose journey we’ve now charted from about 41 years ago to now need an excuse to get on the road. But you understand what I’m saying. This album remains their latest, and of course, as always, I stand by the review. I’ll do my best to retread it as little as possible, but if I make the same point over again — “duh, Fu Manchu are heavy and fuzzy,” or somesuch landmark insight — I beg your forgiveness.

In the context of the band’s discography, one might count The Return of Tomorrow as album number 13. The staggered release of the three Fu30 EPs (discussed here) between 2020 and 2023 assured that as dark as times got, the band was never completely absent, and about as soon as they could get back on the road, as I recall, that’s what they did.

That said, The Return of Tomorrow was a breath of fresh Fu in the six-year LP dearth since 2018’s Clone of the Universe (discussed here, review here), and it revealed a new trajectory for the course the San Clemente four-piece — the continuing lineup of founding guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill, bassist/sometimes-backing-vocalist Brad Davis, lead guitarist Bob Balch and drummer Scott Reeder; the latter three of whom by this point were awash in solo/side/other projects — that began a decade earlier with 2014’s Gigantoid (discussed here, review here), departing somewhat from the rolling largesse of the prior 2009 outing, Signs of Infinite Power (discussed here), and finding a production style able to speak to the multiple facets in their sound between punk, heavy metal and the riff-led shove-‘n’-groove they themselves helped pioneer.

The Return of Tomorrow is on the longer end of Fu Manchu records at 49:12. It’s second only to 1997’s The Action is Go (discussed here) in runtime, which clocked in at a peak-CD-era 55 minutes, aided in part by the lengthy “Saturn III” and a good bit of silence. The Return of Tomorrow, however, uses all of its time, and in a way that the band never had before, with a stated intent toward 2LP experience.

So, in that regard, it’s actually short. The way Hill explained the structure of the album in the advance promo was as follows:

When I listen to music, it’s either all heavy stuff with no mellow stuff mixed in or just softer stuff with no heavy stuff. I know a lot of bands like to mix it up and we have done that before, but I always tend to listen to all of one type of thing or the other. So, I figured we should do a double-record with seven heavy fuzzy songs on one record and the other record six mellow(er) songs, fully realizing that maybe I’m the only person that likes to listen to stuff that way.

We kept both the records to around 25-30 minutes each as to make it a full-length release, but not have each record be too long. We don’t write a lot of mellow(er) stuff in Fu Manchu, but a lot of the riffs worked minus the fuzz. If you’re a vinyl person, both records are pressed at 45rpm to give it the best sound quality. If you’re a digital person, can make your own playlist and mix both the records together.

This quote is especially telling in light of what I’ll call the most overlooked aspect of The Return of Tomorrow — at least by me; I don’t read anybody else’s reviews — which is the flexibility of approach. The emergent willingness in the band to mess around with their own forms, structures and processes. “Lifetime Waiting” opens that ‘mellower’ second mini-LP and you wouldn’t say it’s not heavy, but there is absolutely a shift in intent from “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine,” or “Dehumanize” at the outset, or even the slower but still brash “Haze the Hides” earlier on. “Solar Baptized” and “What I Need” bring psychedelic flourish and continued drawl.

The title-track appears in the latter section, ahead of the signature start-stoppage in “Liquify” and quiet, brief jam-out in “High Tide” that finishes the collection. Unless, of course, it doesn’t, because even Hill notes that for someone listening on a digital format, if they want to they can move the songs around however they like to change their own experience.

Understand for a second what that really says. Here’s someone who’s been playing in bands for over 40 years, and who has been instrumental in developing one of the most recognizable sounds in the six-plus decade history of heavy rock and roll. There is no other Fu Manchu and there never has been, and at least going by outward appearances, I don’t think anything happens in the band without Hill‘s ultimate approval. And what he’s telling you is the order doesn’t matter. 30 years on from their first record, with a string of classics along the way, where Fu Manchu arrived was like this third-eye-open album presentation. Make it what you want, if you want. How many artists exhibit that kind of flexibility, at any point, ever, let alone after so many years of steering their own creations?

Next week I’m wrapping up this Fu Manchu catalog series, as we’ll be caught up from the beginning to now, so I’ll save any conclusions or extrapolated life-lessons for that, but what The Return of Tomorrow most emphasizes to me specifically is the undervalued creativity and dynamic in the band. Part of that stems from having such a defined sound, but while they were not engaging any radical aesthetic changes in these 13 songs, they nonetheless offered them to their listenership in a way they never had before and made something new from them as well as within them. I don’t know of another outfit who could’ve done the same thing and pulled it off so well.

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

—

Next week: Quarterly Review. You tell The Patient Mrs. so I don’t have to.

It’s the week I have, so I’m going with it. There won’t be much else posted, and again, we close out the Fu Manchu catalog series next week with the live album that followed this studio release. I didn’t get to review it last year when it came out, so I’m looking forward to engaging with it. After that I’ll probably do Claypool Lennon Delirium or Nine Inch Noize. I’ve got a backlog of Friday Full-Lengths at this point before I think about another discography. Though, to that: Acid King? Orange Goblin? Thinking about that too, I suppose.

Before I go further I want to wish the very best to T.R. Morton of Freedom Hawk, who revealed this week his pancreatic cancer diagnosis as the band canceled their appearance at next week’s Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous in NYC, where I was looking forward to seeing them again. I hope to see him back onstage having freshly kicked cancer’s ass as soon as humanly possible, and in the meantime, send strength and love to help him get there and encourage you reading this to do the same.

The Patient Mrs.’ mother, whom I love dearly, came down yesterday to facilitate some backyard planting, which they did this morning while I worked on the above. We also last night had my family over to celebrate one of my oldest nephew’s friend’s birthdays — I was outside with The Pecan and my cousin playing wiffe ball for most of it, when I wasn’t picking up the food — and so that was busy. I don’t know if the kid enjoyed himself or not, but I said happy birthday anyhow and got stared at weirdly by teenagers. Like why would you even?

This weekend is Desertfest London and Berlin. Having been at Oslo last weekend, I’m jealous of those partying down in either city. Oslo was amazing, a killer trip. I was tired coming back, but I recovered a bit this week and feel good about how it all went down. I’m looking forward to Freak Valley in a few weeks.

Zelda update: I did the Water Temple in the ‘Ship of Harkinian’ PC port of Ocarina of Time the other evening. It took the entire evening. And I was using a walkthrough, albeit in stonerly fashion. The Pecan wants to do Bottom of the Well, so I might let her handle that after she gets home from Girl Scouts. Her mom is out for a bit anyhow, I think. I don’t know if she wants to do the Spirit Temple or not. But that’s where I’m at with that.

I came pretty close to 100-percenting Echoes of Wisdom, which is low-key and unabashed fun, low intensity in a way I very much enjoy, and I did play a bit of Tears of the Kingdom on the plane on the way to Norway, though not as much as I’d have liked because I didn’t have a plug under the seat. I also this week downloaded the Dusk or Dusklight as I’m seeing it called fan port of Twilight Princess, and I might try to play through that next.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Thank you for reading and for keeping up with the site however much you do. Fuck fascism, capitalism and white supremacy forever and ever and ever.

FRM.

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The Obelisk merch

 

I don’t know if anybody’s been keeping up at all, but for the last eight Friday closeouts, I’ve been embroiled in a Fu Manchu catalog series. Why did I decide to take a front-to-back look at one of West Coast heavy rock’s most crucial bands, suddenly, more than 35 years into their career? Because I’ve never listened to a Fu Manchu record and been bummed on the other side of it. Simple as that.

But just because I’m about a quarter-century behind the band at this point doesn’t necessarily mean I can’t keep up with current events. As the San Clemente generational fuzz kingpins continue to support their 2024 full-length, The Return of Tomorrow (review here), they’ll embark this summer on a European run that mostly goes from festival to festival but also features a few choice club dates tying it all together. Rock im Wald, Krach am Bach and Blue Moon Festival back-to-back-to-back is one hell of a weekend (actually it’s the start of that week), but even that’s just part of the proeedings here.

I’m curious what Fu Manchu‘s plans for this Fall will be. They did East and West Coast US tours last year, so if they’ll be back in Europe to do the Fall circuit, I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised, but oddly enough, listening to them at a steady pace for the last two months-plus has made me want to see them again, so if they happened through (scenic) Parsippany, New Jersey, or some major urban center nearby, that wouldn’t be the worst. We shall see.

Dates came from socials:

Stoked for our European tour dates July & August 2026!

Some festivals are already moving fast, and tickets to our Headline shows will be available Wednesday, February 25th on our website. See you on the road!

FU MANCHU – 2026 European Tour
27/07 Brasov Romania Rockstadt Extreme Fest
29/07 Vienna Austria Arena
31/07 Michelau Germany Rock im Wald Festival
01/08 Beelen Germany Krach am Bach Festival
02/08 Cottbus Germany Blue Moon Festival
04/08 Poznan Poland Tama
06/08 Jaromer Czech Republic Brutal Assault Festival
08/08 Rome Italy Roma Stone Fest Villa Ada Flow
11/08 Munich Germany Technikum
12/08 Stuttgart Germany IM Wizemann
14/08 Cudrefin Switzerland Rock the Lakes Festival

Fu Manchu are:
Scott Hill – vocals guitar
Bob Balch – Lead guitar / backing vocals
Brad Davis – Bass – Backing vocals
Scott Reeder – Drums / Backing Vocals

https://www.fu-manchu.com/
https://fumanchuband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fumanchuband
https://www.facebook.com/FuManchuBand

Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow (2024)

The lords of fuzz come back around with a new collection. Six years and one plague-interrupted three-EP 30th anniversary celebration later, San Clemente, California’s Fu Manchu offer what I count as their lucky 13th full-length, the 2LP The Return of Tomorrow, through their own At the Dojo Records. And while there’s been no lack of Fu-activity in the years since 2018’s Clone of the Universe (review here) — highlighted by the 18-minute “Il Mostro Atomico,” which featured a guest appearance from Alex Lifeson of Rush — the last year alone has seen solo- and other adjacent offerings from bassist Brad Davis (Gods of Sometimes), drummer Scott Reeder (Jacket Thief) and lead guitarist Bob Balch (Slower, Big Scenic Nowhere, Yawning Balch), with founding guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill as the only one not with a concurrent exploration, and fair enough as Hill‘s riffing has always been perceived as the central element to what Fu Manchu do. And as regards that core approach, The Return of Tomorrow is both loyal to the closely-guarded facets of the band’s structured, characteristic style, and willing to branch out a bit over the course of the included 13 songs and 50 minutes.

How Clone of the Universe ended with “Il Mostro Atomico” is relevant here in terms of The Return of Tomorrow‘s scope and how it’s presented as two shorter LPs combining to make the entire release, with the mullet-type construction of business-up-front-party-in-the-back, except with Fu Manchu, the business is the party. To explain, from “Dehumanize” through “Destroyin’ Light” — the first seven songs — the band are on an absolute tear. The material hits hard and is catchy in a way that fans will find familiar in pieces like “Roads of the Lowly,” “Hands of the Zodiac” and “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine,” etc., without really challenging the punk foundations of their sound or the clearly-ain’t-broken methodology of their songwriting. Hill delivers verses and choruses in recognizable patterns, and the band guide their listeners through a succession of stories about monsters (“Loch Ness Wrecking Machine”), psychic weirdos (“Hands of the Zodiac”) and the anxieties of the age and aging (“Dehumanize” and “(Time Is) Pulling You Under”) while kicking ass in classic Fu Manchu style, raw-ish in production in the spirit of the turn they made on 2014’s Gigantoid (review here) but wanting nothing for fullness of tone or emphatic groove.

It’s after “Destroyin’ Light” that an intended twist comes as “Lifetime Waiting” takes hold for the start of the second LP. Hill‘s stated purpose was to put the faster material first and then follow with a set of slower songs, each on its own platter, each like a short album unto itself. It doesn’t quite work out that way listening through — that is, it’s not so black and white between one and the other — as “Haze the Hides” digs in after “Hands of the Zodiac” or “The Return of Tomorrow” regrounds the proceedings following the Southern-rock-informed jammer “What I Need,” but one would hardly hold some display of dynamic against the band. It’s true the longest songs, “What I Need” (5:54) and “Solar Baptized” (6:00), both appear in the second half of the tracklisting, and while the penultimate “Liquify” bases itself around a funky start-stop riff, the lead flourish from Balch touches on psychedelia as it moves toward the end and the mellower instrumental vibing of “High Tide,” which closes in subdued, jammy fashion. So the listener can hear the one-to-the-other-type intention brought to bear in the songs themselves.

Mission accomplished? Yeah, at least mostly. Listening front-to-back, there is definitely a sense of expanding the reach as “Lifetime Waiting” gives over to “Solar Baptized,” but honestly, it’s all still Fu Manchu, and Fu Manchu wouldn’t be likely to put out a record at this point that wasn’t. That is to say, they know who they are and what they’re about, and while their songwriting has grown over the last three-plus decades and various productions have pushed them either toward largesse or a more stage-minded sound — The Return of Tomorrow leans toward the latter, which suits both the fast and slow material — taken as a whole, these songs aren’t trying to reinvent Fu Manchu 34 years later. You wouldn’t have asked Slayer not to be Slayer, or you wouldn’t tell Tony Iommi not to riff on a record.

To expect Fu Manchu to suddenly shift their entire approach when they’ve never shown any real interest in doing so would be ridiculous. Part of what makes The Return of Tomorrow work so well is the immediate familiarity of its hooks, with even the hard-hitting “Dehumanize” and “Haze the Hides” as a salve for tumultuous years, and the band can only be called correct to revel in that. Are they playing to audience? Maybe, but isn’t that also part of who they are as a band, writing a fresh batch of songs to take on the road for the next however long? Whether it’s two LPs or one, and even with the quirky construction — which is no less a showcase of the band’s persona than Hill‘s delivery of the title-line in “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine,” to be sure — The Return of Tomorrow celebrates Fu Manchu‘s context and their ability to make whatever they want to do fit with it. “High Tide” doesn’t conform to expectation in the same way as “Destroyin’ Light,” and “Solar Baptized” is downright expansive set next to “(Time Is) Pulling You Under,” which is a little over two minutes long and charged enough that the lines of the verse seem to interrupt each other on the way to Balch‘s next casually-shredded transitional solo.

The lesson here is probably that Fu Manchu can do whatever they want and make it work, even if part of that ambition is in maintaining the signature aspects of their broadly influential take on heavy rock and roll. At no point — even “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine” — do they slip into caricature, and their self-awareness becomes a strength as most of the material feels like it was made specifically for the stage and songs take different routes to get where they’re going. But it’s Fu Manchu, so yes, the songs are going, and the energy with which they do so is very much their own. Comforting even in its brashest moments, The Return of Tomorrow draws strength from self-awareness and dares some breadth around the central take reaffirmed by each chorus repeating in your head once it’s over. It wouldn’t be summertime without Fu Manchu.

Fu Manchu, “Hands of the Zodiac” visualizer

Fu Manchu on Facebook

Fu Manchu on Instagram

Fu Manchu on Bandcamp

Fu Manchu website

You couldn’t stop Fu Manchu if you wanted to, and for the life of me, why on earth would you try? The long-tenured fuzz heroes of San Clemente, California, have spent the last couple years embroiled in a celebration of their 30th anniversary that got derailed by a global pandemic but still resulted in three EPs coming out, reissuing past outings through their own At the Dojo Records imprint — they’ve got a snazzy and limited 2LP of 2004’s Go for It… Live! up for preorder now in addition to the new studio album that’s the impetus for this post — releasing the Live at Roadburn 2003 live LP and taking on not a small amount of touring.

All of this is in addition to guitarist Bob Balch branching out with multiple other projects — Big Scenic Nowhere, Yawning Balch, Slower, etc. — drummer Scott Reeder releasing his own solo debut under the moniker Jacket Thief and bassist Brad Davis collaborating with Andrew Giacumakis, formerly of Moab and a producer on Fu Manchu‘s last two albums, 2014’s Gigantoid (review here) and 2018’s Clone of the Universe (review here), as Gods of Sometimes, whose 2023 self-titled debut I sure hope gets a follow-up at some point or other.

Last week, the band put up a teaser video of a spinning test pressing, noted the approval of same, and began teasing the proverbial ‘big news.’ Today brings that news, of the next Fu Manchu album, a 2LP based around distinctions between faster and slower material (I love Slowmanchu), and as the outfit founded and fronted by guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill unveil the first single “Hands of the Zodiac” from the new record, titled The Return of Tomorrow, which like Clone of the Universe was captured at The Racket Room by Jim Monroe, their punk-born immediacy, trademark groove and swing feel well intact.

You’ll also note two European tours being announced today, for summer and the coming autumn. They’d been previously confirmed for Keep it Low in Munich and Desertfest Belgium, so the tour isn’t necessarily a surprise, but while you’re getting your preorder together, it’s something else to keep in mind.

But first, the track, which is at the bottom of this post, along with the most recent Fu30 EP, basically for the hell of it. If you dig heavy rock and roll at all, from any point in history, and you’ve never gotten into Fu Manchu — that person exists — today is as good a day as any, and any day that brings new Fu is a good day. Album’s out June 14.

Enjoy:

SoCal Rock Giants FU MANCHU Announce New Double Album, ‘The Return of Tomorrow,’ Coming June 14th

Album preorder: https://hifi247.com/collections/fu-manchu

Stream “Hands of the Zodiac”: https://lnk.to/FuManchu_HandsOfTheZodiac

European tour info & tickets: https://www.fu-manchu.com/

Groundbreaking pioneers of SoCal desert rock FU MANCHU, have announced details of their forthcoming, 14th album, The Return of Tomorrow, which will be released on June 14th via the band’s label At The Dojo Records.

FU MANCHU’s follow up to the critically lauded Clone of the Universe (2018) and their first ever double album is a sonic journey through massively heavy riffage, otherworldly space jams and mellow rock anthems divided into two records.

A 4,000 unit limited edition double vinyl version of The Return of Tomorrow pressed at 45RPM and packaged in a glossy gatefold jacket with one “Space” colored LP and one “Sky” colored LP is available now for pre-order with an exclusive merch design here: https://lnk.to/FuManchu_HandsOfTheZodiac

Commenting on the impending record, founding guitarist and vocalist Scott Hill says:

“When I listen to music, it’s either all heavy stuff with no mellow stuff mixed in or just softer stuff with no heavy stuff. I know a lot of bands like to mix it up and we have done that before, but I always tend to listen to all of one type of thing or the other. So, I figured we should do a double record with 7 heavy fuzzy songs on one record and the other record 6 mellow(er) songs fully realizing that maybe I’m the only person that likes to listen to stuff that way. We kept both the records to around 25-30 minutes each as to make it a full length release, but not have each record be too long. We don’t write a lot of mellow(er) stuff in Fu Manchu, but a lot of the riffs worked minus the fuzz. If you’re a vinyl person, both records are pressed at 45rpm to give it the best sound quality. If you’re a digital person, can make your own playlist and mix both the records together.”

Today, the band reveals the album’s artwork, track list and first single, “Hands of the Zodiac,” a heavy, fuzzed out jam replete with scorching guitar solos meant to be cranked at maximum volume.

Adding about the single, Hill sates:

“‘Hands Of The Zodiac’ is about an astrologer friend of mine who would always ask if we wanted to know anything about our future whenever we would hang out. He would look to the stars at night and ramble off all these weird predictions, none of which ever came true. He would say ‘zodiac hands’ and face the palm of his hand at you. I would always try to remember the things he said and almost every line in the song is something he said. For example, ‘Wheels / Motion / So Impressed,’ is based on how he talked about my writing songs / practicing / touring with the band ( ‘you got those wheels in motion)’ and Fu Manchu’s accomplishments (‘so impressed.’) I guess I should have given him a writing credit.”

Tracklist:
1. Dehumanize
2. Loch Ness Wrecking Machine
3. Hands of the Zodiac
4. Haze the Hides
5. Roads of the Lowly
6. (Time Is) Pulling You Under
7. Destroyin’ Light
8. Lifetime Waiting
9. Solar Baaptized
10. What I Need
11. The Return of Tomorrow
12. Liquify
13. High Tide

Also announced today, FU MANCHU will embark on European tours in June and October, including performances at festivals Graspop Metal Meeting, Copenhell and Hellfest. All upcoming tour dates listed below. Tickets available at https://www.fu-manchu.com/tour-dates.

FU MANCHU Tour Dates:
May 18 – Vancouver, BC – Modified Ghost 2024
June 15 – Tampere, FI – Tavara-asema
June 17 – Stockholm, SE – Slaktkyrkan
June 18 – Oslo, NO – Vulkan Arena
June 19 – Malmo, SE – Plan B
June 21 – Dessel, BE – Graspop Metal Meeting
June 22 – Copenhagen, DK – Copenhell
June 24 – Osnabruck, DE – Lagerhalle
June 25 – Cologne, DE – Stollwerck
June 26 – Frankfurt, DE – Batschkapp
June 28 – Clisson, FR – Hellfest (Valley Stage)
Oct 12 – Munich, DE – Keep It Low Festival @ Backstage
Oct 13 – Berlin, DE – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest @ Huxleys
Oct 15 – Vienna, AT – Arena
Oct 16 – Aarau, CH – KIFF
Oct 18 – Luxembourg City, LU – Atelier
Oct 19 – Antwerp, BE – Desertfest Belgium
Oct 21 – Manchester, UK – O2 Ritz
Oct 22 – Bristol, UK – Marble Factory
Oct 23 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom
Oct 25 – Masstricht, NL – Musiekgeiterj
Oct 26 – Hamburg, DE – Lazy Bones Festival @ Markthalle
Oct 27 – Dresden, DE – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest @ Chemiefabrik

Fu Manchu are:
Scott Hill – vocals guitar
Bob Balch – Lead guitar / backing vocals
Brad Davis – Bass – Backing vocals
Scott Reeder – Drums / Backing Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/FuManchuBand
https://www.instagram.com/fumanchuband
https://fumanchuband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.fu-manchu.com/

Fu Manchu, “Hands of the Zodiac” visualizer

Fu Manchu, Fu30 Pt. 3 EP (2023)