Fu Manchu, The Action is Go (1997)

If you’re gonna start something — a year, for example — you might as well do it right, so yeah, it’s Fu Manchu‘s 1997 fourth album, The Action is Go. And so it was. Arriving just a year after their landmark third outing, In Search Of…, The Action is Go marked the beginning of a new era for the SoCal fuzz progenitors, who had in the time between the two records traded out guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano for Bob Balch and Brant Bjork, respectively.

That’s no minor switch. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue it’s a pivotal moment in the development of American heavy rock in the mid and late ’90s. That sounds like hyperbole, but I don’t think it is. Glass and Romano would go on to form Nebula, whose first EP surfaced in ’98 and who went on to have a significant impact on the US and European stoner and heavy psych scenes in the ’00s until dissolving in 2010. Romano can currently be found in The Freeks, while Glass is MIA. Meanwhile, for Brant Bjork — who had produced Fu Manchu‘s 1994 debut, No One Rides for Free — filling the drummer role was his first solid gig since his departure from Kyuss, and it was a position he’d hold until 2001’s California Crossing, only four years but also three records later, also releasing the debut from Ché and his first solo record, Jalamanta, in the meantime. And as for Balch, well, his lead work and style of play has become an institution in and of itself and is as integral to Fu Manchu‘s sound as the riffs and attitude-dripping vocal style of guitarist Scott Hill or the density of Brad Davis‘ bass. Fu Manchu‘s with-Balch discography — records like The Action is Go, 1999’s Eatin’ Dust, 2000’s King of the Road, 2001’s California Crossing, all the way up to last year’s stellar Gigantoid (review here) — reads like a riff-lover’s dream playlist, and Fu Manchu simply wouldn’t be who they are today without him.

So yeah, The Action is Go was a very important time for US heavy rock, but I doubt it would be half as much so if the record itself didn’t kick so much ass. From “Evil Eye” down through “Laserbl’ast” and “Saturn III,” it’s the kind of album that feels so much of its place and time — its fisheye-lens cover photo of a late-’70s skater dude is almost too perfect — that it manages to translate that atmosphere even going on 18 years later. I know I’ve written about The Action is Go a lot over the years. A live clip of “Evil Eye” was one of the first week-closers I ever did. But it’s one of those albums that, well, if you like stuff that doesn’t suck, it’s worth going back to over and over. I’ve yet to not have my ass kicked by it.

Happy New Year, and enjoy.

—

Please note, this isn’t actually the close of the week since at midnight I’m premiering a new video from When the Deadbolt Breaks. No, it’s not the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’ll all make sense later.

No New Year’s resolutions for me. Not that I couldn’t stand some self-improvement on any number of fronts — intellectual, physical, spiritual, sarcasm-mitigation — just that tying such things to days of the week has always seemed silly. If it’s your bag, good luck. Enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something good for yourself — at least that’s usually how resolutions go; I don’t think anyone ever resolved to start smoking — while I’m still the same jerk I’ve always been. This guy in his frickin’ pajamas talking about riffs all day.

Oh yeah, and by the way, I wrote 50 fucking reviews this week. Five. Zero. Fifty. That’s one more than 49! The stack of discs on my desk? Demolished. It was a god damned thrill. I don’t know what the previous record was, but I beat it.

Gonna try to establish some post-holiday normalcy this coming week. Monday I’ve got a track stream from Spidergawd going up, and I want to get back to the stack of vinyl waiting for writeups. I’m pretty burnt out on lists, and after doing all those shorter reviews this week I feel like I’m ready to tackle something like the new Colour Haze, so I’ll do that sometime before next Friday. And despite being burnt out on lists, I’ll be continuing to put together my 2015-most-anticipated assemblage, which at this point is up over 70 entries. Not sure yet how I’m going to organize it, but it’ll be week after next anyway. Need to catch my breath a little.

Before I roll out, thanks to everyone again for checking out the best of 2014 coverage, be it the top 30, the Readers Poll, short releases list, debuts list, or whatever. I had more I wanted to do, but I think it might be time to let it go, save it for this Dec., and start looking forward instead. But especially with Facebook deciding all my posts don’t backtrack anymore to the Like button on this page (a more significant source of stress for me this week than it should have been), I appreciate you checking stuff out and sharing links, etc. That means a lot to me.

Hope you dig the Fu Manchu, hope you had a great New Year’s, hope you check out the forum and radio stream, and hope to see you back here at midnight for that Deadbolt video and on Monday. Cheers.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio