Fu Manchu : California Crossing

So in case you were still unaware of Fu Manchu's unchallenged status as the
most genetically perfect, slacker-Utopia stoner rock band alive, the sleeve
of their fifth LP nails it once more. A surfboard pokes out the back of a
customised Chevy as two tanned 'chicks' loiter seductively; you can feel
your hair getting longer while looking at this. Brilliantly, 'California
Crossing' sounds as its artwork looks.


Accordingly, it sounds virtually identical to every single thing they've
ever done. And no Fu Manchu fan would want it any other way. It's 40
unwavering minutes of AC/DC-ZZ Top-Mudhoney chemical mutation rock called
things like 'Ampn'' and 'The Wasteoid'.


Subject matter this time around consists of - in rough order - aliens,
bikes, cars, skateboards, bikes and skateboards. The crux of the issue
being, of course, that Scott Hill could be drawling the ingredients on the
back of a Coke can and it would still encapsulate a probably non-existent
mid-'70s golden era.


Quite why anyone needs five Fu Manchu records is a moot point, but this
is as good a place to start as any. They are the stoned Ramones, a matey
Motorhead: a band who can rewrite that album into the infinite future and
rule perpetually.


Noel Gardner