Southern California's
Fu Manchu began crafting heavy, psychedelic-tinged rock in 1990 with their debut single, "Kept Between Trees." Throughout the early '90s the group honed their sound on similarly intense singles, and released their debut album,
No One Rides for Free, in 1994 on Bong Load Records.
Daredevil, also on Bong Load, followed in 1995. The group switched to Mammoth Records for their 1996 album
In Search Of...; the next year, founding members
Scott Hill (vocals, guitars) and
Brad Davis (bass, vocals) added lead guitarist
Bob Balch and former
Kyuss drummer
Brant Bjork to their lineup, and they released their second album for Mammoth,
The Action Is Go. During this time the group gained a reputation as a powerful live act, supporting like-minded groups like
the Melvins,
Kyuss,
White Zombie,
Monster Magnet, and
Clutch in the States, and
Corrosion of Conformity,
the Hellacopters, and
Marilyn Manson in Europe. 1998 saw the release of
Return to Earth, which collected their early singles, and the
Eatin' Dust EP, which was released by
Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin label.
Fu Manchu released their fifth full-length album,
King of the Road, in early 2000, following it up with a lengthy tour of the United States. They took time off to work on new material, emerging in the spring of 2001 with
California Crossing. As their live show neared perfection, they took an opportunity to showcase their stoner rock stage skill with 2003's
Go for It...Live! The following year they released two new studio discs,
Start the Machine and
(Godzilla's) Eatin' Dust. And in 2007 the band returned with an angrier but typically heavy album titled
We Must Obey, a sarcastic rebuttal directed toward anyone with the gall to try and push them around. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide