Fu Manchu 'Bionic Astronautics' -- Song Premiere

Posted on Sep 21st 2009 1:00PM by Amy Sciarretto Comments

Fuzz rock icons Fu Manchu are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year! While most bands don't last a half a decade, Fu have managed to enjoy two fruitful decades of distortion-heavy stoner rock. Vocalist and riff specialist Scott Hill is pretty blown away by his own longevity!

"I can't believe it's been 20 years, either," Hill told Noisecreep. "There are no secrets to doing this for so long. I just love to play music live and loud! It still remains as fun as ever." The band will release its new album, 'Signs of Infinite Power,' for Century Media on Oct. 20. We've got the exclusive premiere of the lead track, 'Bionic Astronautics' right here, so crank it.

Hill said the album was recorded entirely live, with all four members of Fu Manchu in the same small room "with very few overdubs and lots of fuzz guitar. This is the sound that I've been trying to get for a while now, which is not a big huge 'roomy sound,' but closer to old punk and hardcore from the early '80s that I grew up listening to and still listen to daily. The record has lots of tempo shifts, some weird breaks, stops and starts and [guitarist] Bob [Balch] doing a lot of cool sounding effects on guitar, [Scott] Reeder doing some of the best drum beats I've heard him play, and Brad [Davis] always adding great bass lines."

Listen to 'Bionic Astronautics'

While the band's trademark riffs, which can alter your state of consciousness, remain the key component of Fu's sound, Hill also retreated to outer space for the lyrics, metaphorically speaking. "I'm a huge sci-fi, UFO, cover-up fan so most of the lyrics relate to that," Hill said. "We also recorded a cover song, 'Beach Blanket Bongout' by the band JFA, which will be released on a seven inch that we will sell on tour. We tweaked the song a lot but you can still tell what's up."

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