Fu Manchu is a Southern Californian stoner rock band, who released their debut single "Kept Between Trees" in 1990. Rolling Stone describes their sound as: "Super heavy and bass happy Detroit rock 'n' roll is totally deep-fried, fuzzed out, window breakin', pot sellin', sleepin-in-the-van, skater metal."
The lyrics on Fu Manchu's releases tend to stick to the topics of pinball, muscle cars, UFOs/ Bigfoot, and skateboarding. They have been featured on compilations put together by Tony Hawk and ESPN's X Games, invited to perform on the US television program Monster Garage, and featured in the documentary about skateboarding's founding crews, Dogtown and Z-Boys.
Fu Manchu originally formed in 1987 as a hardcore punk band called Virulence. Their primary influences were the bands Black Flag and Bl'ast. The line up was vocalist Ken Pucci, guitarist Scott Hill, bassist Greg McCaughey, and drummer Ruben Romano. In 1989 they released their debut LP If This Isn't a Dream... on Alchemy Records. In 1990, Pucci left the band and was replaced by vocalist Glen Chivens and they changed their name to Fu Manchu. Soon after they released the "Kept Between Trees" 7 inch single on Slap A Ham Records. On this record, Fu Manchu still exhibited much of the hardcore sound established by Virulence. However, the band soon began to drift away from hardcore and towards a more 1970s hard rock style. McCaughey was not pleased with this, as he regarded this move to be following a trend; the Sub Pop record label was at the peak of its underground success at this time, and many of their bands were known for having a similar 70s rock sound. McCaughey left the band and was replaced by Mark Abshire. Chivens also left the band around this time for unknown reasons. Rather than bring in a new vocalist, Scott Hill added lead vocalist to his guitar duties. To compensate, Scott Votaw was recruited as lead guitarist. In 1992, Fu Manchu released three 7 inch singles: "Senioritis," "Pick Up Summer," and "Don't Bother Knockin' (If This Vans Rockin')." In 1993, Votaw left the band and was replaced by former Olive Lawn drummer Eddie Glass.