Fu Manchu concert preview I wrote for my local newspaper

Over the 17 years that Fu Manchu lead vocalist/guitarist Scott Hill and his band have been recording distortion-charged hard rock, their music has been described in colorful, though sometimes baffling ways.

"The latest thing we've been called is 'desert rock,' which I don't understand," Hill said in a phone conversation from a tour stop in Denver, Colo. "I mean, we live by the beach."

Fu Manchu perform at Huntington's MonkeyBar, located at 611 4th Avenue, on Tuesday, March 27. Opening acts include Valiant Thor, Seamless, the Black Knots, and A Place of Solace.

Desert rock is a descriptive label attached to hard rock bands hailing from southern California's Palm Desert Scene. Acts like Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, and mid-1980s d-rock forefathers Yawning Man are mostly associated with the dry, grinding sound.

To further muddy the issue, Fu Manchu's home base of San Clemente, Calif., a stone's throw from the Pacific Ocean, is also a 2-hour drive from the Palm Desert scene.

"We don't worry too much about labels though," Hill elaborated. "'Desert rock' 'Fuzz-rock,' 'skater metal,' 'stoner rock' – we've been hearing that last one for what seems like forever – we've never been into using labels to sell our music. We hope people don't buy one of our albums based solely on a label they read about in a magazine review, but that's out of our control."

Hill actually got his start in a band called Virulence in southern California's thriving hardcore punk scene in 1987. Though short-lived, the band plowed through Black Flag and B'last-inspired punk rock until fizzling out in 1990.

"I saw B'last for the first time in 1985, and I was floored," Hill recalled. "I'd never heard of them, but they were added to the bill to replace an opening band that canceled that night. They had these huge black amps onstage, clear Plexiglas Armstrong guitars, and they were so loud, heavy, and fast. I hadn't heard anything like that since Black Flag."

In 1990, following the departure of Virulence co-founding member Ken Pucci, Hill and his remaining bandmates changed their name to Fu Manchu and recorded briefly in the same hardcore vein.

By 1992, in need of a fresh change, Fu Manchu left behind much of their punk roots and pursued a heavy, '70s mainstream rock-inspired sonic brew on three 7-inch singles "Senioritis," "Pick Up Summer," and "Don't Bother Knockin' (If This Van's Rockin')."

It was this early amalgamation of punk and hard rock that the band would craft into a signature sound.

"I've always thought we sounded more like a combination of old hardcore punk and ZZ Top," Hill said. "We hear a lot of comparisons to Black Sabbath, but I don't think we sound like them. If people think so, that's fine, but I wouldn't consider them an influence."

All descriptions aside, Fu Manchu's latest album "We Must Obey" (Liquor and Poker/ Century Media Records) is one of the heavier, darker-themed albums in the band's extensive catalog.

"It wasn't so much a conscious effort to make the album more aggressive than albums we've done in the past, but it turned out that way," Hill said. "Also, the tone of the record, including the lyrics, is a little darker than our previous material. It was a very easy album to write and record."

Hill elaborated on the band's darker themes this go-round:

"The title of the record is an attack on people who like to tell us what we can and can't get away with," Hill said. "There's a theme about how people can selfishly try to tell you what you can do, thinking they have your best interests in mind, but actually they have the opposite."

Always the road dogs, Fu Manchu will continue their current American tour through mid-April. After a two-week layoff, they will embark on a month-long European jaunt before returning stateside for even more touring.