AsianKungFuGen

Asian Kung Fu Generation

They throw their own annual arena festivals, they look like button down rock and roll geeks rather than the anime super heroes their name suggests, and they’re the darling of the Japanese music industry’s record release cycle. They are: Asian Kung-Fu Generation.

Asian Kung-Fu Generation will make their third appearance at Fuji Rock Festival this year, and it’s telling that there is not a lot of hyperbole and “OhmygodIgottaseethem!” fanfare surrounding their appearance . When I mention AKFG on the Green Stage to my friends here, even my Japanese friends shrug it off with an “Oh yeah? That’s neat.”

Counter that with a mention of, say, Boom Boom Satellites, and those same friends are like: “Fuck yeah, man!”

Funny – considering “Ajikan” (as they are known to fans) have gone from small Yokohama locals to one of the biggest selling rock acts in Japan.

And maybe that’s the key: while they may be big, they certainly don’t act like “rawk stars” or contrived “out there” Japanese pop artists, especially considering their label, Tofu Records, is also home to the aforementioned Boom Boom Satellites, as well as L’Arc en Ciel, X Japan and Puffy AmiYumi.

They played the Green Stage on Friday afternoon at Fuji Rock in 2006, and while I had been looking forward to their set (mostly because their label had produced a web site with English translations of their songs, see: Tongue Fu), it was a pretty low key affair, punctuated with a lot of mumbling and heartfelt thanks from the stage courtesy singer-guitar player Masafumi Goto. In this day of big stage egos, their mild mannered guitar pop was humbling, self-deprecating and endearing.

Really, from seeing them play you wouldn’t guess that they throw their own annual two-day extravaganza called “Nano Mugen Festival” at Yokohama Arena – one of the biggest venues in Japan. A yearly bash where they simply invite friends to come play with them: friends like Manic Street Preachers, Ben Folds, Nada Surf, Hard-Fi, Third Eye Blind (also on the bill this year), Stereophonics and Ash (also on the bill this year) and rock out for a weekend. You wouldn’t guess that they were the headliner’s guest of choice on the 2008 Japan Weezer Fest or that they were the opening act for Oasis and, in fact, like the Gallagher brothers.

By all accounts, they really are just low key guys, or at least according to the “onigiri rider” report in The Guardian, anyway.

As with most products of the Japanese music industry, theirs is a life of incessant releases of singles, with the label trying to squeeze every last ounce of blood from the stone by releasing half a dozen singles or more in the lead up to dropping a full length album. I know they’ve released six albums (I quite liked mid-naughties releases Sol-fa and Fanclub), but I don’t even want to count the number of singles floating around record stores and bookshelves – I’ll leave that estimate to a competent fan. Their latest album, Magic Disc, was just released this month.

Catch Asian Kung-Fu Generation on Sunday night on the Green Stage.

“Rewrite” (from Full Metal Alchemist, for you anime fans) with sub-titles:

And something newer, “Fujisawa Loser” for all you Shonan slackers (like me):