Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

Damon Wilson and Japanese Native Taka Hirose of Feeder

Feeder have been playing with a string of drummers-for-hire since founding drummer Jon Lee tragically took his own life in early 2002. They’ve certainly got a good one right now; Dmon Wilson is about the closest I’ve seen to Dave Grohl since Dave Grohl himself. Sandwiched between floor toms with hair flailing wildly, I reckon he gets at least 40% of the credit for all the raised fists and banging heads Feeder inspired right from the start.

But band themselves, singer/guitarist Grant Nicholas and bassist Taka Hirose are no slouches either. Sure Nicholas is a fine singer and songwriter, but that doesn’t necessarily buy you a good live show. Late 90’s grunge inflected British rock is a tough sell for me these days. I spent a decade where grungey rock was about all I listened to, and I’ve been moving on of late. I was pleasantly surprised by the tunefulness of Feeder’s records when I gave a listen earlier this week, expecting another group of slouches, but on tape I reckon they never surpassed the song “High” off their first record, as good a use of the four grunge chords as ever there has been. But live, they are a whole nuther band, one of the best of the genre I’ve heard. The sound pressure down front at the Green Stage was intense (perfect mix), and Feeder were tight, feeding the crowd with a confident generosity.

Nicholas exudes the attitude of a man who appreciates Continue Reading…

Shugo Tokumaru

Tokumaru came to Fuji this year with a six-piece band, up two from his last stint in 2008. Although he had a bigger stage to fill (White, 12:50pm), I’m not convinced the way he filled it was the right way.

Gone is the menagerie of toys filling out his arrangements; now we get two slightly eccentric percussionists, one with (small) kick, snare and floor tom even, an electric bass, and Shugo on hollow-bodied electric guitar. This standard-fare instrumental line-up brings his major key shout-alongs to a sort of sameness with other acts. The full chords strummed on the hollow body in particular seem to overpower the subtlety of some of the other instruments. He’s got an accordionist in the back, but the arrangements aren’t built around her. His sole remaining concession to the sort of happy-day eccentricity he started his career with is the glockenspiel ringing out airy melodies above everything.

He did bust out the ukulele for a cover of “Video Killed The Radio Star” (pretty rough on the pronunciation there) and for the set closer, which opened up a little more space, but Continue Reading…

Purported shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr started their set with country picking, the song “People Are Crazy” by Billy Currington. Played it over the PA (I thought this was a novel way to start a set yesterday at Best Coast, but apparently everyone is doing it). I’d never heard it, but I bought it as soon as I got back to my computer. Makes me wish we could have more country here. This was surely meant to signify their hometown, Austin, TX, and the cultural stew they came from. It could have been ironic, but my money is on them really liking the song. They bust in with their wall of dreamy feedback just as he was singing “God is great, beer is good”, which is before “people are crazy”.

They’re a lot bouncier than I would have expected from their shoegaze tag. Drummer Daniel Coborn is really propulsive. And they put off a positive vibe; not effusive like the also fresh-faced Funeral Party yesterday, just…deeply satisfied with life. And I think they’re in the running for most attractive band of the fest. Leader Elliot Frazier stays pretty quiet, hiding his angelic face behind a mop of hair (he did bust out some gambatta’d Japanese, rough but serviceable) and bassist/guitarist Alex Gehring is positively beatific–one fan shouted “I love you”, and I think he spoke for everyone. She replied with Continue Reading…

If Tjiros didn’t actually exist, no one would ever think to invent them. A Japanese woman who sings in the absolutely hands-down dirtiest blues wail I’ve ever heard, and then tears up some heavy stringed baritone electric guitar solos to boot. The fellow plays a Paul McCartney bass. I was excited to see Odouro Matilda earlier, who I compared to a Japanese Tom Waits, but he was Steve Perry compared to Tjiros. If the two of them sang together though you could cut enough wood to build a tree house. I’m wondering if she had to actually drink 200 gallons of Jack Daniels and smoke 2000 cases of Marlboro Reds to get that voice, or if she was just born with it.

Naeba Shokudo, 11:50 pm. Faces had been over for 45 minutes, and the DJs were thumping at the Red Marquee. She drew a pretty good crowd to start, but that voice pulled in anyone within a 100 meter radius like a deathstar tracktor beam. Anyone who didn’t just break out laughing, that is. If they did, screw them; Tjiros (promounced T-Jiros) is the real deal. She moves and mugs with Brian Setzer attitude when she’s playing, but that didn’t stop the woman next to me from muttering “kawaii” (cute) when she started talking. She’s got a genuine sweetness (not the of the typical treacly Japanese variety) about her that is the perfect balance to her buzzsaw voice. I’d stop to listen to her any time, any place. I really wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.

-Kern

photo by 横山正人. more here

Ronnie Wood. Now *That's* A Face If Ever There Was One.

For my money, Faces were an almost ideal act to headline the Green stage: a band I was eager to see, and a big heap of nobody waiting to see them. Seriously, I’ve rarely seen the Green Stage that empty at 3:30pm on Friday afternoon, let alone for Saturday night’s headliner. I arrived late, and went straight for the pole position in front of the sound booth. Not like Oasis in ‘09, where my late arrival required me to shove in front of hundreds of very grumpy people who had been waiting hours in the rain, and where my fresh-from-indoors enthusiasm got me on the shit list of dozens of people I will never meet again.

I do say “almost” though, because in that ideal world the crowd would have filled in around me as the show progressed, and we would have ended in the usual huge Green Stage Saturday night love orgy. But that resolutely did not happen. I put the attendance at about 1/3 of the average Green Stage headliner, 1/5 of what the Chili Peppers pulled in a few years back. There were wide open spaces in front of the sound booth the entire show, and you could have had a nice game of footie in the mud next to it. Only advantage: it was easy to keep slipping out for more beers. This is blooze rock after all. (This would prove detrimental to the rest of my evening though.)

Not that any of the Faces or their recent additions noticed. Mick Hucknall, in place of Rod Stewart, greeted the crowd with “L’layalilrah’rol’eh?!!!”, which is how they said “Let’s play a little rock and roll, eh?” in the 1970s. I came into this with a very open mind, hoping that Hucknall would tear it up, and in truth the man did a stand-up job. But as soon as he opened up to sing the first song, “Miss Judy”, the feeling was unmistakable: “dang, I miss Rod”. You can imagine how bad that makes a man feel, to realize he is missing Rod Stewart. But the guy is one of the best-selling artists of all time for a reason: Continue Reading…

I called him the Japanese Tom Waits based on the video I saw, and live at the Gypsy Avalon (4pm Saturday) this didn’t seem too far off. Upright bass, accordian, small percussive-toned acoustic guitar, 1920s sounding music, and some extremely grizzled vocals–he sounds the way Bruce sounds when he’s straining (the “boooorn” in “boooorn in the U.S.A.”), only all the time–the crowd that had shown up even before the first song suggests a devoted following.

And from what I heard, he’s earned it. I often dislike music sung in Japanese, and I think this may reflect my deep and long-standing standing hate/hate relationship with the language (OK, there’s a little love in there too; it’s like a hate sandwich), but I kind of love the way this guys sings. And old-timey acoustic is always a good way to mellow out of an afternoon at Rock festival. Continue Reading…

Best Coast started their set with California Girls. I mean they played the record. They didn’t cover it, they just played the record. Bandleader Bethany Cosentino is a California girl, and she conceived of Best Coast while living in New York and dreaming of California, so it makes sense. I dig.

I predicted, and it came true, that the Red Marquee would be too dark and stuffy to host the sunny lovelorn surf garage of Best Coast. I also think the sound is crap there, but in this I might be alone. I was disappointed with the way Naked And Famous came off there just prior to Best Coast, but Dave and Phil both loved it, and Phil didn’t even like the record. Still, I’d like to have heard more presence in the guitars for Best Coast; they should cut through like a razor (a big reverb drenched razor) to really get the energy up. (I griped about this a few years ago with Maximo Park).

The flagging energy infected the crowd. People had been fists in the air right away for Naked And Famous, but happy as everyone was to see Best Coast, it didn’t translate into much action. “Bratty B” (a personal favorite) three songs in did get some reaction, as did of course “Boyfriend” and “When I’m With You”, but nobody was cutting loose the way they would have if Continue Reading…

I was kind of down on Funeral Party after my fest preview a few weeks ago. I like their sounds, but they don’t really seem to be about anything other than themselves. Remind me of Third Eye Blind like that. Funeral party are young though, so they’ve got a couple more years to shoot for redemption. (Third Eye Blind are ruined for life, but I still like their first album.)

But Funeral Party make good record, and I was pleased to find they also make good live. Alfredo Ortiz is a monster on the drums, all heart and muscle, with a musical ear. Perfect for their high-energy dance rock. I felt his energy on the album, but I thought it might have been a trick of production. Nope. Lead singer Chad Elliott too is a monster, screaming till his veins pop and giving the mic the old caress me down. A lot of it is Jesus Christ posing (not literally, but that’s the gist of it) and there’s more than a hint of adolescent awkwardness in the way he moves, but it still energized me. Plus, he’s Continue Reading…

A couple months ago I wrote extensively on what I hoped to hear at Jamie XX’s 2:15 am Friday night/Saturday morning Red Marquee set: lot’s of the off-kilter shuffles he demonstrated mastery of in his two great remixes, the xx/Florence And The Machine’s “You’ve Got The Love” and Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”.

I got a bit of that at the start. None of the complex shuffles of those remixes, but the beats were definitely off-kilter, alternate snares and kicks dropping a few fractions of a beat off. I thought it was grooving, but most people just seemed bored or confused. The Red Marquee at this point was about as empty as I’ve ever seen it, with most people either out at the Palace Of Wonder (epic back-to-back Manu Chao and Obrint Pas sets at the Crystal Palace) or at the other DJ party way out at Orange Court, All Night Fuji.

Maybe he always does this, or maybe he just decided to give in, but as soon as he dropped the four on the floor Continue Reading…

With the recent soul-music revival, courtesy in large part to Amy Winehouse, actual soul legends have probably seen their currency rise a bit in value. (Just in time to offset the toilet paper they carry around in their wallets called $USD). Sam Moore of Sam & Dave fame is ripe for such an honor, and he plied his trade at Orange court 7:30pm on Friday.

He employs a pretty standard issue soul-revue band these days, four-piece baby-boomer horn section, four mostly younger female backup vocalists, and bass, drums, guitar, keys. The band vamped for two numbers alone, the second the theme to Peter Gunn, and then the four female back-up vocalists came on and one of them sang “Hold On”, as in “Hold On, Sam’s coming”. Which he did, about 15 minutes after the start. A real show-biz entrance.

Sam (75 and 10.5 months old) positively shuffled out when his time finally came. A purplish houndstooth jacket paid equal homage to soul flash and graceful aging, but it was left wide open over a cheap t-shirt. His Sam & Dave tenor is still in good shape though, and he flashes about the biggest smile you can imagine, non-stop the entire show. Very happy indeed, he kept Continue Reading…

Panic's Epic Lead Guitarist Jimmy Herring

I once had a step sister and friend (may she rest in peace) who was one of those who followed Widespread Panic all over the country. She had never done so for Phish or the Grateful Dead, though she’d probably seen them; no, Panic was her obsession of choice, the hook on which she hung her peripatetic hippie lifestyle.

Such devotion. At the Field Of Heaven Friday night, there wasn’t exactly a huge crowd waiting for this their first ever show in Japan (just a couple dozen pushed together at the front, and gaggle of others scattered about the grounds), but the ones who did show up engaged in a lot more pre-show “let’s-get-it-on” shouting than is usual, and this was even before their scheduled start time of 9:00. Then there’s this fellow who came from Vegas just for these shows. And Phil said there was a group of six Americans who stood behind him at Amadou and Mariam and just talked about Widespread Panic the entire time. Pissed him right off. All of this has sent me on a quest to find an answer to the question: Continue Reading…

Hanggai took their first of three (official) sets at the Mokudotei (boardwalk) at 1:20pm on Friday. Though they didn’t start fast, they clearly know from power. Hurizha (the imposing looking fellow on the middle right here) came out with the rest of the group and treated us to a torrent of Mongolian, never pausing to care whether anyone understood. (I believe no one did). Bandleader Yiliqi (far left) provided a halting and brief English translation, which he didn’t seem particularly keen on doing, and then they launched into their first number, a menacing multi-harmonied ballad about, yes, Ghengis Khan.

It wasn’t dance music yet, but everyone was getting walloped just the same. They gave us the slow build, earth-scorching throat singing and multi-part harmonies, ballads about great warriors and lots and lots of blood (I assume), building to perfectly controlled crescendos. Hurizha takes the duties of front man, and it’s worth noting that he’s the only one who doesn’t play an instrument, his role being limited to singing and apparently vanquishing foes. (He carries a small whip, which he lashes about, and at one point mimed shooting an arrow into the air). Batubagen is their secret weapon, though, as he is Continue Reading…

Little Tempo

Norwegian Wood was the first song they played. Well, it was an extended reggae jam, with some quotations of Norewegian Wood added to the mix. Not revolutionary, but pleasant. The next song featured an extended sax improvisation. I was expecting the steel drums to be more prominently featured, but it appears Little Tempo aren’t out to break the mold of what a steel drum fronted band would do. I counted eight musicians up on stage, and a small crowd like that can sometimes regress toward a mean.

Still pretty sparsely attended, way out at Orange at half past 3 on a Friday (Orange Court is already a bowl of mud, by the way). Put on some reggae though and you’ll always find a few people ready to throw down. The steel drums really punch things up.

-Kern

photo by Samata. more here

I Met Him In A Swamp Down In Dagobah

A certain Mr. Yaguchi with a most excellent Yoda Rucksack, spotted at the Gypsy Avalon early Friday. You put your books and things inside, which is the dark portion of it, see…

(and sometimes if space is tight, you might have to use force to get them in.)

Upendra has been to every Fuji Rock the past three years; I first saw him at Gypsy Avalon in 2009, doing the exact same thing he did this year, which is busy funk jazz bass, wooden flute, some tasty tablas and electric piano (Upendra himself). Just jamming away ten minutes at a time to a sparse crows at Gypsy Avalon (not their fault; 12:30pm on Friday.) I’m a sucker for instrumental prowess in almost any guise, and these four were quite tight and the sound was crisp. The last piece was dedicated to Tohoku.

Sunil Dev & Babu were a harder sell, tabla, flute, and droning sitar on a backing track. It was prayer-like to be sure, but by then the rain had started up in earnest, and I joined the significant portion of the rest of the crowd in their exodus.

-Kern

photo by Kitamura

Amy Winehouse in Los Angeles, 2007

They were playing “Rehab” over the PA before the first act at the White Stage (Friday morning). Nice to see homage paid, but part of me feels it’s odd to play as a tribute the song that celebrates the thing that killed her. Still, I think most artists respected her tremendously, and we expect to hear much more of this throughout the weekend. Keeping our ears peeled for tributes from the festival artists themselves.

-Kern

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons

One item missing from my list of things to look forward to: Kenney Jones’ drum solo in the Faces’ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” (from 2:30). Note for note it sounds pretty easy to play, but the ridonkulous sloppy energy and impeccable appropriateness to the song make it one of the greatest rock rawk drum solos ever put on record. It’s a genre that was never in need of any drum solos at all, but here the whole song seems to exist just to introduce it. When I started playing drums at 15, my old man (also a drummer) played this record for me. As good a case as any for the Faces still being the Faces even without their bassist/guy who sang lead sometimes (Ronnie Lane, R.I.P.) or their lead singer (Rod Stewart, D.I.P.)

Stages the size of Green are not kind to any kind of subtlety in drumming. Thank God Kenney Jones was never subtle.

-Kern

Little Tempo

Let’s start with the wealth of local (read: Japanese or other East Asian) talent I’d never heard of but who sound like nothing else I’ve ever heard.

Natsumen play triumphal orchestral pieces as funk metal without the funk, then noodle about in stop/start atonal wonder, and you know they mean every note. (Note: don’t listen to any of this crap I’m writing, just listen to the clips.) They are as early and as far away as could be, 11:30 am Friday at Orange Court.

Hanggai hail from Beijing, play Mongolian (throat singing ya’ll!), have the charisma of gypsies and the swagger of the Pogues (thanks Time Out Tokyo!), and look like they’d question your moral integrity if you didn’t dance when they played. Be awesome if they did eight shows like Räfven did in 2009, but so far only three are scheduled, Mokudotei 1:20 pm Friday, Gypsy Avalon 7:00 pm Friday, and Orange Court noon Saturday (no Crystal Palace![?]!). If the bosses would let me, I’d just follow them around the entire festival.

Little Tempo are two steel drummers fronting the band that plays when Super Mario is about to run out of time. (Seriously, don’t even listen to me. At all.) Orange Court, 3:20 pm, Friday.

(This is them fronting the band that plays when Mario is under water.)

Odoro Matilda is a Japanese 1920’s-music Tom Waits who is clearly awesome. It’s 踊ろうマチルダ, meaning “Dance Matilda”, as in “Let’s all…” 6:00 pm Saturday, Gypsy Avalon.

Tjiros are a man and a woman on guitar and bass, and the woman scream-sings at you like Janis Joplin, only much more menacing. Or possibly terrifying. Naeba Shokudo, 11:50pm Saturday.

MaNHATTAN are virtuosic organ-based space jazz with electro beats. Guaranteed impervious to Google searches forever, you’ll have to find them at Naeba Shokudo Sunday night at 10:40.

Who else? Sam Moore is the Same Sam of Sam and Dave, and though he seems to have turned into a bit of curmudgeon lately Continue Reading…

Shugo Tokumaru (a.k.a. トクマルシュゴ) and one of his four collaborators at Gypsy Avalon in 2008

According to my friend Sam from England, Shugo Tokumaru (a.k.a. トクマルシュゴ) is always the best thing on wherever he plays. He’s amazing at festivals, even when it’s pouring down rain. If he opens for another act, he goes on way too early but blows everyone else out of the water anyway.

Sam discovered him in 2008 when the buzz in the English and American press on Tokumaru was kicking into high gear with the release of his 4th album Exit, and he caught his act at Asagiri Jam in 2009. But Tokumaru started out as an American artist; his first album was only released in Japan after it had had a modicum of success in America on the Music Related label. This is all the more strange considering that he sings entirely in Japanese and lives and records in Japan.

Now he’s an indie favorite in equal measures in Japan and internationally. How did this happen? Continue Reading…

There’s just a few things I’ve decided you should know about Medi. Most of them are contained in the video above, the single from his newest album, You Got Me (Moving). The others are as follows:

Philosophically, Medi is a descendent of the Lenny Kravitz school of pop music. Like Kravitz has done on most of his records, Medi played all the instruments on his first album, 2006’s Medi And The Medicine Show. Like Kravitz, he shoots for throwback pop music using a rock-band lineup, with a warm, fat 70’s-style production. Like Kravitz, he substitutes hooks for authenticity. Like Kravitz, Christ, just look at that man’s head.

I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record comparing every new artist to directly to someone older here. So, to be fair to Medi, I should say Continue Reading…

Funeral Party At Red Marquee In 2009

Funeral Party sound almost exactly like The Rapture, but if you tell them that they will get angry at you, and swear at The Rapture. They like to tell everyone how shitty the town they came from is, the middle-class L.A. suburb of Whittier (about $20,000 richer per capita than Aberdeen, WA). Once, there was a stabbing at one of their early local house party shows, possibly gang related, the stabbee having tried to escape over the fence but not quite making it. If you ask them about this, they will kind of make fun of those people for being stupid and low-class enough to be involved in a stabbing, and will exhibit no curiosity or concern over whether the stabbee died or not.

You can make of this what you will. I’ve spent most of my life not caring much about the meaning or attitude of pop music. I mostly just like the way it sounds. I was defending “Don’t Stop Believin’” before the cast of Glee was even born, before Charlize Theron ever fantasized about being ugly, before Tony Soprano knew the meaning of the word “ambiguous”, and before Funeral Party got their first pair of gold diapers. I can tell you 10 reasons (+1 Japanese-only bonus reason) why Third Eye Blind’s debut album was one of the best of the 90’s, and I’ll just swear at you when you mock me.

Funeral Party sounds pretty damn good. They are classic FM-radio rock, updated to mimic not the Stones/Beatles/Zeppelin or Cobain/Vedder/Armstrong of their late-70’s and late-90’s forebears, but Continue Reading…

John McCrea of Cake at the Green stage in 2005

When I saw Cake do their Friday afternoon set at the Green stage in 2005, there was this douchebag down near the front in the audience who kept shouting for a song he wanted to hear (”Satan Is My Motor“, I think, which kicks ass). Bandleader John McCrea heard the plea; he stepped to the mike and in his typically droll and low-key manner told everyone “Oh no, Cake will not be taking requests today. We have carefully crafted a setlist for your maximum enjoyment.” Which is exactly what you’d expect him to say.

Okay, that douchebag was me. But I don’t do that kind of thing anymore, I swear.

Cake’s star was already waning by the time of that show, having just released their first ever purely mediocre, water-treading album in 2004, Pressure Chief. It sounded like McCrea finally got bored with his own formula. No shame in that; he had a great run. No other mere mortal could have sang the exact same “Ah yeah, alright” on every song he ever did and sold it every time. And then dared you to complain about it. Cake invented a formula and was never copied, and that’s something very few musicians can lay claim to.

The most recent album, Showroom Of Compassion, is Continue Reading…

Another personal story: I was introduced to Best Coast when a few people in my band suggested we play their song “When I’m With You”. I was charmed by it at first, and then grew to kind of love it. Much like a good wife.

I would have bet money that with a name like that they were Japanese, but 22-year old Bethany Cosetino, the songwriter, singer, and auteur behind Best Coast, is a California girl who grew up as a “show baby”, and once sang backup for some British lass on the Ellen Degeneris show when she was 16. Her dad apparently drummed for War at some point. When she moved to New York a few years ago, she kept dreaming of California anyway, and immersed herself in the sounds of the Beach Boys and the Mamas and The Papas, forming Best Coast when she got back to L.A.

She is certainly no genius of musical composition, or even all that technically proficient on an instrument, but there’s something addictive Continue Reading…

I discovered New Zealand’s The Naked And Famous when Dave played them for me in his car in Taipei. I had been thinking about MGMTs “Time To Pretend”. Great song. One of the best ever. Listened to it every day on the way home from work last week. The problem I ran into is, once you’ve set yourself up to be in the mood to listen to that song, where do you go from there? Certainly not to more MGMT. I mean, “Kids” is also great, but once you take that one-two punch, MGMT steps out of the ring. Nothing else on that album, Oracular Spectacular, even comes close. And nothing on the follow-up, Congratulations, can or should be listened to under any circumstance ever. It’s one of the few albums I’ve actively deleted from my collection, and I have like terabytes of space for this stuff. (Here’s me trying to be kind to it in my pre-fest write-up last year. Gah.)

Then I head The Naked And Famous and discovered the solution to my problem. And people on the Internet seemed to agree: if you like those two MGMT songs, you might also like The Naked And Famous. People on the Internet can be right sometimes.

They have two hits, “Young Blood” and “Punching In A Dream”, but they are not Continue Reading…

Jamie xx with the xx at FRF 2010, Red Marquee

Jamie xx was a late addition to the xx, the English indie pop band from which he took his stage name, and he didn’t even sing or act as primary songwriter for them. Yet he has become their most well-known member through a series of utterly gorgeous remixes of the xx’s and other artists’ music.

He came to Fuji last year with the band near the one-year anniversary of the release of their critically acclaimed and widely beloved debut album, though our intrepid writer seems to not have been quite in the mood for their slightly twee downerism at the time. (He’s been duly sacked. Or promoted. I’m not sure which.) This year Jamie will be warming up the Planet Groove DJ party after hours at the Red Marquee Friday night.

And what a Groovy DJ party that will be. Jamie has mastered Continue Reading…