Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

DAYDREAMING OF PSYCHEDELIC SOFT CREAM

Way up here, the vibe is nice, high above the clouds. The sun is peeking through 3 days of overcast overhead. Luigi makes an appearance and eats a huge plastic magic mushroom. There are rainbow ice cream cones, a rock ‘n’ roll panda, lions, tigers, and bears oh my! (Seriously, human-sized.)

Don’t wake me from this trippy daydream on a mountaintop. But what put the icing on the mud cake was the full freakin’ rainbow on the Dragondola ride down! It seriously spanned the sky, arching from one pot o’ gold to the other, over peaks and a winding river. More to come on that later…

Riding the dragon up to Daydream was the best possible way I could have spent the afternoon calm, albeit raving with umbrellas at three o’clock in the afternoon, hardly the definition of calm. Yoda DJing must have covertly transferred some of his grammatical wisdom through the womping bass, as I seriously feel enlightened. Because, we may have since descended from on high, but I am still on cloud 9 and plan to ride this feeling to finish this year’s fest strong, despite my damp wooly socks. Fuji Rockin’ Rainbows of Love!

SUCKS SCREAMING DISCUSTING

A sweet new banner hangs behind drummer Sang-yun, like an alien eye half open looking at some netherworld universe, or a still half-drunk Fuji Rocker on Sunday morning, and an epic intro track plays with blue strobes blinking. This would be awesome at like 9pm tonight. Drawing an 11:30AM slot on Sunday, unless you are as well known and loved as Oh Sunshine, apparently, is a rough time. Even still the power trio gets down to business. Set starts heavy with songs off A18’s Blue Album. Thanks to the trickling rain outside, people have trickled into the Red Marquee as well. The A18 guys knew that rain would play in their favor as they don’t have a lot of name recognition in Japan yet (this ain’t Korea anymore, Dorothy).

Lead singer and thrash guitarist Hyun-seok, aka Sucks (he introduced himself to me 3 years ago in Seoul like, “I’m Sucks.” So I said, “You suck?” “Yes, I’m Sucks.” And that was that), had a funny jiko-shokai (self-introduction) translated into Japanese that got some grins from the motley crowd.

The onslaught continued with heavy songs, including a new one “Sonic Boom” off their album Gogol, set for release early fall. Besides Envy, and arguably Atari Teenage Riot, this year’s festival is light on the heavy rock acts. So A18’s volume and swagger is welcome reprieve from all the world music and jam rock.

“Get the fuck up!” Sucks screams on “Discusting,” surely heard throughout the nearby campground, decreeing all the late risers peek their sleepy heads out there tents and in fact “get the fuck up.” It wasn’t until “Warm” off their Red album that the psychedelic clouds rolled in and the wind (fan) blew on drummer Sang-yun, giving the moment that much more of a refreshingly ethereal feeling. It too though would crescendo in post-rock finale fashion.

The last song showcased a bit of the guys’ characteristic careless stage presence, tossing instruments and wobbling off stage into the arms of front row fans over the barricade, feedback still screeching. I would have liked to see a little more of that madcap movement throughout the set. That ought to rile up the crowd and keep attention of everyone not in love with their post-hardcore psychedelia.

Very last, the dudes tossed out some promotional iphone covers to try and increase that name recognition, and I would put money on them being back in the future too, on a better stage and time slot for their style. After all, their work ethic, raw skills, and personality all together seem like every successful band in the rising star stages. No doubt A18 will keep shooting for the moon. Just next time, not so damn early!

Photo courtesy 佐俣美幸. See more photo reports here

HE NEVER STOPPED SMILING!

The all-out freak-out jam last night at Orange Court, started by two wee kalimbas (thumb pianos), and carried through by a cast of about a dozen multi-talented and incredibly diverse skilled musicians, singing, dancing and banging things was what huge international festivals like Fuji Rock should be all about. To see a musician going beyond their own song list, bending and blending styles, and expressing the inner rhythm to the beat of just one drum (a HUGE hide skin thing tonight), rekindles the definition of a true artist, reaching higher, further, stretching, aching 15-minute jams kind-of further, to embrace the crowd as a pulsing organism comprised of precious individual expression.

Deerhoof front lady Satomi Matsuzaki lent her vocal styling’s to a rare distinguishable vocal hook “No one can change no one else.” That was both fitting precisely into the motley percussive Congotronic rhythm and still hosting a tint of Satomi’s own unique voice. Wildbirds and Peacedrums‘ Ms. Mariam also impressed with a vocal pipe strength both primal as what archetypal native African singing might bring to mind, but with incredible inflections and a bunch of other pleasant surprises, with passion ever-present.

The smiles never ceased on all the Congotronics members’ faces. Their authenticity, playing steady since the 70’s, was contagious. I think if they had it their way, the crowd and band would become one, like a dusty Congolese café, patrons boogying, having fun, picking up a drum, expressing the movement and sound that go hand-in-hand in spinning the globe. So global music meshes like this can be expected more, I hope, and it will be fun to see what genres morph next.

Photo courtesy Julen Esteban-Pretel. More photos here

SMOOTH HIP CAT PIMP DADDY-O

I was just finishing my green curry and tofu pita when I heard the trombone squeeze and saxophone, my cue to hustle over the bridge to the Green Stage. Only 15 minutes before, walking through the sparsely populated Green Stage lawn, I wondered what kind of crowd the Tokyo Ska outfit would draw.  I got my answer as I showed up on the lawn with capacity other ska stompers keeping time.

All clad in matching suits, a gangster-esque menagerie of accessories, like bowlers, shades, braids, open top buttons, etc. these guys looked the professional part (though professional what, just by looking, may be hard to tell…assassin perhaps?) Anyway, it did not take long to learn that the only thing these guys are killing is the airwaves all the way back to the tree line and beyond. They had the priority area patrons up out of their seats stomping!

Showcasing the talent of this tenured act, around since 1988, every one of the members gets a shot in the spotlight. At one point the front man in the Blu-Ray shades is scatting oogy-boogies versus the trombone player squeaking out replies. There was even a surprise rendition of Tequila, performed flawlessly on harmonium, with a large portion of the crowd happily filling in the vocal portions.

A special track was performed as inspiration post-earthquake, the baritone saxophone man puts down his brass and belts the hook full of celebratory confidence, “We can do it!” The crowd smiling and singing along in solidarity.

I have a new favorite genre ska, and the president-elect of that new favorite genre is, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.

Photo courtesy 熊沢泉. More photo reviews here

MS. TOKIKO, YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

Kato Tokiko was described to me endearingly as Japan’s most famous hippie lady. When she comes out on stage at the Atomic Café (Gypsy Avalon), the sun may be hidden beneath layers of cloud, but she exudes an elegant vibrance to fill the atmosphere with a bright genuine smile and confidence, even before her first words. Think Joan Baez with a perm, and a little shorter. “Genki?” She asks knowingly. “Subarashii.” Wonderful.

She explains this set is not just about singing songs, she will be talking about important issues, too. She closes her short and sweet intro with something like, “Of course Solar Power is strong and important, but what is even stronger and more important is each and every one of you in the crowd.” Continue Reading…

ETHICALLY CLEAN SOUNDS AND GRASS

Grass. Actual grass. And thanks to all this rain, a small river runs through it. The sound booth is a neat, yet poorly placed geodesic dome, reminds me of Burning Man, as does the environmentally proactive theme and message surrounding this sweet hillside tucked away just enough to give you pleasant reprieve from all the big stage sounds, crowds and mud pits. It is now going past the halfway point of this years festival, so you may be feeling a bit worn out and just want a toned down communal vibe, chill acts (except for Mr. Hideki and the Riddim Saunter earlier), and a place to eat your Tom Yum Ramen from the restaurant stall around the corner. There are also natural products that smell really good for sale. Maybe you should pick up something to disguise that pesky mold growing in your ears and between your toes thanks to Naeba’s constant damp humidity this year. It is also nice be able to sit down on the ground, and not get up looking like you had a terrible chocolate accident in the pants. There are plenty peace signs to cuddle with up the hillside, too.

THESE FOLKS PLAY EXCELLENT FOLK MUSIC

Banjo, upright bass, steel guitar, electric guitar, and Ms. Nakamura’s more authentic than authentic can throw a stick at authentic vocal sounds and flawless acoustic guitar. They start the set unassumingly, no frills, just straight skills with “Some Happy Day.” And it is for me, increasingly as they take me on a trip back to my homeland America’s musical heritage, as good or better than the originals. The next track’s refrain, “Gonna build me a log cabin on a mountain so high,” certainly resonates with campers, commiserating in their tent cabins set up here in the mountains of Naeba.

The Field of Heaven stage decorations this year provide one of the best settings for this kind of roots music, too. Pine branches draped and disguising the huge speaker stack scaffolding, blending with the backdrop of pine beyond. Perhaps this venue 2^nd best, only to a campfire in the hills of North Carolina, cooking beans in a can, chewing spit from a tin, and washing it down with moonshine for the win! Continue Reading…

There’s something about a man with a mustache in full drag. Complete with Goldilocks wig. Singing in a deep baritone. Yes. This is string bean skinny Toby-san. Nice to meet you, how you do?

Toby is assisted by his assistant, the beautifully Reubenesque Mia. A more than capable assistant. More than capable of outdoing any Harajuku girl. Gwen Stefani take note. Continue Reading…

The Music Green Stage 2005

Having attended every Fuji Rock except the first one, I’ve seen many of the bands performing this year before at the festival, though in almost every case I can remember they performed on different stages than the ones they’ll perform on this year. Perusing the roster and recalling those shows, I’ve come to develop a certain mindset for each venue and now wonder if a shift in values hasn’t taken place over time. I prefer hanging out at the butt end of the festival, past Gypsy Avalon, where regardless of who happens to be performing the general vibe is more conducive to…well, hanging out. And because the African acts and certain artists whom I’ve never seen before but always wanted to will be playing there (Cornershop, Buddy Guy), I expect to spend the bulk of my time there this year, as well. Continue Reading…

FUJI ROCK REVELLERS

My non-exhaustive guide to what you should bring, do, and see at Fuji Rock this year

Music. Well, I’m not going to tell you what you should see. We all like different things, and far be if for me to tell you what is best. I will say this though: Get to the smaller stages, and catch some acts that you’ve never heard of. As Lisa noted, going digging often as not finds you a gem or two. I never have enough time to properly research the whole schedule, but really enjoy a schedule that sees me wandering through everything between Red Marquee & Cafe de Paris to find something I wasn’t expecting along the way. And should you find a stinker, you will have no end of pleasure telling your mates what crap the band you saw were. Continue Reading…

APOLLO 18 AT HEADHUNTERS AUSTIN, TEXAS

Indie rockers Apollo 18, coming across the sea from Korea may be slotted a little early to be drunk and jumping off speaker stacks, but I wouldn’t put it past these guys, especially the long-haired lead singer , guitarist, and increasingly heart-throbbing Hyunseok. Think Kurt Cobain grunge attitude with shredding skills and stage presence like Hendrix, and the occasional funky bridge to lighten the mood, reminiscent of early Red Hot Chili Peppers. Oh yeah, and all this happening in iridescent clouds. You’d probably never guess Hyunseok is also a big fan of Jazz artist Pat Metheny! But, you didn’t hear that from me.

I know some of Hyunseok’s early influences because I jammed with him 3 years ago in a small basement practice space in Hongdae, Seoul – South Korea’s 24/7 hustle and bustle clubbing district where Apollo 18 puts in their hard working hours. Blasting off may be the wrong catchphrase actually to describe their journey rising to international fame though. The trio started 3 years ago after Hyunseok’s “little brother,” drummer Sangyun Lee finished his compulsory 2-year term in the Korean military. The bros teamed with now bassist Daeinn Kim…aka Jelly Boy, who previously dabbled in indie folk, soothing sort of electro-melodic, floating-on-a-cloud kind of solo stuff, that pokes its head out every now and then in Apollo 18’s softer tracks and interludes on their albums, and breaks between their otherwise hardcore psychedelic madness! Continue Reading…

BATTLES IN JAPAN AT SOLD OUT LIQUID ROOM 2007

Math Rock. Rhythmic experimentalists. Berserkers. Battles, or BTTLS, if you hate vowels like their official website (www.bttls.com), is prepared for a summer of festivals, a long way from their birthplace NYC. France, UK, Denmark, Slovakia, Italy, Pitchfork (Chicago), and Fuji Rock (again), just to name a few festival happenings in July alone. These guys are glossing the globe with their globular drops of surprise sound round every audible corner. The new album Gloss Drop came out last month and peaked on the US Indie charts at number 19.

So, wear pink. Or cover yourself in expanding foam caulk/silly string for this special Saturday evening event!

But these guys are not only musical mathematicians. They have excellent marketing, too. There is networking genius behind getting music this raw and arguably anti-melodic traditionally speaking, into mainstream ears in the UK and elsewhere, by way of The Skins, some teeny-bopper TV series, Audi and Honda commercials, and the Twilight Saga: Eclipse OST soundtrack. How long will they be classified as “indie?” And does the music actually market itself? Continue Reading…

Maia Hirasawa may sound like a typically Japanese name to the uninitiated, but those of us from Northern climes know better. Born to a Swedish mother and a Japanese father, Maia grew up in Sweden and started her music career as a back-up singer for famous (famous in Sweden that is) artist Hello Saferide. She soon went out on her own though and achieved great success with the single “And I Found this Boy”, but it wasn’t until she did a cover of The Ark’s “The Worrying Kind” for the Swedish prelude to Eurovision in 2008 that she received serious mainstream attention.

Continue Reading…

Kensington Hillbillies arranged by countryness of shirt.

Having had a search I found that while Steve Ketchen and his rabble collective first plucked their strings together over ten years ago, their music is quite hard to track down on YouTube. No matter, a look at their MySpace page (does anyone use myspace for anything else these days?) found me four more of their tunes. Continue Reading…

DJ NOBU @ FRF '10

I was talking to a minimal sausage the other week at Freaks Fes, an unassuming little outdoor party that turned out to be one of the best events I have attended so far this year. A great lineup that saw on what I came to call the “downstairs stage” the likes of Daniel Bell and Eye from V∞rdoms who packed out the Red Marquee in 2009 for a late night DJ slot at which our fellow FujiRockers Kern & Dave cemented a relationship that has led to steamy late night discoveries of musical loves shared. On the list was Nobu, due to follow on from Radio Slave lead in to Function closing the party out.

Anyway, as Mr Sausage was saying, and he should know, Nobu is about the best Japanese techno DJ around at the moment, though Nobu doesn’t like to limit himself with labels. The exact term used (amongst many others) by Mr Sausage was “relevant” techno. Now, your guess is as good as mine there, but suffice to say, there aren’t that many Japanese DJs about that can deliver a minimal techno set with quite the ability, the technique, dare I say it, the relevance, that Nobu can. 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…

A wave of nostalgia, you say, Lisa? Your list of nostalgia makes me feel decidedly old… Those are all bands that I consider never went away…

Nostaligia? You want nostalgia? I certainly do. Let’s look at my non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite Fuji Rock performances of all time. I’ll pick a single one from each year I’ve been:
The Pogues (2005)
The Cure (2007)
My Bloody Valentine (2008)
Roland S Howard (R.I.P.) (2009)
JohnFogerty (2010)
And without doubt, the best performance I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Ever.
Madness (2006)

And bunches and bunches more that I can’t be bothered listing now. All the way to the Beach Boys (who sadly I missed). Honorary mention goes to FRF stalwart Lee Scratch Perry.
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…

Not all highlights from a Fujirock weekend come from stagediving and bombast. One of mine was a peaceful nap with this as my view.

Wrecked after two days of rain and beer-fueled reporting, I wandered into the Hammock Garden area for a spot of kip. Talk about lucky: almost as soon as I pulled off my boots and crawled inside the warm folds of the hammock, the skies opened up. My hammock was covered by a waterproof tarp, so I let the pummeling rain sing me to sleep.

Mission for tomorrow: head to the massage tent for a relaxing rubdown.

From the mouth of Beardyman

There are about ninety-eight muscles in the face. Add a tongue, some lungs and the throat area and you’re well past 100 separate flexing pieces of flesh. Friday night at the Red Marquee, I saw all 100-plus collaborating in ways I’d never seen before, collectively creating some of the most staggering sounds.

Meet Beardyman.
Continue Reading…

If, like me, you don’t eat beasties, Fuji Rock has always offered slim picking for dinner. This year, as far as I’ve seen, there are no veggie samosas in the food court, which makes it even worse. But it’s not all pizza, pizza, pizza. Here’s a veggie don with onsen tamago in the Field of Avalon – that hippy one where they massage you and talk about peace.

FRF DANCING DAYS ARE NEARLY HERE AGAIN

My esteemed brothers-in-rock have offered some very fine pieces of advice in the posts below this one.  Here’s a few more pointers to add to the list.

Continue Reading…

Well the others have summed it up pretty succinctly, I think. Not much more to say, other than don’t listen to anyone on what you should like.

But we don’t go for the music. Nope. If it were the music we went to see, then we’d shell out like the rest of you do. Then we could actually relax and enjoy said music. I remember a few years beck, our esteemed leader commented that he was having a near perfect weekend, catching up with old friends, and if only the bands would shut the fuck up and give them some peace it would have been truly perfect! Continue Reading…

Go Zen

It goes without saying Fuji Rock presents some serious logistical challenges to those people that want to see all their favorite bands, but my first recommendation for folks is something like this: go zen. Continue Reading…