Fujirockers: The official fansite of the Fuji Rock Festival

Fuji Rock 2010 hosts what I just today decided is the greatest band on the planet: toe. It seems like in rock music there has always been an inverse relationship between instrumental virtuosity and emotional resonance, a phenomenon which interestingly never occurred in jazz. Lots of post rock bands have been gamely flauting that law over the past decade, but I believe toe has achieved the complete destruction of it. I’ve got 33 cuts of theirs stretching over eight years of albums and EPs, and there is not a single note, not a single bit of information etched into a CD or hard drive, that is not five solid and immutable stars of perfection.

If you like the indie-rock melancholy of Broken Social Scene you will like the vibe of toe, and with musicians this jaw-droppingly great there is nothing like witnessing their feats in person. My only regret is that it will be my first full show of the whole fest, 3:40 pm Friday at the White Stage, and I fear it will set my expectations too high for the rest of the weekend.

Further down the list of renown, but in much the same vein of virtuosity, there is Continue Reading…

SOME THINGS WE JUST LIKE

Though my tastes are unimpeachable, I would never presume to tell you what to do, think, or feel. This may sound strange coming from someone who makes a living selling his opinions, but I don’t necessarily think those opinions are going to be shared by all, regardless of what some of my editors believe. When I write a movie or music review, all I can do is try to reveal how the particular subject matter struck me, and then hope that anyone who’s reading it will be able to translate those feelings for his or her own sensibility. I never tell anyone “you should see this film” or “you should buy this album,” even if I think you would be a better person if you did. Continue Reading…

Below you’ll find some of my music recommendations, but first off, a few nuggets of advice:

What to remember:

- Don’t forget sun protection (hat, extra sunglasses and sunblock). And if you use them like I do, bring your own genki drinks for an added late-night boost. Despite all the stalls at Fujirock, I’ve only rarely seen these on sale.

- Walk the entire length of the fest grounds at least once. That’s right: from the Red Marquee all the way to Cabaret Fiesta and back. At sunset or after dark is best, and make sure to take the boardwalk. Try not to look at your watch. You’ll be glad you did.

- Take the Dragondola up to the Day Dreaming stage at the top of the mountain, even if you just turn around and come back. The view, the fresh air and thrity minutes off your feet will do you good.

What to see:

Trying to point out a handful of shows at Fujirock is like recommending only one dish at your favorite restaurant: the entire menu is delicious, but you only have so much room in your stomach. It’s a foregone conclusion that bands like LCD Sound System, Broken Social Scene and One Day as a Lion will be mind-blowingly great live experiences, so I’ll try to point out some of lineup further down the marquee:

My list after the jump

Continue Reading…

While the debate over footwear is just starting to get good, read it here (thanks Dom), its time to turn our attention to something almost as important, rain gear.

I don’t expect any debate over this cuz I’ve thought long and hard and its the proverbial  “end of discussion” right here with this recommendation:  the PONCHO.

Yessir, the one piecer with a couple of grommets that doubles as a groundcloth when you wanna crash out and watch the swirly lights of Massive Attack.

But my recommendation for the poncho isn’t just because of its waterproofness, but because of its lesser known property which people who have never worn a poncho do not know: invisibility.

Trust me, when you don this cape you will simply disappear into the audience and out of the realm of normal  thought or behavior. You will be free to do some pretty rad things with all this freedom and dry acreage underneath this PVC material.  Go ahead and try to twist up a hand rolled cigarette during a downpour or look at your schedule during a deluge. Impossible! And,  do we need to talk about the convenience of doing your business like No. 1 or No. 2.  Hey man, no zippers to deal with!

Continue Reading…

Don't be lost when the time comes!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring everything that you could possibly need or want to FRF? Well, maybe not. The first time I went to a three day music festival, I took a single courier bag. What didn’t fit, I didn’t need, I reasoned. At that same non-FRF festival last year, I filled a car with three others. A big car. What happened along the way? And I still forgot some of the things I needed. With only a few shopping days left til FRF, here is my list of essentials.

There has been much debate on footwear this year. More even than usual. Kern likes his Sauconies. Sean recommends Nikes, on the advisement of Dave, then in the next sentence says he won’t be wearing them hisself. I say Gore-tex is for pussies. The Don will try his luck with open sandals for the first time. Jeff says wellies. I wholeheartedly agree. After slipping a pair on my third year into the fest, I’ll never go back. Shawn, who has wisely stayed out of the argument (this is a topic close to our hearts here, and tempers can flare) sent me an email this week asking if I had saved his pair from last year. As if I hadn’t! I count him amongst the wellie’d. I know Jinki is a wellie man. Clint and Spykee? Well they’re new, and haven’t announced their swinging vote yet. Continue Reading…

Viva Vinyl

Whether it’s late night at the Orange Court or regular Red Marquee revelry, Fujirock has you covered for DJs. Headliners like Rusko, Z-Trip, Ken Ishii and Riva Star will deliver the goods like they always do, but dig a little deeper into the lineup and you’ll find even more choice selectors.

This year has quite a handful of DJs plucked from bands in the lineup: Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip and James Murphy from LCD Sound System play back-to-back sets at the Red Marquee Sunday night. Both should be stellar, but Murphy’s will be a must-see. Check out his label’s mix series for a primer.

Now dig even deeper and we arrive at the Palace of Wonder, where some of the best spinning takes place every year…

Continue Reading…

Aye Carumba! Is it hot in here?

The 2010 Fujirock schedule has its share of francophone acts, but anyone who’s a fest regular knows that the guys who run Fujirock have a healthy hard-on for all things Latin (and they’re not the only ones in Tokyo). Every year, there are bands from Italy, Spain or South America to spice things up on the side stages. There was cumbia troupe, Very Be Careful playing out of the back of a slow-moving pickup, and the tropical sounds of Ska Cubano splashing off the Avalon stage. And of course no one can forget the scorching sets by Manu Chao from years past.

A quick look through this year’s lineup proves that the Latin love affair continues.

Continue Reading…

Power Wellies

This one-ups the footwear debate for me – a guy with an admitted Wellies-and-short-shorts fetish.

These  scintillating new gum boots from Orange can charge your mobile devices with the heat generated by your feet, and should be all the rage with the power hippies.

Developed for (and showcased at) the recent Glastonbury festival by Orange Mobile and renewable energy experts, Gotwind (ahem…), these boots:

“…use a unique ‘power generating sole’ that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current…”

A current they call – wait for it – “Welectricity”.

Continue Reading…

My all-purpose recommendation

The one bit of advice that I give to those attending Fuji Rock for the first time (or those coming back after a long hiatus) is to figure out your footwear!

Going back to your hotel room or pup tent in between sets is probably impossible as you should be prepared to mosh around in one pair of shoes the whole time. That said, you better decide what it’s gonna be, and trust me, there are a million good choices out there such as Tevas, Keens, Wellies, Saucony (Kern’s pick), Blundstone, Crocs.

Personally, if I were to buy a pair of shoes for the festival today, I would take my friend Dave’s advice (a fellow blog writer) and get a pair of Gore-Tex lined, ankle high Nike ACG. This half-boot provides enough wet weather protection to muck your way around every footpath at the festival. It also has enough bounce to keep your knees happy on the Red Marquee’s concrete floor. And more importantly, it will give you enough traction to stay upright on the slippery slope near hilltop Heineken tent at the Green Stage.
Continue Reading…

FRF Daydreamin'

I thought a lot about this timetable.
Actually I’m not a big fan of visiting music festivals in other countries, it just my 2nd time. However, I have to – need to – make this time valuable, from curing my panic.

說真的，這也只是我第二次在國外參加音樂祭。
Continue Reading…

John Butler Trio

This will be John Butler’s third stint at Fuji Rock, having done the 2005 and 2007 festivals. Now touring with a new(ish) pair, hot on the heels of April Uprising (released in… erm… March this year), Butler and his boys have been quietly moving up on the FRF Fame-O-Meter: 2005 saw them on the Field of Heaven, 2007 the White Stage, and now this year they’ll be filling in the early Saturday timeslot on the Green Stage. Continue Reading…

Willie Martinez & Mambo Loco?

I need to start this by saying that one of my favourite acts at Fuji Rock over the years has been Big Willie’s Burlesque. Big Willie is one of the hardest working guys at Fuji Rock. although he’s never pulled off the most-shows-at-the-fest prize in any given year, without actually counting he may well hold the overall prize, as he’s been so many times, and plays three, four or more sets each time. That’s sure to add up to quite some FRF kudos. So I was excited when I saw in the Don’s piece on the Crystal Palace line-up that the Willie Martinez of Willie Martinez y Mambo Loco is actually Willie McNeil aka Big Willie. Continue Reading…

Melbourne's The Tote Re-opens

While this doesn’t affect bands plaing directly this year, it’s worth noting that Melbourne music institution the Tote is reopening tonight after a long battle.

For the last 30 years, the Tote hotel has provided a venue for the craziest of touring and local bands. It was, along with the Corner and the Espy, one of the cornerstones of the music industry in a city that became, through these and a slew of other great venues (as well as no small amount of help from the two excellent independent radio stations RRR and PBS), the centre of Australia’s live music scene, and the incubator for many of the best bands Australia has produced. It all threatened to come crashing down in the mid 90s when Victoria allowed hotels to hold gaming licences, and we lost many venues to the insidious pokies. Only the strongest willed of operators managed to resist the temptation to sell their souls to this cash cow and keep doing what they knew was right. Bruce Milne of the Tote was one who will be going up, rather than down, when his time comes. Continue Reading…

Lost? "Orange Court is over there."

Crashing onto an island, struggling to find find food and shelter there, trying to understand the mysterious inhabitants—no, I’m not talking about the survivors of Oceanic 815. It’s me at Fuji Rock. The island is Japan and to me the inhabitants are definitely mysterious. Continue Reading…

We’re now live from the fest at: http://www.fujirockexpress.net/09e/

follow us on twitter, as well.

Flickr and Vids to come.

jinki

There’s a long one-way boardwalk that runs through the woods between the White Stage and Orange Court. Not only is it a more peaceful way to make that trip than the main thoroughfaire, but scattered throughout the day bands set up and play impromptu shows there. I saw Los Lobos there my first year.

This has all become a fairly well-known attraction, but less known is the sometimes advantage of sitting out there at night and listening to one of the main stage attractions. There’s usually a light show going on, or disco balls, or a light show with disco balls and flamingoes, or maybe flamingoes with lasers on their heads creating a light show out of disco balls, or like pinwheels or something. If the White Stage music is right, it can be a sublime experience.

I first experienced this with Sigur Ros on Sunday Night at FRF ‘05. They had shrouded their stage in darkness and gauze anyway, so it wasn’t too big a step to turn my back on the stage and enter the woods. There will NEVER be another experience quite like listening to the ethereal Sigur Ros perform live, sitting almost alone on a boardwalk in a dark and foreboding forrest with a freaky light show playing off the distant rocks.

My vote this year is for the Sunday night White Stage attraction, Royksopp, who although much more upbeat than Sigur Ros, are equally as spacey. It might just be the perfect end to your festival experience.

-Kern

(photo by funa)

At my first FRF in 2005, I was floored by Watusi Zombie as they opened the Rookie a Go-Go stage.  So impressed was I, that I’ve made a point of catching the lead performance at Rookie a Go-Go each year since.  Continue Reading…

There are two news pieces on FRF’s official site that most fest goers may want to take a gander at before heading to Naeba.

The first, “READ before coming to the festival,” is obviously the more important of the two and lays out the event’s rules, info on advance ticket sales and buying tickets at the festival, shuttle bus and car park info and timetables, and more.

The second provides a preview of much of the FRF and artist-related merch that will be available for purchase.  There are no ATMs inside the festival grounds, so make sure you’ve got enough won with you to pick up any must-have rock ‘n roll gear.  Personally, I’m quite liking this Polysics tee.

Shawn

Jinki tells Jeff how big the spider that bit me was…

It’s the one thing everybody forgets. I never will again. Continue Reading…

The one gem that everybody seems to miss at Fuji Rock is Day Dreaming. I believe that few of the Fujirockers who are contributing to this blog have even made the trek. That’s a shame though, because this stage is the perfect answer to the night before. For starters, you have to take the magnificent Dragondola to get up there. Once on board, you’re whisked away at high speed, and afforded perhaps the best view of the actual festival site (barring a helicopter ride) as it begins its 20-odd minute journey up the mountains. Through valleys and across rivers, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d left it all behind. Continue Reading…

Being prepared is the key to all outdoor expeditions, and your visit to Fuji Rock should be taken with the same degree of seriousness cuz conditions can get extreme.

Ok, so it won’t be like freezing your butt off on Mt. Everest, and typhoons don’t hit this mountainous area, but many veterans will tell you it won’t be a day at the beach either.

Expect lots of rain with your belongings  getting soaked if they aren’t packed in Ziploc bags.  And when the sun does shine, man, it is a scorcher and you gonnna need some hardcore, sweatproof, SPF50+.

Am I scaring you? Let’s just say it rained so much one year that staff were spraying their jackets with silicon spray cuz their waterproofing washed off!!! I’m bringing some extra spray- on waterproofing for good measure, and definitely for my footwear.

Lastly, a word of caution about the bugs. You’ve already been briefed about the mosquitoes and the spiders, but there is another little bugger. a tick, which in Japanese is called “Dani” that may put you down for a day or so if you get bitten.

You’d be advised to wear long pants throughout the festival, and locals say you shouldn’t wear perfume or sweet smelling perfume during your time at Fuji Rock.  For more info about this, including some special products that can keep away the ticks, check out this (Japanese only).

As the gender theorists have told us countless times before, simple dichotomies never give the whole picture. (And they are usually instruments of power wielded—knowingly or unknowingly—by those with a vested interest in maintaining the dominant paradigm, but that’s surely a discussion better left to the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra post). So too with the current debate among FRF staffers as to whether wellies or sandals are the better choice of footwear for a three-day outdoor festival with a good chance of rain.

I’ve had bad experiences with getting new shoes at the very moment my walking habits experience a radical paradigm shift. I once almost ruined a nine-day trip to central China by buying a brand new pair of Reeboks my first day there (they were the genuine article too). I’ve never been able to walk in any kind of sandals for more than about 15 minutes, and large rubber boots just seem risky in all three elements of the term. So I’m sticking with my tried and true Saucony Jazz, which I wear everywhere; I’m just making a concession to the weather by bringing more. Luckily I have three raggedy old pair. I may have wet feet all day, but at least every morning I’ll be able to start each day afresh. And isn’t that what the gender theorists have been fighting for anyway?

-Kern

P.S.: One thing no one will argue with: bring a freaking rain parka!

The pre-festival party on Thursday night is notable for several constants. Ostensibly thrown as a kind of thank-you to the Naeba community, it’s gratis–anyone who happens to be there can attend, though the festivities are limited to the two food courts. The locals set up a bon odori platform, around which people dance to traditional music, and the evening is usually climaxed by a brief eruption of fireworks. And then there’s the bands at the Red Marquee…

From what I understand the organizers solicit bands who happen to already be on site to see whether or not they’d like to do a set at the pre-fest party, usually about a half hour. Over the years, some of the best music I’ve seen at the festival has been at these mini-rave-ups in the Red Marquee (which didn’t make its debut until 2000. It wasn’t there the first year at Naeba. The Levi New Stage occupied that piece of real estate, with the Virgin Dance Tent–talk about suggestive naming!–filling in for what the Red Marquee would eventually offer after midnight). Though I can’t rightly remember the exact years, some exceptional pre-fest sets by Electric 6, Shonen Knife (who showed up just to play the pre-fest party), Ratatat, and others linger in my mind. The pre-fest party is stoked by anticipation, and anybody who plays feeds off that anticipation in a big way. Being in the Red Marquee on Thursday night is just a pure adrenalin high, no matter who’s playing.
I dug out this diary entry, later printed as part of the Japan Times’ Fuji wrap-up in 2003. It describes pretty accurately that vibe. Danko Jones was an artist I knew nothing about beforehand, and heard nothing about afterwards, but for that single night he was the greatest thing I’d ever seen…
“Danko Jones, a blues-rock singer from Toronto built like a bullet and with a stage persona to match, is blowing away a near-capacity crowd in the Red Marquee, the only venue hosting bands on this, the night before the festival officially begins. An estimated 18,000 people, or roughly half the maximum who could buy tickets for a given day, are here; which is both a record and a clear indication of what the festival has become. Seventy percent of total ticket sales were three-day tickets, and Saturday was completely sold out. Jones–hyper, super-focused, and previously unknown to these people–has a lock on their attention right now and he connects in an elemental way. The audience reacts as if they’d discovered oil. But maybe it’s the excitement of just being here that fires them up so much. The Counterfeit Beatles, a covers band who played before Jones did, are the most predictable act on the whole roster, but they also blew the crowd away. There was even a mosh pit.”
-Phil

It’s an eternal debate: Boxers or briefs? Ginger or Mary Anne? Whisky or whiskey? And for Fuji Rock Festival goers it seems to come down to Wellingtons or sandals. I, for one, am a Wellie man and wholeheartedly endorse the low-tech rubber boot. Here’s why… Continue Reading…

Some thoughts on eating and drinking. Continue Reading…