Fujirockers: The official fansite of the Fuji Rock Festival

Best drummer of the festival?

Why did I use a picture of Deefhoof”s drummer Greg Saunier instead of one of their cute, pint sized Japanese singer Satomi Matsuzaki who was wearing an adorable red dress for today’s show. Well, because this guy’s drumming was a sight to behold. I wouldn’t call myself a drummer but I have been in a few bands as the guy who smashes sticks onto skins, and believe me, Mr. Saunier had phenomenal control over his instrument. Speed, precision and intensity all combined to make his drumming a thing of beauty. A friend of mine who saw him play at Fuji a few years ago told me how his drumsticks kept flying out of his hands he was playing so hard. Today, I only saw him drop a stick once but the way he kept thrusting himself into the air made it look like he was trying to launch himself like some kind of percussive rocket. Deerhoof have been around since the early 90’s and they really embody what was so fantastic about the 1990’s indies rock scene, yet they have a sound completely of their own. Looping guitar lines, funky rhythms and Satomi’s very girly singing voice built songs that were always completely unpredictable and engaging. It felt as if you were riding a high tech, high speed roller coaster through some enchanted forest.

Clap, you suckers

As demonstrated by the name of his main gig, Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys doesn’t see much point to being a professional musician unless he can fool around with the formula, make fun of it even. Dressed unseasonably in a corduroy jacket, flannel shirt, and watch cap, Rhys opened his set at the Red Marquee beating the air with a pair of wands that produced a kind of keening swoop when he put more muscle into it. Later, his guitarist played penny whistle and the keyboardist made bird noises. In fact, one could call Rhys’s voice a kind of special effect: Gordon Lightfoot’s nasally baritone boom as commandeered by the sensibility of Ray Davies. Continue Reading…

We're pure

You don’t have to be a genius to predict that there would have been a huge turnout for The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, who played the Red Marquee just before 2 pm. The group’s combination of shoegazey, fuzzy guitars, roller rink rhythms, and bullet-proof pop melodies guarantee fawning admiration from the average Japanese indiephile, but in Kip Berman’s fey, heartbroken vocal style, you’ve also got catnip for Japanese girls, who danced and danced and for good measure danced some more during the 40-minute set while their boyfriends stood helplessly by nodding their heads in submission. Continue Reading…

The center holds

Given the center stage positioning of a raven-haired bassist wearing a short black dress and large silver cross, it’s easy to form the notion that Belakiss is trying not too subtly to cash in on the current Twilight craze, but an Internet search reveals that Bela Kiss was the actual name of a Hungarian serial killer. Now why on earth didn’t another hard rock band with gothic overtones hit on that name before?

It’s not as if it’s wasted on this London foursome, whose debut album was released only two days ago in Japan (and nowhere else, at least for now). They’re an earnest bunch, with two male guitarist/singers who know how to snarl their diphthongs and a cool regard for melodic choruses that stand up under the relentless repetition of key phrases. In the group’s best song, “Run Red,” the title is basically recycled in countless variations over a rapid-fire guitar strum, with bassist Tatia Starkey’s voice placed on top. Usually, it’s the guys who take the lead singing chores, and the change does them good. The audience was polite and reserved in a way that indicated people who thought they should be impressed but weren’t. Nevertheless, by the end of the 40-minute set what started out as a small knot of curiosity-seekers in front of the stage had grown into a respectable crowd that filled the place. And if you say it’s because of the rain, note that it was only a very little squall.

photo: Ueda (with Nikon)

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…

I have always loved girl bands, especially girl rock bands. So much of what it means to play rock music and create the angst and power that makes rock so incredible is associated with a very macho male image of sweaty guys smashing drums and dishing out aggression in the form of guitar chords. I went to see the amazing Vivian Girls in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and they really embody the beautiful edge that feminity can bring to rock music. They rocked just as hard as any male band ever has yet they also exuded such a playful and cute vibe while they jammed, making their show all that much more special. So needless to say I am extremely excited about seeing LA’s Warpaint at Fuji Rock for their first ever performance in Japan. Their debut album “The Fool” came out late last year on none other than the legendary Rough Trade record label. These four girls play a dreamy style of quite mellow rock with very catchy melodies and choruses and the occasional use of loops and effect, giving them at times a very otherworldly sound. I even found myself thinking about some of the brilliant indie rock and shoegaze bands of the 90’s like Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Curve and PJ Harvey as I listened to “The Fool.” They have been getting loads of attention from the music press with NME saying last year that they are “The Best Live Band You’ll See All Year” and their live shows must be fantastic as they have also been invited to play at the Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festival this year. You can watch a fantastic live set and interview with them on the radio station KCRW’s excellent show Morning Become Eclectic.

MO'SOME TONEBENDER ON THE GREEN STAGE @ FRF '06

Mo’some Tonebender will make their fourth Fuji Rock appearance in two weeks time.  Formed in Fukuoka in the late 1990s, the alt-rock trio have been based out Tokyo since 2001.  That year they made their FRF debut in the Red Marquee.  In 2002 they played on White Stage and in 2006 they performed on the Green Stage.  Being on the fest’s biggest stage calls for some big props, so frontman Kazuhiro Momo brought a pair of giant foam hands with him for the occasion.  After waving them around he later tossed them into the crowd.

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Ra Ra Riot Provide A Rich Romp Through "The Orchard"

Music festivals are popping up everywhere and one of the newest, the Music to Know Festival, set in the glimmering summer resort of East Hampton NY, where my sister lives incidentally, is more of a VIP fashion catwalk rather than a  rock show. The NY Times has written about the pop-up boutiques appearing at the festival  (read here) and top end tickets offer parking privileges, air-conditioned restrooms, a curated food service and plenty of delicious cocktails.  While all of the creature needs will be met, organizers still face the vexing question of  what type of music do these super rich people wanna see?

Vampire Weekend are an obvious choice, and they indeed headline the festival on  Saturday, and also appearing is Ra Ra Riot who are frequently compared to this better known,  gold- selling artist.  Both bands play  upbeat music led by a high pitched male vocalist.  Musically, however, Ra Ra Riot tend to experiment more than Vampire Weekend, with compositions performed more like a classical chamber quintet, 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…

ENVY LIVE IN TOKYO

Envy, Atari Teenage Riot, and Apollo 18 will all get the chance to play on the Green Stage this summer!

Before local fans get too excited, the Green Stage they’ll share is actually the second stage at South Korea’s Jisan Valley Rock Festival.  The three bands will appear at South Korea’s premier summer music outing on Friday, July 29 before making their way to Fuji Rock where they will all perform in the Red Marquee on Sunday, July 31. Continue Reading…

SHOOT ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE

Gruff Rhys is one of a handful of acts at this year’s festival who seem to be making up for lost opportunities. All of these artists were scheduled to tour Japan in the month or so following the earthquake/tsunami of March 11 but cancelled for reasons they didn’t fully explain though everyone understands what they are. And while the mess in Fukushima remains as contentiously controversial as it’s ever been (Are radiation levels unacceptable or not?) some of these artists may want to rectify the image problem that the cancellation brought about, and Fuji seems a good way of showing instant solidarity. I mean, that’s what rock festivals are for, right? Continue Reading…

HERE BE LOTSA OKAMOTO'S

Q: How many Okamotos does it take to make a band?

A: 4 talented kids and one dead artist.

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FOUR TET

Last September, Keiran Hebden announced on the Four Tet blog: “I’m playing at Fabric in Room 1 on Friday and it’s a big lineup with Joe Goddard from Hot Chip, Jamie xx, SBTRKT and loads of other great acts.” Sounds suspiciously like Friday’s post-midnight lineup at the Red Marquee. Just throwing this out there: the night totally meshed and someone from Smash UK was present?

Now the next question is, how is it that a once abstract or “folktronic” musician like Four Tet – the DJ name of London native Keiran Hebden – is now playing London’s most famous dance club? Even if you’ve never been to London, you know the Fabric Live series of DJ mixes, a roster of full-on party pumpers: Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Diplo, Toddla T, A-Trak, etc, etc. But Four Tet started out in the early noughties as one of the first wave of laptop pop, a variant of indie pop or twee, which was basically electronic music for indie music geeks who are exactly the type of people who don’t go to clubs like Fabric. Hebden, who started out in a post-rock band and did his first remix for Aphex Twin, was making music in organic live mixes using non-timeline-based software. He attributed loose compositional structure and glitchy, erratic beats to “jazz influences”, which was probably a lot more acceptable than saying Karl-Heinz Stockhausen or John Cage. OK, that’s just a guess, but I think you get where the music was coming from. It was electronic music for people who listened to the Magnetic Fields or Velocity Girl or Lisa Loeb or sat on the floor at gigs of their favorite post-rock band (and also quite likely for a certain poofter named Kern). He was way more of a sound artist than a master of the decks. One really doubts he’s ever been called a “playa,” a “mack” or a one-man wrecking crew on the wheels of steel.

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Ernest Greene of Washed Out

Washed Out, a young fella named Ernest Greene, recording tracks in the bedroom of his parent’s house in rural Georgia is now the internet man of the moment. This is due to the ascending chillwave movement, a wan, genderless genre still looking for a star to break it big time.

For those unfamiliar with chillwave, it’s like a low-budget, blippy version of early 80’s synthpop. Sort of like playing a Duran Duran cassette found underneath your couch, covered in lint, cat hair, and other grime.

And yeah, you guessed it, his first EP “High Times” was released cassette-only, on an extremely limited run of like 300 cassettes. His second gig was at NYC’s Santos Live House made famous by Andrew W.K., and then it was off to Pitchfork Festival, a signing with Sub Pop, and blammo, he’s all over this freakin internet. His debut album is even sexed up with a photo of people, er, having sex?

How much of this is Sub Pop’s hype machine is anyone’s guess, Continue Reading…

8OTTO OPENING UP FOR OASIS IN 2009

Osaka’s 8otto had reason for celebration last week.  The garage rock/post-punk band were added to this summer’s Fuji Rock and Smash announced that they will be opening for Beady Eye (former members of Oasis) in Nagoya and Osaka in September.

The Beady Eye concerts are less surprising than the FRF news.  8otto were originally scheduled to open for the British act in May, but the tour was postponed due to the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.  8otto were disappointed when the dates were put on hold, so it’s cool that they’ve been tapped to appear at the September shows.

8otto previously supported Oasis during their 2009 Japan tour.  Check out live photos from their opening set at Nagoya’s Nihon Gaishi Hall here.

8otto are currently gigging in support of their fourth long-player, “Ashes to Ashes.”  Released in March, the quartet worked on the disc with long-time producer Toshikazu Yoshioka.  Yoshioka has been at the helm for all of 8otto’s full-lengths and also was an engineer on “Room on Fire” by The Strokes, a band that have had a huge impact on 8otto’s music. 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…

MY SKETCH OF SBTRKT AT THE HELM

UK-based Young Turks record label, also featuring Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX, is bringing bass wildfires, ethereal attitude lifestyle, some stars (to gaze at in your mind, don’t forget the Red Marquee is Fuji Rock’s only stage “inside”), and anonymity mystique to the Red Marquee’s Planet Groove session Friday night by way of London-based producer-on-the-rise, SBTRKT.

You might want to wear your mask, too, otherwise risking ostracizing awkwardness via the DJ booth as SBTRKT goes straight for your ears with laser sound knob-turning deliciousness and otherwise disorienting sound beatitudes.  (He always wears a mute-expression tribal mask with long threads of what look like woven dried rice stalks trailing down into his synth pads, Macbook, Kaossilator, and whatever other gadgets he may be playing with on any given Sunday, err, Friday.)

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Wu Lyf anonymously chart a new direction in Britpop

Brits support bands much like their favorite football clubs, bringing a fervor and passion that few other nationalities can muster. They also put up a unified front when it comes to acts at the top of the table such as Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay, and recently, Artic Monkeys.  Seeing the latter 2 on Friday at the Green Stage ensures the Union Jack will be flying.

The Britpop passion even extends to bands facing relegation like The Music who are calling it quits after this tour, and the Kaiser Chiefs who are back after a 3-year break.  A friend of mine who DJs the UK Beat Show here in Taiwan has been chirping their praises for weeks, quipping their new album as “a return to form,” and an “epic”  gig  recently at Isle of Wight.

Honestly, I never drank from Britpop’s technicolored kool-aid, preferring the deeper, muddier depths of grunge.  Many music critics have asserted Britpop is a direct reaction to grunge, though few thought it would continue with so many permutations and with such longevity.

I was prepared to write the genre off entirely until I came across Wu Lyf, a Manchester, not Madchester, band which embraces the messy politics of grunge, and its counter culture G8 hating, World Bank bashing radicalism. Musically, Wu Lyf may be little more than a radical, hipper version of The XX, but they are starting fires and converting a fans such as myself which have otherwise been put off by the Britpop establishment.

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…

Four Tet live at Asagiri Jam

“High touch,” for those of you not so versed as I in Japanese kid-speak, means “High Five!”  And that is what I will be giving everybody as brain-exploding supernova style happens inside the Red Marquee while experiencing Four Tet Friday night.

All the ‘folks’ listening to Kieran Hebden’s (who plays under the moniker Four Tet) stimulating tunes once described as “folktronica” genre will see that he is much more than Bob-Dylan-gone-electric-with-a-keyboard.  As he rebelled against that genre label “folktronica,” in 2005 with the slighty darker album Everything Ecstatic, his creative cascade of experimentation can effortlessly integrate folk elements, such as an acoustic guitar loop, but he soars beyond any vocabulary of definition or classification, taking his audience, effectively, to another planet.

Limitless as free jazz, loving as soul, and bopping as the most infectious hip hop breaks, Four Tet is the sweetest groove history-in-the-making every time he graces the stereo or stage.
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DJ Nu-Mark has done studio work for tons of hip hop acts from Ice T to the Pharcyde. He’s best known of course as DJ for the left-coast, alt-rap supergroup Jurrassic 5, which before their “break up” a few years ago featured several members of Fujirock faves Ozomatli. Since there’s been a lot of talk on this blog lately about legendary FRF sets, anyone remember Ozomatli closing out the festival at the Red Marquee on a Sunday night in 2000? They entered from the back of the venue in a conga line playing acoustic instruments, and when they went out, they did the same, with the entire audience following them into the food court where they continued to jam as the dawn poked through the mist. Well, looking back at the schedule, Ozomatli actually played the second to last set that night, and this is exactly the slot DJ Nu-Mark has this year. DO NOT miss the YouTube clip above (shout out to FRF programer James for bringing it to my attention). In addition to a collection of 35,000 records and knack for mixing classic hip hop with snappy latin rhythms, Nu-Mark has also figured out how to plug a whole Toys-R-Us worth of kids musical devices into his mixers. This is gonna be fun!

DJ Nu-Mark: Red Marquee, Sunday, July 31.

These days nobody begrudges indie bands the help of a superstar producer the way they used to, so the able-bodied New York-based guitar-pop quartet with the wincingly earnest name The Pains of Being Pure at Heart only earned props for getting Flood and Alan Moulder to helm their sophomore effort, Belong. Though initially boosted as neo-shoegazers, and literary neo-shoegazers, too boot, on the new album the group comes off as a progressive power pop outfit with more pedestrian concerns. It’s an altered perception that can only be party credited to the cleaner production. That Kip Berman’s girlish whisper pushes to the front of the churning instrumental mix indicates that lo-fi just won’t do any more, but he also sounds more honestly in love, when love happens to be the topic. The band necessarily loses much of its appealing spunk in the bargain, but it’s impossible to listen to these songs and not be reminded of the producers’ past glories, the U2 roar of the title song, the Depeche Modish bounce of “Heaven’s Gonna Happen Now.” POBPAH were never that original, but they could fool you into thinking they were, and except for Fountains of Wayne, there’s nobody at the festival this year who is as likely to occasion spontaneous outbursts of choral singalongs; but that suggests they have a dedicated fan base already, so get cracking. You only have a little less than two months.

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.
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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…