Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning havin some pizza b4 show in Taipei

Broken Social Scene was in Taipei last night, and I caught up with them at my fave pizza place about an hour before their show.

Both Drew and Canning are quite affable  and it was sorta strange that no seemed to notice them at this restaurant even though there were about  300 kids lining up across the street to get into the show.

I sat with them at their outdoor table and brought up Fuji Rock and their infamous set at the White Stage in 2006 (read a recap here)  where they did an unexpected encore that sent the sound crew scurrying and setting back the stage’s schedule by like 20 minutes for the entire day.  This performance has gone down in Fuji lore as being the only real “encore” ever performed and according to Drew and Canning, was the “5th best Broken Social Scene set of all time.”

Yup, it didn’t take more than a few seconds for them to blurt this out. And they did it in unison, giving me the impression that they had talked about it previously. The curious thing about this set, and the now famous “encore” is that it wasn’t even their idea at all.

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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…

It's not easy being Goth...

Alright this is my first post, I’m stateside and can’t wait can’t wait. My name is Clay and I live in Atlanta, GA. Jason Jenkins (aka Jinki) is one of my oldest and dearest friends and we experienced some monumental shows together back in the day including the first Lollapalooza, B Boys “Check Your Head” with Henry Rollins, D’Angelo’s “Voodoo”, Soundgarden’s “Badmotorfinger” and that unforgettable Digable Planets show in Athens. Unfortunately, there are many more that I don’t remember…oh well. (Maybe Fishbone, Bad Brains, Pavement, Meat Puppets, Pharcyde…kinda foggy)

Anyway, I’ve been subjected to his incessant ravings about FRF over the years, and I, like all of his stateside friends, have been quietly envious. He’s always offered a tatami at his place but as you all know a Japan adventure is a fairly rich mission. Well I’m through with envy and decided to cash in my chips this year. The lineup didn’t hurt either.

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Broken Social Scene 2006

It’s been a few years since Broken Social Scene has played at Fuji Rock Festival (they were last here in 2006). It’s nice to have some solid representation from the The Great White North and so early in the lineup announcements. Continue Reading…