Fujirockers: The official fansite of the Fuji Rock Festival

Wrap-up lists are always highly subjective, but I’ve never gone to Fuji Rock and tried to see everything anyway, because with all the running around, you’d completely miss the experience, i.e. the people. And scrolling through the photos on my camera, I got pretty drunk with a lot of people and mainly remember that they were super nice, having an awesome time, and one of them might have been called Otto. So from what I do remember, here are my picks:

MY TOP 5:

CSS at the White Stage (Fri): Its hard not to love Lovefoxxx, especially when she brings it that hard. And she’s not doing it alone. This was just awesome.
Manu Chao’s secret set in the Crystal Palace (Fri): Yup, he was the “special guest.” Later, his Japanese promoter told me the last time he played Fuji Rock, he ended up in the Palace of Wonder playing guitar outside for free anyway, so they just decided to put him on the schedule. As previously noted, the staff of this blog went a little nuts.
The Naked and Famous (Sat): I had a couple linger doubts about this band after seeing them at SXSW, and they all went out the window with one of the tightest sets I’ve seen in a while by a young band. They have one great album. Let’s hope they keep it up.
The Black Angels in the Crystal Palace (Sun): Looked like I picked the wrong day to stop drinking Jack Daniels, and omygod was that surf rock?!?! Double OMG!
Chemical Brothers (Sun): Sure, we joke that they are just up there playing a DVD and secretly checking Facebook, but even if they were, they still rank among the few acts in the world that can get 20,000+ people partying at the Green Stage. And I mean that people were partying all the way in the back!

BEST SHOWS I MISSED: Continue Reading…

Behind the scenes of this blog, there’s been a lot of hand wringing about why no one has written anything about Roxy Music. There’ve been internal emails prodding us on this subject, and yet, no one has stepped forward to offer a critique of this late-70’s group which set the template, both musically and fashion wise, for the New Wave movement that followed.

I admit to some apathy regarding Roxy Music, a band I remember mostly from the bargain bins of my local record story; particularly how the words “Roxy Music” were distinctively lettered and centered near the top. This was in an age when album art was exploding in all different types of script and imagery, and yet, Roxy Music was quietly understated. And, few could rock out a white tuxedo and martini glass like Bryan Ferry, his signature contribution to our collective culture, as parodied in a recent episode of “The Mighty Boosh”, an English comedy as the character Vince describes his upbringing in the jungle.
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We were hanging out with Diplo yesterday, taking a trip to Taipei County for some late-afternoon cliff diving. As was expected, this international DJ/producer  “kept it going higher” climbing well beyond where even locals dare to go, clutching vines and moss covered rocks to a height of 20 meters. He even did a back-flip from one jump off spot, coming perilously close to the rocks below which elicited a “not-cool” remark from his tour manager.

After returning to the city, we played a game of lazer tag, both the free-for-all and team play round won handily  Major Lazer MC, Skerrit Bwoy.  Later, it was off to the local radio station, ICRT, to promote Wednesday’s show which gave us some time to  reminisce about last year’s Fuji performance. Continue Reading…

One of the more humourous bits of Green Stage banter I caught at FRF ’06 was between Ken Yokoyama and his former bassist Serge Verkhovsky during Yokoyama’s rainy Saturday afternoon set.

During a pause between songs, the pair wondered aloud which of the many mountains surrounding the beautiful Naeba Ski Resort was Mount Fuji. After picking one to be the famed Fuji-san they continued to rile up the already excited wet masses with more melodic skate punk cuts. Check out Dom’s Fuji Rock Express report of the performance here.

Yokoyama made his FRF debut in 1999 as the guitarist for Hi-Standard. When the trio parted ways in 2000, he turned his focus to BBQ Chickens and his Pizza Of Death Records imprint, which is now one of the Japan’s most successful indie labels. Pizza Of Death’s Hawaiian6 will also be making their return to FRF this year (having previously played in 2005) and Comeback My Daughters were with us at the fest in 2009.

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Yesterday Smash added five more acts to the FRF ‘10 lineup. The biggest name of the bunch is Broken Bells, the new band featuring Danger Mouse and The Shins’ James Mercer. Danger Mouse previously appeared at FRF ‘06 with Gnarls Barkley and Mercer visited the fest back in ‘07 with The Shins.

Also included in the latest artist announcement in Emeline Michel, The Entrance Band, Green Velvet, and Y.Sunahara.

*Photo of Danger Mouse by Ryota and used with the permission of Fuji Rock Express ‘06.

Yesterday, Massive Attack put a poster for this summer’s Fuji Rock Festival on their official site.

The poster lists what day each act will perform on and also has some new artist additions.  The most notable of these is Atoms For Peace, the side project from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke that also includes Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Nigel Godrich (Radiohead producer), Joey Waronker (R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins, Beck), and Mauro Refosco.

Although no announcement has been made by Fuji Rock promoter Smash yet, the poster looks official (and bears a strong resemblance to past FRF adverts) so I imagine all the info is legit and will be properly revealed soon.

The Fuji Rock Festival poster from Massive Attack is here.

A review of Atoms For Peace’s recent Coachella performance is here and their setlist from said concert is here.

*Photo of Thom Yorke by Roxanne and used with permission from Smashing Mag.

Smash has revealed the latest batch of artists who will perform at this summer’s Fuji Rock Festival.  17 acts including a blast from the past that we mentioned as a definite possibility last week are listed after the jump.

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A comment to our recent post about the latest artist additions echoed what many have been speculating on the Japanese BBS of Fujirockers.org — that legendary British art rock act Roxy Music are coming to Fuji Rock.

While nothing has been confirmed, frontman Bryan Ferry does include an appearance on July 31 at Fuji Rock amongst the tour dates on his MySpace site.  All the other shows listed are festivals that Roxy Music will perform at.

We’ll have to wait for the next official lineup announcement from Fuji Rock promoter Smash to see if the rumours are true.  In the meantime, up your anticipation level by checking out Roxy Music’s inclusion in Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of “The Greatest Artists of All Time.”

In the first announcement we got a former member of Led Zepplin and now in the third list of bands we get a former member of Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Think any more legendary performers will be added before the start of the fest?

Check out what other recently revealed artists will be joining John Fogerty at FRF ‘10 after the jump.

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This should have been posted a bit sooner, but better late …

Anyhoo, the new additions to the fest along with links to check ‘em out are after the jump!

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Auditions for Fuji Rock’s Rookie A Go-Go stage are now being accepted.  More after the jump.

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