SubscribeFilm director, Wes Anderson, has done much to revive the British Invasion, unearthing overlooked B-sides and building scenes around forgotten songs such as the Rolling Stones “2,000 Man,” which scored the penultimate scene of “Bottle Rocket” when protagonist, Dignan (Owen Wilson), triumphantly declares, “They’ll never catch me, man, ’cause I’m fuckin’ innocent.” Moments later, of course, he’s face down in meat locker and frog marched into an awaiting police cruiser. For Anderson’s follow up, “Rushmore”, he choreographs a breathtaking closing scene to The Face’s ambling singalong, “Ooh La La.”
The main lyric in the line, sung by a gravel throated Ron Wood, “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger,” mirror the movie’s central theme of adolescence, and again, lost innocence. In the liner notes, Anderson says he initially wanted to score the whole film to Kinks songs, but eventually opened it up to music from the British Invasion. It’s a good thing he did, as Anderson credits “Ooh La La” with being the main inspiration for this closing scene.
This is a good example of what Wes Anderson’s soundtracks do best, they find great music that was once overlooked and make us wonder how we could have ever lived our lives without listening to it. For many, The Faces may have been a footnote to Rod Stewart’s career but their back catalogue, especially precursor, The Small Faces, brims with angular guitar riffs and a mod style that have set the template for UK music for the next 50 years.Paul Weller is an avowed fan, and don’t think that Arctic Monkeys don’t take a page from this book. Continue Reading…
I have been contributing to this team at FujiRock for six years now, and I’ve never covered a headline act. I usually leave this duty for guys with a lot more experience like Phil, guys who write for a living. But when I saw no one else had selected to review this seminal group, I had to take it on. 
I blogged about JBT growing into something more interesting a month or so back. Due to a surprise lift from a kindly local from the minshuku we’re staying at (40 odd minutes walk from the Green Stage), I was able to slide in just as John Butler picked up his slide guitar. Actually, it was a banjo that he started the day’s activities with. But that doesn’t work with where I’m going… 
There are tons of acts this year that have never been to Japan before, but which of the artists on the FRF’10 roster who has played in Japan has been away the longest? Research indicates that John Paul Jones, who is coming with the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, played in Japan with Led Zeppelin in Oct. 1972, while John Fogerty, who is coming in his own capacity as a solo act, was in Japan with Creedence Clearwater Revival in Feb. 1972. Fogerty wins by a guitar pick.
