Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

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 came here from a disappointing Ian Brown. I’m amped for something more. More what? Well, more good. I chose to walk along the back road so I could have a view of the stage from behind with the audience aglow. It’s a special view that I’ve added here after the jump. Apologies for the no tripod fuzziness. I managed to be watching from here just as they came on and the crowd rushed forward, quite a sight I’d not experienced from afar before. Continue Reading…

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… 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.
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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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Asian Kung Fu Generation

They throw their own annual arena festivals, they look like button down rock and roll geeks rather than the anime super heroes their name suggests, and they’re the darling of the Japanese music industry’s record release cycle. They are: Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Continue Reading…

Each year I add a day to my Japan visit to travel around Tokyo, usually visiting Roppongi’s Mori Art Museum where I’ve seen everything from retrospectives of contemporary Chinese artists like Ai Wei-Wei to a 30th Anniversary Hello Kitty exhibit featuring a contribution by Sonic Youth. It was during one of these visits that I first cam across Chris Cunningham who is one of the latest additions to Fuji line-up.

I stumbled upon Cunningham’s “Rubber Johnny” DVD in the Mori gift shop, a short horror themed flick filmed entirely with a DV camera’s night vision setting and a character seemingly composed of nylon hosiery stuffed with cotton wadding. And now, this little figure, along with 3 simultaneous projection screens and a live soundtrack will be gracing the Saturday’s Green Stage, and I’m guessing here, but probably right after Roxy Music.

Cunningham not only has art-world cred but quite a track record of producing videos for top artists like Portishead, Bjork, and even Madonna. He took a hiatus from this lucrative video work to learn music production fulltime in 2004 & 2005, emerging at the end with a 45 minute audio-visual piece performance at Electraglide in Tokyo. The show went over so well that he’s still doing it 5 years later. In my opinion, Cunningham deserves a cheer for this: we’ve already known how important a stunning stage show is for many artists, and now, we’ve finally got an audio visual extravaganza with the musicians truly in the background

Scissor Sisters @ Zepp Tokyo, Jan. 2007

Scissor Sisters are slated as being “special guests” on Sunday night on the Green Stage, which would seem to indicate that they’re going to close the festival. Some may find that blasphemous, since, originally at least, that slot was reserved for some rip-roaring “world beat” act with all sorts of PC cred. Either that or a bona fide electro-dance artist. SS is neither PC nor particularly electronic. They’re the campiest rock band on the planet, and I think that’s exactly what this year’s festival needs, especially after two hours of Massive Freaking Attack. Continue Reading…

Atoms For Peace: Thom Yorke can't catch a break

Seems like everyone is slagging Thom Yorke lately. I was watching the current BBC series I’m in a Rock n Roll Band last night, and Gene Simmons of KISS went out of his way to specifically name Yorke as a bland performer, a singer who disrespected the hard-earned money his fans spend on a show by just standing around—at which time the program dissolved into a cartoon-based motion graphic sequence depicting sullen Radiohead members slowly rocking back and forth on stage like starving, scurvy infected sailors. Yet, follow that up with a review of any of the new Atoms for Peace shows, and the first sentence in some way jabs Yorke’s “new” incessant and spastic dance style. This guy just can’t catch a break.

And these people just don’t get it.
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Zach de la Rocha

Colossal oil devastation, endless wars, global economic meltdown—tough times, yes, but no better time than right now to see Zack de la Rocha rushing the stage and preaching his brand of political activism to the choir. This surprise late addition to the FRF lineup could not be more relevant.

De la Rocha has lately been louder than ever, and more often than not, his voice has been amplified not over speakers but through megaphones. When he and fellow Rage member Tom Morello ignited the protest at the Republican National Convention in 2008 with a set that was literally unplugged by the police, the subsequent youtube video became for many the most potent symbol of that resistance movement. And then there’s Sound Strike, his campaign for a musical boycott of Arizona due the recent immigration policy reform changes in the state.

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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.

This difference has a larger meaning than just as a bit of trivia. As terrific as John Paul Jones is and was, he was simply one-fourth of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and Them Crooked Vultures is not Led Zeppelin. However, John Fogerty was for all intents and purposes CCR, the original roots rock band and some might say the greatest singles band in American pop history.

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The Birthday

If you are looking for Japanese rock ‘n’ roll swagger at Fuji Rock, one of your best bets this year is The Birthday. After playing in the on-again-off-again acts Rosso and Thee Machine Gun Elephant (who appeared at Fuji Rock in 1998, 2000 and 2003), vocalist/guitarist Chiba Yusuke paired up with guitartist Imai Akinobu to keep the psychobilly going. Their latest release, ”The Birthday meets Love Grocer at On-U Sound” — a five song CD out this May — was remixed by Adrian Sherwood, the master producer who has worked with everyone from Lee ”Scratch” Perry to Nine Inch Nails and frequently comes for dub DJ sets in Japan.

Like compatriots Guitar Wolf, who open the White Stage on Friday, The Birthday are scheduled first thing in the morning — Green Stage on Saturday at 11 a.m. — so expect the smell of hot leather, gun powder and tequila to get you going at the start of the first day of the weekend.

– Donald