Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

ATARI TEENAGE RIOT - DOES WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and I suspect someone has also said you shouldn’t judge a band by its name. I don’t know who’d like to take credit for it, but until someone steps forward I’ll claim it for now.

Fuji Rock is not only a great time to see your favourite bands, but also an excellent opportunity to discover new ones as well.

As the line ups have been progressively announced I’ve found myself checking out a few completely unknown (to me, at least) bands on the list. As I’ve done so I’ve found that I’ve been rather judgmental. I seem to check out the bands with the most interesting names first. Which is odd, right? After all, it’s all about the music isn’t it?

But the truth of the matter is that if you don’t get introduced to a band by listening to their tracks first, you don’t have much else to go by. Unless you have a picture, which opens up a whole new level of shallow: “How hot is their guitarist? Hmmmm.”

Continue Reading…

Belle & Sebastian

It’s been a while to hear from our Glaswegian friends in Belle & Sebastian: their last album came out four years ago and touring has been limited since. But with a new album and global tour in the works, it appears that the hills of Naeba will be alive with twee, indie pop (Twindypop? Oh I am so coining that word right now).

In other news, the band is reuniting with its origins in the form of curating All Tomorrow’s Parties in December, a festival that was inspired by their own “Bowlie Weekender” event in 1999. Then there’s “God Help the Girl” an upcoming movie and soundtrack put together by B&S frontman, Stuart Murdoch (interview here). And now after a four-year hiatus (kinda), the band’s back and on the road.

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More of The xx

Everytime I listen to The XX, I just can’t figure out what composes them. Soulful female vocal and casual male vocal? Crystal guitar riff and bassline? Old minimal drum beat? Technically, yes; emotionally, I will say it’s made by romance, simply. Perhaps it just because of the lonely summer in Tokyo, I will need The XX’s live to keep me alive.

隻身在日本，少不了的煩惱絕對是戀人間的距離這件事；而不少次的自我消化，都是搭配The XX服用來緩解一下。請不要看到這邊就幹譙，我現在真的要開始講The XX了。 Continue Reading…

YEASAYER

Vampire Weekend may be Fuji’s big indie breakthrough act this summer, but some fellow indoids from Brooklyn provide welcome counterpoint on a similar exotic tip; a kind of Middle Eastern cognate to VW’s college-town highlife.

Success for both VW and Yeasayer seems to mean never having to say out loud that you’re global, because both bands’ sophomore efforts are cleaner and poppier than their debuts, whose respective multicultural vibes mostly distracted from how original sounding they were. Which isn’t to say Yeasayer, at least, has abandoned its infamous experimental predilections. Some of the sonic ideas on Odd Blood could be considered unnecessarily wonky, but the songs are pure dance pop and the singing by Chris Keating and Anand Wilder winningly exuberant and often quite soulful. Continue Reading…

MGMT

In “Kids” and “Time To Pretend” (2008)  MGMT may have had two of the best indie rock dance singles since the genre coalesced out of the collective consciousness of the yungins (thank God they didn’t invent a music style I hated, I might start feeling old), but since then they seem to be more bent on confounding expectations than endlessly repeated attempts at creating celebratory fellow-feeling. Actively eschewing the fame the club singles have brought them, their new album, Congratulations (2010), has been, shall we say, polarizing. Continue Reading…

Foals

From house parties to Glastonbury stages, Oxford five-piece, Foals, have carved themselves a nice little niche in the UK indie rock establishment. As one of 2008’s NME darlings, the band had exposure and a growing tour schedule. For their sophomore effort, however, the band’s sound moved in a significantly new direction. What began as spastic no-wave on their debut has now unfurled into shimmering chords that seem to soar through space rather than fill it. Why the different sound?

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The xx

They go by the name The xx, (”the double x”) and this young trio of friends from Wadsworth, London have created a quiet little noise about themselves over the past year.

They are also one of the most recent additions to the Fuji Rock 2010 lineup. Continue Reading…

Anyone who has seen !!! will admit that vocalist, Nic Offer, looks and acts a lot like Hollywood funnyman, Will Ferrell. Both have the same slightly hulking build and curly brown locks, and dare we say, an affinity for short, shorts! The video above, though poor in quality, captures Nic Offer at his finest. Expect some of the same moves when the band takes the stage at Fuji Rock. I am guessing that it will be sometime in the afternoon on the Green Stage. I was fortunate to catch them play at Fuji Rock in 2007 in such a setting, and I can tell you that their rambling, sprawling sound did a good job of filling the huge, muddy void this stage generally sees in the afternoon.

And if you wanna discuss !!! with your friends, it is usually pronounced Continue Reading…

Matt & Kim

This video [after the jump...] for 5K by low-fi dance punks Matt & Kim was banned by MTV in the US but broadcast in the UK. Ordinarily that would be the cue for eye-rolling and a chance to knock the puritans across the Pacific who won’t show boobs on network telly at any hour. But I’m with the States on this one. Not that this vid is likely to inspire violence — it looks as realistic as Bad Taste or that bit at the end of the first Nightmare on Elm Street where the girl suddenly and obviously becomes a rubber doll just before they yank her through the window, but it just seems a bit unnecessary to stick knives in each other. Continue Reading…

Vampire Weekend

The first time I heard Vampire Weekend’s second album Contra (released in January), I was disappointed. They had coaxed a new modern vocabulary out of throwback analog sounds on their first record, and here they were edging toward the hipster mean by bringing in electronics, as if they thought they were at risk of becoming tired-sounding so they decided to ape TV On The Radio. It seemed counterproductive.

But, God bless ‘em, they kicked my ass out of that whiny purism when I deigned to give it a second shot. If you don’t hold the first record as a gold standard you’ll notice that the electronics are actually well-placed and not as pervasive as they seem at first blush. More importantly, the glorious pop hooks are all still there, as is the joyfully energetic playing.

And so is the winking gleeful celebration of old-money privilege. In an era when nothing violent, sexual or blasphemous could be shocking enough to titillate, VW found the new locus of our shame, the coveting of a relaxed and self-satisfied mid-century opulence, and reflected it back to us so we could wallow in this dirty secret. And we all pitched collective tents in our collective madras shorts in gratitude.

(It’s both disappointing and encouraging to find out the guys in the band are Continue Reading…

We’ll take James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem anyway we can get him when he appears on Sunday. Several years ago he played one of the airplane hangars at Summer Sonic and reportedly the place is still rattling–I know my teeth are. If it were up to us, we’d have him headlining the White Stage, though there’s always the possibility he’ll get stuck at the Red Marquee since he tends to classify himself as a rock act. Actually, it wouldn’t be too bad if he were mistaken for a dance act and scheduled for the the middle of the night at the RM, but the White Stage around 9 with a huge crowd and a starry sky to close out the weekend. What could be better? Continue Reading…

Though I admired the Dirty Projectors’ much-lauded latest album, Bitte Orca, more than I enjoyed it, I decided to check out their first-ever show in Tokyo last March at Club Quattro. I was surprised at the turnout. Despite the hefty amount of press the band had received overseas, the place was hardly sold out, but it was a healthier crowd than what I had been led to believe it would be from the promoter. Continue Reading…

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…

Antibes’ Anthony Gonzalez (nee’ M83) and his blissed-out dream pop have had a few strange pairings of late, sharing the stage with both Kings of Leon and the LA Philharmonic.
Last year’s stadium tour with the Killers (also at this year’s FRF) is a better match, but perhaps their upcoming opening slot for Depeche Mode will be the best fit yet. M83’s guitar drone and etherial synths do echo 80’s indie, but I’ll wait till Gonzales has shed Gahan, Gore and company and arrives in the Japanese Alps before I fill my cup at that well again.

Listen to M83 here
M83’s Youtube Channel
M83 and London Philharmonic
M83 on Current.TV
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