Blame Julian Cope.
Nine months ago, the eccentric pop star of the 1980s turned author published "Japrocksampler," his essential guide to postwar Japanese rock 'n' roll, and declared Flower Travellin' Band's 1971 lysergic head-banging classic "Satori" as his joint-favorite "Japrock" album of all time. "(They) managed to distill all the best moves of their Western counterparts — Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, The Who — without once sounding like copyists," Cope declared.
Twenty years ahead of its time, "Satori" blazed a trail being explored over the last decade or so by latter-day tripped-out experimentalists from Japan such as Boris and Acid Mothers Temple. So it's only right that Flower Travellin' Band are back — rehearsing songs for an album of new material, readying themselves for a first live performance in 35 years at this summer's Fuji Rock Festival and celebrating the reissue last week of "Satori." (Sadly, there's no word on an official release for the "From Pussies to Death in 10,000 Years of Freakout" bootleg album of early material.)