Tag - j-rock

 
 

J ROCK

Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 13, 2013
Mitsui earns trip to streetball finals at Alcatraz Island
Hideki Mitsui is headed to one of the world's most famous prisons, where the "Tokyo No. 1 Boss Dog" will try his hand at ruling the yard.
CULTURE / Music / MONEY AND MUSIC
Jul 3, 2013
Japan's festival industry is stuck in a fine kettle of fish
Are summer festivals killing Japan's live-music market?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 27, 2013
Summer's best festivals are off the beaten path
For the past 10-15 years, Japan's festival season has been dominated by four main events: Fuji Rock, Summer Sonic, Rock in Japan and Rising Sun.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2013
From Björk to Kyary, festival season has arrived
Summer means a lot of things in Japan: stifling heat and humidity, fireworks and the Bon holidays, nagashi-sōmen noodles and chilled barley tea. For music fans though, the season brings a different kind of to-do list: booking cheap train tickets in advance, stocking up on essential supplies — and searching for your tent's instruction manual. Summer music festivals are an institution in Japan, and when you're hibernating six months from now, it'll be the memories of the season's highlights that will warm you up as much as any kotatsu.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2013
Bugg scores with working-class familiarities
"I hadn't been anywhere before last year, I'd hardly left England. And now I'm going to Japan. I never thought I'd be going to a place like that. I think it is going to blow my mind."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013
Extruders have a rock epiphany
"Before the gig, we were quite intimidated: a lowly rock band performing in front of a god. After, we found we could do it, and that was the turning point for us."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2013
Japanese acts play music ambassadors at Canadian Music Week
After rock group Jake Stone Garage hit the final chord of one of their powerful guitar-heavy songs, the crowd let out a few hoots and applauded politely.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013
“Mr. Children 2005-2010
My Japan Times colleague Ian Martin nailed the state of Japanese pop music when he wrote that it was "clinging on to the hoary old remains of the past." The Oricon Chart's top albums of 2012 list was dominated by "Best Of" compilations, with the top two spots going to a pair released by rock band Mr. Children, put out to celebrate the quartet's 20th anniversary. "Mr. Children 2005-2010 <macro>" sold 1.16 million copies and was 2012's best-selling CD. It's a fitting representation of the state of J-pop entering 2013 — a serviceable collection of songs with a few strong moments, but ultimately an exercise in playing it safe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2013
Alabama Shakes tap the roots of Southern blues-rock
Here's a question: what do Russell Crowe, Robert Plant, Jack White and David Byrne all have in common?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 19, 2013
Kyoto gardens give up all their secrets during intimate guided tours
How do you appreciate a Japanese garden? The typical temple visit — where you ponder a seemingly random assemblage of rocks and raked gravel or push your way through a throng of tourists jostling for camera angles — can leave one confused and underwhelmed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2012
Fuji Rock gets a blast of sunshine, and a wave of Cool Britannia from Radiohead, Noel Gallagher, The Stone Roses
Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it's not for the weather. If there's one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and hope for more than quality performances from their favored artists — it's for clear skies. Or at least just one full day without the rains that have become so run-of-the-mill at Japan's premier music festival. Now with the event wrapped up, though, if last year's gathering is remembered as one of the wettest Fuji Rocks since the event's inception in 1999, then this installment will definitely go down as "the sunny one."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012
Purity Ring's secret? Start your morning right
How does Fuji Rock compare with other festivals around the world?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012
Mono wants you to give your parents a hug
Great gig!
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 26, 2012
Fuji's Rookie A Go-Go stage holds an antidote for the same-old rockers
The Fuji Rock Festival kicks off tomorrow with its dependable mixture of ageing rockers from abroad, a handful of predictably chosen Japanese acts, and just a smattering of blogged-about buzz bands. This year in particular, the joy I felt upon the demise of Oasis has been replaced with the dread of the hydralike horror of two separate Gallagher-fronted bands as headlining acts on two successive days.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 19, 2012
Fuji Rock embraces Kilimanjaro blend
It may be tough to tell from both acts' music and sense of style, but without the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Saitama funk sextet Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro would be a very different band.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 1, 2011
The New Mastersounds hone a jazz-funk style at gigs
The New Mastersounds have many old friends in Japan. The British four-piece was first noticed on these shores by fans of Scottish Northern Soul and funk DJ Keb Darge's "Deep Funk" series of compilations in the early 2000s, and an impressive live resume has followed.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2011
Japan in a European club?
Hitherto unknown and self-styled "loach" Yoshihiko Noda must learn to swim in an ocean of problems as Japan's new prime minister of the year. He has more than a plateful of domestic issues, but he should also realize, as his predecessors forgot, that Japan needs to re-engage the world if it is to find a way out of its depressing economic and political predicaments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2011
Lesser lights shine amid Fuji Rock rains
When U.S. act Washed Out hit the Red Marquee stage on Friday night, that's when the Fuji Rock Festival 2011 really began to get going.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2011
Vaccines bring shot of rock to Fuji
Even before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake caused concert cancellations en masse, The Vaccines had to start pulling out of overseas tour commitments due to singer Justin Young's throat operation. Now "100 percent better," the band will show the audience at this year's Fuji Rock Festival what has made them Britain's most talked-about indie-pop band since Arctic Monkeys.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 14, 2011
Fighting for change the Fuji Rock way
Faced with the nation's worst disaster since World War II, Fuji Rock Festival founder Masahiro Hidaka had to make a choice back in March — whether to hold Japan's biggest summer music festival this year or not. He decided that the show must go on.

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