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April 29, 2024
 

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J ROCK

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007
Chats backstage at Fuji
'Mine's best' 'It's been lovely," said former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker toward the end of his Friday afternoon set at FRF '07. And indeed it was. The JT caught up with Cocker backstage after his show and asked him to elaborate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2007
Ready for the muddy mountain
Through her three solo albums and work with Peaches, Broken Social Scene and Chilly Gonzales, Leslie Feist (who releases records under her last name) has established herself as the soulful queen of Canadian indie rock. Her new album, "The Reminder," released this month in Japan, is a collection of bruising, beautiful songs filled with melody and mystery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2007
Playing their last show, again
"This year is 30 years since I first went onstage with a band called The Cure and 2009 will be 30 years since our first album," says proto-goth Robert Smith, speaking via telephone on a suitably ghoulish Friday the 13th.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007
Soundtrack of the summer: Muse
Muse are regularly regaled as one of the best live acts in Britain. They put on flabbergasting shows — including fireworks with more explosive power than a battery of North Korean ballistic missiles, space-pod drum risers straight out of "Star Wars," stuff like that — and all of the theatrics are married to a series of gargantuan, overblown rock songs with titles like "Knights of Cydonia." Almost certainly on a high after headlining the Isle of Wight Festival and playing two gigantic soldout shows at Wembley Stadium last weekend, Muse are likely to arrive at Fuji Rock with all lasers blasting, though don't expect them to cart their full arsenal of stage effects to the distant mountains of Naeba.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 6, 2006
Rock, dance collide at outdoor fest
Billing itself as an outdoor festival in Tokyo "under the sun," the seventh Nagisa Music Festival takes place Oct. 14-15.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 28, 2006
Celebrate jazz, hip-hop near Fuji
Amid the deluge of high-profile rock festivals this summer are some more idiosyncratic events boasting eclectic lineups in unusual settings. So for every "Summer Sonic" featuring big-selling rock acts from abroad in an urban setting, there is a festival like "True People's Celebration 2006," organized by promoters LCE. Set in picturesque surroundings with a backdrop of Mount Fuji, the festival, now in its third year, takes place on Aug. 19 at Yamanaka-ko Theater Hibiki in Yamanashi Prefecture, where it is expected to attract around 5,000 people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 6, 2006
The art of the party at Fuji Rock
No one denies the power of danger and vice to push boundaries, and whether we admit it or not, the two have a way of rattling some pretty inspired performances out of people. No surprise, then, that Fuji Rock Festival has been a breeding ground for such mischief, and that the Palace of Wonder, Fuji's own little renegade province, has shown what happens when these forces are left to their own devices.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2006
Fuji Rocking 10 years on
Fuji Rock Festival is the biggest event on the calendar for many Japanese and foreign residents alike. Sure, it costs a stack of cash to go, but the festival is not your typical commercial venture. Word on the street is that it has been anything but a money spinner for concert promoter Smash Japan. Instead, think of it as one man's idea of how to throw Japan's biggest (and best) party of the year. That man is Masa Hidaka, head of Smash. As the event is about to turn 10, he talked to The Japan Times at his Hiroo office about love affairs, creating chaos and his old friend Joe Strummer (R.I.P. 2002), the legendary Clash guitarist and patron saint of Fuji Rock.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2005
The lights, guitars, action of Go! Team
Film commonly relies on music to add emotional impact. However, with The Go! Team, who hail from Brighton, England, it works the other way around. Early singles were flush with action and near-cinematic thrills, all guitar squalls and percussive thrust, with soaring horn lines that burst through your speakers. The Go! Team's debut album, "Thunder, Lightning Strike," even ends with the jubilant aftertaste of a summer blockbuster, harmonica and symphonic swells reminding of us of heroes high-fiving as the credits roll.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 10, 2003
State of the rock nation, in 35-min. bites
Since they took place on successive weekends, it's difficult not to compare this year's editions of the Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic, so let's do it. Fuji is bucolic where SS is urban. Fuji's vibe is communal and free-spirited, while the SS vibe is commercial and controlling. Fuji is populated by hippies-at-heart, while SS attracts 22-year-olds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2003
Getting down and dirty at Fuji Rock
Mix earth with rain and thousands of people, and you get a big muddy mess. But, rain or shine (and it did a little), the key ingredient is music. Philip Brasor, Simon Bartz and Mark Thompson indulged in FRF '03.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2003
Michael Franti: a man for all stages
Michael Franti was the man of the festival, the one artist who embodied the spirit of Fuji Rock better than anyone else. As tall as a basketball player and sporting wild dreads that reach the middle of his back, he was seen everywhere -- dancing with the crowd at the Talib Kweli show, hanging out backstage at the Red Marquee during The Music's set, checking out the food stalls, doing some disco karaoke at the Net Cafe -- all in his famously bare feet, which must have walked through a lot of mud this weekend. Franti started out in the San Francisco Bay Area hip-hop collective The Beatnigs, which eventually morphed into the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003
Fuji's hipper hop
Despite its immense popularity in Japan, hip-hop has until recently suffered from poor representation at summer music events. The Fuji Rock Festival seems keen to make up for lost time this year, augmenting the usual legion of club-oriented DJs with a veritable roll call of some of today's most innovative hip-hop artists. Better yet, the bulk of the roster performs on the fest's opening day, July 25.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 29, 2003
The poetry and power of rock 'n' roll
For an artist as personal as Patti Smith, who once told an interviewer that it wasn't difficult to leave "the limelight and the applause" at the height of her popularity as a rock singer to become a full-time wife and mother, she certainly seems to derive a great deal of spiritual sustenance from direct contact with people.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 26, 2001
Between Sonic rock and a hard place
At first glance, the biggest thing happening in Makuhari last weekend was the sale at the local outlet mall. No banners. No bullhorns. No hype. Just a silent, eerie cityscape of hotels and empty family restaurants. In short, there was nothing to indicate that Summer Sonic, Japan's second-biggest music extravaganza, was taking off, except for the small clusters of festival-goers navigating a maze of overpasses and pavement.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2000
Fuji Rock fest hits its stride
After only four years, it might seem premature to subtitle the Fuji Rock Festival a "summer classic," but the event's institutional status was boosted this year by the fact that it was held at the same location as it was the year before. The Naeba Ski Resort was never the organizers' first choice -- as the name implies, it was supposed to be held within spitting distance of Mount Fuji -- but politically the Mount Fuji area has proved too difficult for the Glastonbury-like prerogatives that the organizers envision. For better or worse, Naeba seems to be the permanent home.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 13, 1999
Fuji Rock Underworld more than a Blur
Big bag of cheese 'n' mushroom sandwiches: yummy. Bottle of tequila: check. Crate of Yebisu beer: yup. Jump in the Devilmobile and find the city seems to never end, but after three hours on petrol and beer our ears are popping as we spiral up the backside of a mountain near Naeba in Niigata Prefecture on oxygen and tequila and reach out for heaven via the Fuji Rock Festival.
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