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May 03, 2024
 

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ROCK

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2008
Bettye LaVette brings her triumphant soul battle to Fuji
Few artists could have struggled through a career as thoroughly frustrating as that of American soul singer Bettye LaVette and still continue to display the strength and good humor that she does.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2008
CSS put their crazy show back on the road
It is January, and squeezed away upstairs in their favorite sushi restaurant in downtown Sao Paulo are the six members of CSS plus a stray boyfriend. (Turns out he belongs to producer-cum-drummer Adriano Cintra, the only fella in the group.) After 18 months touring the world, they are back home in Brazil to record their second album, which at this moment might end up being called "Donkey" or might end up being called "Hunk of Sh*t." Shortly hereafter, once the album's finished and it's summer festival season in Europe and North America, the band will split this sprawling megalopolis for good. But this evening, as the rain slams down in the subtropical streets outside, the sake is flowing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2008
Kiyoshiro Imawano at Fuji Rock Festival
Legendary rip-roaring rocker Kiyoshiro Imawano — who bears the soul of Otis Redding and the flamboyance of Marc Bolan — hasn't had the best of times over the last few years. The keen cyclist first had his bicycle stolen, which seemed a threat to future Fuji Rock performances as he has been known to pedal up from Tokyo to the festival in distant Niigata Prefecture. Then, in 2006, the former R.C. Succession frontman had to cancel his show after discovering he had throat cancer. Happily, he returned to the stage at the end of last year, and his triumphant appearance as a headliner at this year's Fuji Rock Festival will be sure to fire a charged emotional response.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 7, 2007
Battles look past end of postrock
Almost all Japanese editions of albums by foreign artists contain Japan-only bonus tracks, but few of these tracks are as site-specific as the one that closes the debut album by the New York-based postrock quartet Battles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007
Fuji Rock 07: We came, we saw, we survived
From rioting with Iggy to bopping with The Chemical Brothers, JT writers mixed it up among the thousands at Naeba to bring you the highs — and lows — of Fuji Rock '07
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007
Fans-eye view from Naeba
Yo Okado, 41, accountant
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.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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