This year's Summer Sonic had its craziest moment on Sunday night when 1980s singer Rick Astley joined the Foo Fighters for the latter's headlining performance. "Come on you motherf———!" Astley bellowed at the thousands of fans gathered in Chiba's Zozo Marine Stadium, with the U.S. ...
In an age where almost every piece of historical information is available at our fingertips, Thomas Mars and Laurent Brancowitz of the French band Phoenix surprise me with a fact that doesn't seem to exist anywhere on the internet. "One of our first shows was ...
Japan's 2017 summer music festival landscape has mostly settled into place. The Fuji Rock Festival, after an upbeat 20th anniversary last year, kicked up excitement thanks to a top-heavy bill headlined by Gorillaz, Aphex Twin and Bjork, along with the promise of more left-field ...
Two years ago, Underworld duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith had an epiphany. After more than three decades of working together — through some unremittingly lean early years; an epoch-defining, mega-selling turn in the 1990s; soundtracking the London Olympics opening ceremony, and a fractured ...
Summer Sonic offers something for fans of every music genre — it's practically the festival's calling card. Fans of a specific style still have it easy, though — just hang around the stage catering to your preferred sound, whether that be EDM blasting from ...
Creativeman President Naoki Shimizu says he had the perfect idea for this year's Sonicmania. The event, an all-night party that comes ahead of Creativeman's Summer Sonic music festival, would feature EDM heavyweight Skrillex and long-running synthpop outfit New Order as the headliners, bringing out ...
Summer Sonic on Thursday unveiled nine new domestic acts and a solo artist from China for its upcoming 2016 edition, including indie trio Cero and singer-songwriter Kazumi Nikaido, who is performing with the Gentle Forest Jazz Band. Chinese solo artist Leah Dou has also been ...
Following the announcement of a new album in the works, Radiohead has been confirmed as one of this year's Summer Sonic headliners. Creativeman Productions made the announcement yesterday via the festival's official website and joining the band will be Underworld, Sakanaction, Fergie, Weezer, Two Door ...
An important moment in the life of any music fan comes when they go to a festival they've been attending for several years and think — "Man, am I old?" For me, at 28, the 2015 edition of Summer Sonic marked this milestone (which came ...
When London indie-rock foursome Wolf Alice makes its Japan debut at the Summer Sonic festival this weekend, it will be three years, two EPs, one debut album and countless incendiary live gigs since it first sent alternative music blogs into a frenzy with a ...
Punters heading off to Makuhari Messe this weekend for SonicMania — the all-night event preceding the annual Summer Sonic music festival — should try to arrive at the venue early to secure a prime spot for the evening's first act: pop trio Perfume. Once Perfume ...
Festivals (matsuri) of all kinds are a staple of Japanese culture and summer is the premier season to experience them. In recent years, the country has seen a bit of a boom in cultural festivals, to the point that it's possible to book every ...
