Fuji Rock Festival 2010 Day One

by craig

Getting to Naeba early on Thursday was a good idea. We found a good campsite and thoroughly enjoyed the opening party. We joined the bon-odori for a bit, watched BEARDYMAN, MUSTANG and NARASIRATO PAN PIPERS at Red Marquee and danced to JAMAICA, MYSS and other DJs in the mud and rain at the Ganban stage.



We managed to stay dry in our tents and even get some sleep.
Day One started off with the wonderful HIKASHU at Orange Court. Fun, good-humoured avant-garde new-wave performance with funky dance moves, Jew's harp and theremin action from singer Koichi Makigami.



Mud, mud everywhere. Enjoyed MIIKE SNOW at Red Marquee, before heading to White Stage to watch (mostly) instrumental bands TOE and JAGA JAZZIST. Despite the rain, Jaga Jazzist was my fave act for day one. Beautiful blend of jazz, experimental, electronica and post-rock - like a danceable Tortoise. The excited bearded drummer got the crowd wild and everyone was bopping in their raincoats.



I stayed under the dry roof of the Red Marquee for a while and caught THE XX and BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE. Good stuff. Passed by Green Stage where MUSE were doing their awful stadium rock thing. Amazing light show, man..



Made it to White before !!! came onto stage. Wow!!! They had us all dancing and going crazy!!! Psyched up for all-night Fuji, we headed to Orange Court. Cool lights, man.




FISCHERSPOONER did a cool drunken electro/house DJ set. Everyone was dancing and as KEN ISHII came to the decks, even more people piled in to dance the morning away. Can't remember what I did next, but I'm sure it involved dancing in mud.

Review/pictures of Day Two coming soon!

Fuji Rock Festival - recommended Japanese bands

by craig

There are a lot of good Japanese artists playing Fuji Rock Festival this year. Here are some of my recommendations:

HIKASHU (ヒカシュー)
Incredibly strange new-wave band that has been going since the late 70s, fronted by the amazing vocal gymnast Koichi Makigami. Here's a clip of them from 1980:


bloodthirsty butchers
2008 FRF had My Bloody Valentine and last year's festival had Guitar Wolf - this year's band with the loudest guitars will likely be bloodthirsty butchers. They've been playing their noisy indie-rock since 1987.


LITE and toe
Instrumental math-rock groups.



iLL
Koji Nakamura's electronic-rock project after the breakup of Supercar.


Gellers
Most people will be watching Atoms For Peace who are playing at the same time, but I know I'll be watching Shugo Tokumaru's band Gellers.


Hideki Kaji (カジヒデキ)
Another unlucky timeslot - my favourite Japanese pop singer Kaji-kun will be playing at the same time as Belle & Sebastian.


SPECIAL OTHERS
An interesting jazz/jam/rock band. Should be fun to see on the White Stage.


BUFFALO DAUGHTER
The famous electronic-rock band.


Y. Sunahara
Popular in the Shibuya-kei scene of the late 90s, Yoshinori Sunahara (ex Denki Groove) will be getting The Red Marquee dancing.


Kicell (キセル)
Pop band Kicell will have the Field Of Heaven swaying.


OVALL + 45TRIO + CONGUERO TRES HOOFERS
This should be a cool jazz/hip-hop collaboration.


On the Rookie-A-Go-Go stage, check out Eiko Ishibashi (石橋英子), core of bells, odotte bakari no kuni (踊ってばかりの国), and Uchujin (宇宙人).