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Space-Out With Tanizawa Tomofumi
- July 13, 2018 ● Bands, Interviews
Get your head into the clouds
Sometimes a solo musician’s artistic evolution can progress in surprising ways. Tanizawa Tomofumi debuted as a pop singer-songwriter with good, quirky production and unique songwriting. After making a splash and a paycheck off of penning the opening theme for popular anime Kimi Ni Todoke, he spent a year traveling the world. The whole world. All the way to Antarctica and back. He returned significantly more psychedelically cosmic and with a lot of new world-music influences to add into what was already a super-strong pop sensibility. The result is some of the most sonically and artistically unique music to come out of any ‘singer-songwriter’ you could hope to find.
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Fujirockers Interview: Esne Beltza!
- July 13, 2018 ● Bands, Interviews
Esne Beltza is a large ensemble from the Basque Countries, the mountainous region that rests in the north of Spain and the south of France. Basque is one of the most ancient languages in Europe, predating the arrival of Latin and the Romans and having no relation to other contemporary European languages. People have spoken Basque – or Euskal, as the Basque people call their own country and language – in Spain’s mountains for literally thousands of years. So tradition runs deep, and Esne Betlza proudly accepts it, mixing traditional melodies and lyrics of modern Basque poetry with Latin rhythms, punk rock energy and various modern styles: hip hop, reggae, soul, rock, folk and Cumbia. In their own words, their music represents “the journey from the small Basque Country to the large world.”
This year, Esne Beltza will play several times at Fuji Rock, including sets on the White Stage and Crystal Palace Tent, a DJ set by band member DZ at the Blue Galaxy Tent, and also a pre-Fuji Rock warmup party at the Radical Music Network on July 25 at Club Asia in Tokyo.
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2018 Rookie Recommendations
- July 10, 2018 ● Bands, From Fujirockers.org
2017 Rookie winners Chai
The Rookie Stage is always a mixed bag of acts veering between wishy-washy bedroom pop, punk guitar-throwing, schedule-be-damned antics or energetic kawaii-pop. For those who play, the Rookie stage has sometimes opened up doors to wider success, and it’s this potential promise that keeps bands applying year on year for the chance to appear at the following year’s festival on a main stage.
Here’s a brief selection of bands worth checking out, if only because they break the mold of floppy-haired boys playing guitar to their shoes.
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Hip-Hop Hooligans Jabba Da Football Club
- July 9, 2018 ● Bands
Japanese Hip-Hop Four Piece Jabba Da Football Club
In a more hip-hop-heavy lineup at Fujirock than ever, big names like Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone and N.E.R.D are sure to draw more fans of the genre to Naeba than in years past. Not to let overseas rap acts hog all the spotlight, a few Japanese hip-hop acts also have their sights set on expanding the presence of the genre at the festival. One of those acts, Jabba Da Football Club will take to Naeba Shokudo late Saturday to do just that.
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The story behind Fishbone Soundclash, Basque Rockers and Mestizo Music Mania!
- July 3, 2018 ● Bands, Interviews
Every year, Fuji Rock hosts at least one of those crazy Latin bands that play high-energy music makes you dance so hard your legs ache for the rest of the weekend. Their presence is almost always due to the work of Shogo Komiyama, head of the Japonicus, a music promoter who for nearly two decades has been bringing “mestizo” artists –– musicians mixing Latin, Caribbean and international influences –– from the Iberian peninsula, southern Europe and the Americas to Japan. This year, Shogo’s arranging much of the Friday night line-up at the Crystal Palace Tent, will host the Basque Country rockers Esne Beltza on the White Stage, and has set up a bunch of great vinyl DJs for the Blue Galaxy Tent on Saturday night.
Shogo’s also organizing the only Fuji Rock pre-party, his own Radical Music Network party on Wednesday, July 25 at Club Asia in Shibuya. It goes from 6:30pm to midnight and will feature members of Fishbone as part of an all-star mestizo lineup. (Quick note: anyone with a non-Japanese passport gets a JPY 500 discount on the door admission price. So if you’re getting to Tokyo early, check it out!)
To get the inside scoop on all the mestizo music action on and around Fuji Rock weekend, we caught up with Shogo for a quick preview of the Latin, ska and other music coming to Fuji Rock this year.
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CHAI and the Rise of Neo-Kawaii
- June 29, 2018 ● Bands
While ‘kawaii’ may remain one of the most recognizable Japanese phrases and cultural cliches inside and outside the country, as an aesthetic concept it doesn’t provide musicians much artistic freedom. Then Nagoya’s CHAI comes in and flips the script.
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Ash, Glim Spanky, Kali Uchis And More Added To Fuji Rock Festival 2018!
- June 15, 2018 ● Bands
The latest update is here
With just a little over a month to go before the party gets going in Naeba, the latest artist announcement for Fuji Rock Festival 2018 has arrived.
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Dylanology
- June 7, 2018 ● Bands, Interviews
Toshiyuki “Heckel” Sugano and Ryosei Sato discuss Dylan.
Few artists confound audiences like Bob Dylan. In fact, a whole academic field, Dylanology, has sprung up to make sense of his exhaustive body of work. Dylan may be deserving of such attention after recently winning a Nobel Prize and his role in popular culture, for example, playing his anti-war hymn “Blowing in the Wind” minutes before Martin Luther King gave his famed “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington DC. Dylan gave a voice and a melody to the counter-culture. His artistic influences came from the free-wheeling Beat Generation, at one point inviting Alan Ginsburg on tour with him.
Fujirockers recently spoke to Mr. Toshiyuki “Heckel” Sugano who was an A&R man for CBS/Sony and producer of the album Bob Dylan at Budokan, and Humbert Humbert vocalist, Ryosei Sato. The two are devoted fans and the closest thing to Dylanologists that we could find.
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Meet the Blues Brothers from Down Under
- June 1, 2018 ● Bands, Interviews
A morning cup of joe to soothe the soul
No, I’m not talking about some Jake and Elwood cover band from Australia, I’m referring to Josh and Sam Teskey, who along with two of their best mates make up The Teskey Brothers band. They’re a hard working, authentic sounding soul/blues band hailing from just outside of Melbourne, Australia. Their music honors the classic Stax and Motown sound, while staying fresh and original. READ MORE
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EPPAI, Clown Prince of the Madcap
- May 21, 2018 ● Bands, Experiences, Interviews
EPPAI, busking and basking
Generally punk and one-man band are not concepts that fit together neatly in a person’s mind. Also, one would assume that the real draw of a one-man band would be the skill of the performance, not the crowd-work and attitude around the edges. Especially when the performance involves playing violin and piano at the same time. But Tokyo’s EPPAI takes the anarchy and musical/comedic sensibilities of the Marx brothers and repackages it for the 21st century in the form of a punk one-man band performance artist.
