For the first time in my life I visited the Fuji Rock Festival (7/25-27). Ten years after moving the venue to Naeba, it was a fun event that was only slightly spoiled by the sad news that cancer metastasis forced Imawano Kiyoshiro to cancel what was supposed to be the closing concert. For me personally the festival was a great occasion to intoxicate myself with some genuine rock 'n' roll spirit.
For several reasons I "dissociated" myself from rock music even though I used to be a huge rock fan as a teenager. The biggest reason is that many rock musicians turned their backs on the counterculture they once represented, to pursue streamlined careers in the mainstream of popular music. Being "commercial" is light years away from being commercially successful. If major record deals didn't cause more "damage" than making artists famous so they can sell records and be heard by millions of people, that wouldn't be too big a problem and actually commendable, but when musicians sell their souls for such purposes it’s like putting the cart before the horse. Between the late '60s and early '70s, being a rocker meant being a rebel, an individual that protests doggedly against the mighty system that surrounds it. To abandon this attitude was in the eyes of us young and innocent rock disciples an act of betrayal.
A friend of mine, for example, opted to leave our amateur band to taste some fame as a professional bass player for a band that was just beginning to receive popularity at the time. He stayed with the band for about three years, and was in great demand also as a musician supporting other bands in the studio and on stage. He eventually quit show biz when the band was supposed to appear on TV and requested to wear uniforms - long after the end of the "group sound" era… Needless to mention, me and my friends stood firm in defense of our bassist’s decision, and continued as an amateur band. The slogan "Don't trust anyone over thirty" was coming out of fashion, but rockers appearing on TV were for us an unforgivable stab in the back anyway. That was a few years prior to the rise of MTV.
The position of TV as a mass medium, and the value of film as a vehicle for artistic expression are constantly shifting, and it’s fine if you interpret the above example as an old man warming up stories from his days as a naive adolescent. However, in my view it is just as important now as it was then to pursue the question what rock spirit is in the first place, and to be a rebel if you want to call yourself a rock musician. In this age when grand narratives are gradually vanishing and systems are cleverly making themselves invisible, one can as well call it "keep experimenting".
photo: Naruse Masanori
In this sense, one of the bands I found particularly overwhelming was My Bloody Valentine, who played last on the Green Stage on day one (7/25). They set a personal example to demonstrate that the spirit of rock 'n' roll is well alive and kicking in the 21st century. Back in the business in 2007 after pausing for ten-odd years, My Bloody Valentine are now one of those "living legends" that haven't released more than one album each in 1988 and '91. According to a magazine that was distributed for free at the venue, Fuji Rock visitors are increasingly people in their thirties, often with children, and since it was the first appearance of MBV in Japan since their first concerts here in 1991, it must have been an event that especially fans aged 30 and above had been waiting for ages. Without much ado (not to mention stage show), they delivered simple, catchy melodies and danceable rhythms, wrapped of course in a carpet of disarmingly cool vocals and noisy guitar sound. It didn't take long until the fans - including myself - began to dance like mad.
photo: Naruse Masanori
photo: Naruse Masanori
The highlight was the closing number, "You Made Me Realise". After sending their audience into an exhausting dance marathon, halfway through the song the music turned into roaring noise, completely without melodies or rhythms. As far as I could see on the monitor, Kevin Shields (g & voc) and Debbie Googe (b) did move their fingers across the bars of their guitars, while guitarist (and singer) Bilinda Butcher’s grip remained firmly fixed on one single chord. I didn't look on my watch during the performance, but according to Yamamoto Seiichi, who was there one day before his own band’s set, this version of the song was about 25 minutes long. Drummer Colm O'Ciosoig looked understandably tired out, but the other three totally lived up to their "shoegazer" image as they built their massive walls of noise with virtually unchanged facial expressions (and basically staring at the floor all the time anyway).
For some fans it was perhaps a rather disappointing show, and I did spot people who gave up their places right in front of the stage and left. But that’s what I consider genuine rock spirit. Don't stop experimenting, and don't be afraid to try things out. Play around with things, and enjoy those experiments. Yamamoto told me that not only such rumored bands as Ride or Chapterhouse were influenced by MBV’s music, but even Yamamoto himself, as well as the likes of Flipper’s Guitar and others here in Japan. "The concert was a 'natural' presentation, including the total lack of the service-mindedness of show stars (laugh), and I find it amazing how they just do exactly what they want and how they want to do it," Yamamoto enthuses, and I can only nod affirmatively at his remark, "their noisy signature is very much like that of Sonic Youth." Anyway, after the 25-minute noise attack the band shifted just as if nothing particular had happened, and played a nicely danceable little tune. It goes without saying that this triggered the next explosion in the audience.
On the following day, Yamamoto’s PARA played their unique mixture of strong melodies and irregular meters (at the Orange Court stage), and that was another fine demonstration of exquisite experimentalism. Different from MBV, the set was made up of danceable pieces (regardless of the irregular meters), and Yamamoto’s "service-minded" announcements and comments between the songs. In the evening, Yamamoto moved over to Naeba Shokudo, where he presented his own interpretation of the Folk Campers' hit "Playboy, Playgirl" with the "Trio de Folkjamboree" alongside Fuwa Daisuke and Sasaki Ayako. The Folk Campers were once notorious "folk guerillas" performing protest songs in front of Shinjuku Station’s west gate. I forgot the exact lyrics of the Trio’s rendition of the song, but it was something along the lines of, "Playboy, playgirl, don't do just as you please. (Up to here adapted from the original lyrics) Food problem, oil buyout, don't do just as you please…" Then the best part: "If you're traveling to Naeba just because everybody else does, better stay away from Fuji Rock…"
Don't go with the crowd, and don't be an opportunist. Do what YOU want to do, and as you want to do it. I'm sure that Yamamoto Seiichi - even under the name of "folk jamboree" - is another musician who is charged with quite some rock 'n' roll spirit.