Hey Japanophiles, help me out here. In Japanese, is Dachambo one of those contracted, composite words, one that happens to mean "big jam band"? It might as well be.

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1:34 PM

Ska punk was a commercially viable enterprise in Southern California during the 1990s, spearheaded by groups like No Doubt and Sublime, but boosters could be forgiven for not having any knowledge about genuine ska, since the SoCal variety was pretty much a genre unto itself. Consequently, when older ska acts came through town they found it hard to pick up musicians who could play the unadulterated kind. The Aggrolites, a quintet of local reggae musicians, formed in 2002 to fill this niche, and managed to find gigs backing classicists like Derrick Morgan, Prince Buster, and Culture's Joseph Hill. Then they decided they could do it, too.

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10:33 AM

Following Sean article about Diplo new project with Major Lazer. An amazing cool video of the single 'hold the line' have just been release.

Cool vidéo du nouveau projet de Diplo aka Major Lazer sur le single 'hold the line'. Pour faire suite à l'article de Sean.

Sebastien

1:26 AM

Korean punksters Crying Nut are stars in their homeland, and virtually unknown anywhere else. They are as big domestically as any screaming punk band can expect to be. Their debut album became the best-selling indie release in Korean chart history, and after a blip when they fulfilled their national service obligations, they stormed back with contributions to various punk compilations and a tribute album entitled 'Smells like Nirvana'. It came in a scratch 'n' sniff case that released the odour of Kurt Cobain. No, it didn't.

Other releases include 'The Cow of OK Pasture' and '조선펑크', which translates as 'ROK the Casbah'. No, it doesn't. Or it might do. Who knows.

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4:42 PM

Look like the past months the entire web turned addict to Twitter. The new hip social network is picking up users at alarming rate and everyone suddenly have the urge to tell the world what they are doing… If you are bored to follow you friends to learn who’s having a coffee or who’s lonely at home, just point out your browser to our fellow Fuji Rock stars account and get to know the out and about of the Jet Set. From the very quiet Polysics to enthusiastic Diplo, many artists jumped into the little bird bandwagon.

A list of the official or fans feeds and French translation after the jump!

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3:06 PM

Diplo (nee Wesley Prentz) is seemingly everywhere now and his two Fuji Rock appearances are just an example of the breakneck, late-night schedule. He's even been getting lots of attention, in of all places, the New Yorker with no fewer 3 write-ups. Read a definitive history of Diplo and his involvement in the baile funk here

Of course, there's method to this madness and it has to do with his newest release, Major Lazer, which came out on June 16th. Nearly every music mag (on-line and print) has covered it, but there’s no use reading these reviews which sound like Diplo pulling a fast one on the reviewers, making them look downright silly. Don’t believe me, just try to make sense of this review in Popmatters. And I’m reading this straight! If I’d been on the scotch or sucking down some smoke, my head would have been producing a major “Whaaaaa?”

Which leads me to my final point, this music is about booty shaking!!!!! And here, Diplo, pulls out his final trick. The dude’s a filmmaker! And his vibe has been traveling the film circuit from SXSW to Seattle. So, without further adieu, here is some of Diplo’s finest.

//sean s.

11:40 AM

"Our favorite rock star Kiyoshiro is now doing a solo tour of the stars through the Milky Way with his guitar and his bicyle." So wrote Smash president Masa Hidaka in a press release to announce the special tribute show to Kiyoshiro Imawano, the unofficial mayor of Fuji Rock who died two months ago.

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8:27 AM

As Phil previously mentioned in his "Breaking news" post, The Killers have canceled their appearance at this year's Fuji Rock.

The official comments from the band on FRF's site are: ""The Killers have been forced to cancel their appearance at this year's Fuji Rock Festival due to unforeseen circumstances. The band apologizes to their Japanese fans and hope to reschedule their shows in Japan soon."

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12:52 AM

Spanish leftists playing Fujirock? Does this mean there won't be any Basque bands this year?

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7:01 PM

Maybe it's the economy. Maybe it's politics. As a rock and roll writer, I wouldn't know much about either of those, but what I do know is that Taiwan's Formoz Festival is canceled for 2009 and Korea's Pentaport Rock Festival has scaled back majorly on headliners, from Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes and Placibo last year to (get ready to Wikipedia) the Deftones, Lenka and Eskimo Joe (yes, those are international bands.) In recent years, both fests were held on the same weekend as Fujirock and sponged off some of the headliners. Things have changed big time.

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6:01 PM