If you're reading this on Sunday then most likely you're not at the Fuji Rock Festival this weekend. But if you're kicking yourself for not having made the trip to Naeba, you still have a chance to enjoy at least a fraction of the Fuji fun, because six bands who are playing at the festival will be doing Tokyo before heading home.
Which happens to be England. All the groups playing at the Dawn of New Wave nights this week are British and have released debut albums in the past year; three, in fact, are short-listed for the 2005 Mercury Prize. So in addition to lingering in the post-Fuji buzz, you get a preview of the next big thing in U.K. rock.
Headlining Volume 2 (there is no Volume 1, so please don't ask again) are The Kaiser Chiefs, the Leeds quintet who channel the 1980s with a wink and a nod and have a clearer idea of what it was that made groups like A-Ha popular without falling victim to their cutesy aesthetic. In a similar vein, The Bravery have studied the elastic pop of Duran Duran in their prime. This should make them an ideal '80s cover band, but since most of the artists they resemble are cashing in on their own nostalgia value, The Bravery are forced to be original, which doesn't make them brave, only shrewd. The evening is rounded out by The Black Velvets, who are about as new wave as The Black Crowes -- whom they sort of resemble around the edges.