Fuji Rock Festival '12

When Fuji Rock Festival promoters Smash revealed back in November that reformed Madchester act The Stone Roses would be one of this year's headliners, it felt like a coup. When they followed that up with Radiohead a few months later, it sounded even better. Yet the subsequent lineup announcements for Japan's longest running outdoor music festival have failed to live up to the promise of that initial one-two punch. Fuji regulars will (quite rightly) insist that it's about the event itself as much as who actually plays, but we'd honestly hoped for a few more surprises than what Smash have managed to come up with so far. Here's how things are looking, as of May 15...

July 27
Araab Muzik, The Back Horn, Beady Eye, The Birthday, James Blake, Boom Boom Satellites, Caravan, Chatmonchy, Cobra, Django Django, Electric Guest (NEW), Eli Walks, Factory Floor, The Field, Gossip, Hey-Smith, Hiromi The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson & Simon Phillips, Humbert Humbert x Cool Wise Man, DJ Kentaro, The Kooks, Los Lonely Boys, Mimi Maura feat. Ishikawa Michihisa Section, Mouse on the Keys, Moritz von Oswald Trio, Owl City, Ernest Ranglin, Ed Sheeran, The Stone Roses, Tha Blue Herb, Third Coast Kings, The Trojans

July 28
Acidman, Agoria, Asparagus, Elvin Bishop, Busy P, Caribou, Che Sudaka, Ray Davies & Band, Denki Groove, The D.O.T., Frontier Backyard, Buddy Guy, The Heartbreaks, Gen Hoshino, Fumio Ito, Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band, Justice, Kanjuku Trio (Chu Kosaka, Shigeru Suzuki, Tokuo Nakano), Kid Massive, Steve Kimock, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Lindigo, Mono, Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro, My Best Fiend, OL Killer, Onda Vaga, Reiran, Sakanaction, Special Others, The Specials, Spiritualized, Swiss Lips, Toots and the Maytals

July 29
A 100% Solaris, Alt-J, At The Drive-In, Cero, Chthonic, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dumpstaphunk, Explosions in the Sky, A Flood of Circle, Fucked Up, Galactic with Corey Glover and Corey Henry, Godzilla Hoshano Hikashu, Group_inou, Howler, James Iha, Yosui Inoue, Tokiko Kato, Michael Kiwanuka, Locofrank, Lostage, Annie Mac, Mop of Head, Yael Naim, New Cool Collective, Ocean Colour Scene, Orquesta Libre with Yuichi Ohata, Quasimode, Radiohead, Refused, Shibusashirazu Orchestra, The Shins, M.Ward, Jack White