Fuji Rock '11: Who to watch

Sunday

Apollo 18
11.30am, Red Marquee
Seeing that Mogwai and Envy are also playing later on (see below), it might seem like overkill to start the day with Apollo 18. However, this South Korean trio appear destined for semi-greatness, blending well-worn post-rock and shoegaze tropes with hardcore and alt. rock. Well, it went down a treat at this year's SXSW, at least.

Shugo Tokumaru
12.50pm, White Stage
There's a reason why he's the most internationally feted Japanese indie musician since Cornelius: Shugo Tokumaru is damn good. Baroque arrangements, instrument swapping and tongue-in-cheek humor are staples of a Tokumaru gig, but they're always used in service of songs that you'll be humming all day.

Warpaint
1.55pm, Red Marquee
It's a tough call between this lot and The Kills, who'll be starting up a mere five minutes later on the Green Stage. But while we suspect Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince will struggle to fill the vast expanses of Fuji's largest stage, Warpaint's arty, opiated rock should go down a treat in the sultry confines of the Red Marquee.

Tinariwen
4pm, Field of Heaven
There are tough choices to be made on the final afternoon of Fuji Rock: do you go with indie darlings Beach House (Red Marquee), noise rockers No Age (White Stage), or take a chance on some former Tuareg rebels who've opened for the Rolling Stones? No contest, if you ask us.

Mogwai
5.30pm, Green Stage
It's been five years since the Scottish post-rock heroes last played at Fuji Rock, and twice that long since they released a really good album. Yet Mogwai are still capable of delivering an incandescent (not to mention ear-shredding) live show – just hope they leave most of the newer material at home.

Envy
6.20pm, Red Marquee
Okay, heading straight from Mogwai to Envy is a bit like washing down a tequila with a chaser of absinthe: brace yourself for more colossal walls of euphoric guitar noise, supplemented by hardcore drumming and impassioned screamo vocals. If your hearing wasn't already wrecked, it will be now.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
7.20pm, Green Stage
They should have been headliners, really. Whatever: the grey-haired elder statesmen of electropop – and Japanese pop, period – are guaranteed a rapturous reception when they take to the Green Stage at this year's Fuji. Don't be surprised if they draw the largest crowd of the entire festival, too.

Atari Teenage Riot
8.30pm, Red Marquee
It's debatable whether there was any real need for the late-'90s anarcho-electro outfit to get back together. What isn't up for debate is that this new incarnation of ATR, fronted once again by poker-faced Digital Hardcore overlord Alec Empire, is every bit as brutal as they were first time around.

Wilco
10.20pm, White Stage
Yeah, we know you're all going to be watching the Chemical Brothers at this point, but spare a thought for the band who haven't played Fuji Rock five times before. For all their reputation as weirdo alt. rockers, Jeff Tweedy's band boast some killer songs, and their live shows pack the punch of a stadium-sized act.

EKD
11.50pm, Naeba Shokudo
The area surrounding the tiny Naeba Shokudo stage is probably going to resemble a mud wrestling pit by this point in the festival. What better place to watch Tokyo's EKD, whose cumbia-electro-surf-punk antics should provide a fittingly bonkers close to this year's Fuji Rock. Go on: get dirty.