Shonen Knife is possibly the biggest and baddest Japanese punk-pop band of all time.
The all-girl ensemble will be at the Launchpad tonight with The Mindy Set and the Roxiehearts. Shonen Knife is promoting the release of the English version of Heavy Songs - an album that is already a favorite overseas.
The Japan Times hailed it as "one of the best albums by a Japanese rock band in years." Available today, Heavy Songs is Shonen Knife's first release in the United States in five years.
Take it from alt-rock gods like Sonic Youth and Nirvana, Shonen Knife is a force to be reckoned with.
"When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical 9-year-old girl at a Beatles concert," Kurt Cobain said in 1993.
"Shonen Knife is an old unknown brand name of pencil knife," said Naoko Yamano, a founding member of Shonen Knife. "Shonen means boy in Japanese. The word boy implies cute and the word knife implies danger - our music is cute and dangerous." Cute and dangerous may be apt descriptions, but the band's influences tell more about its sound. Yamano's nearly endless list included Buzzcocks, The Ramones, KISS, Black Sabbath, Nick Lowe, The Beatles, Earth Wind and Fire and "mainly '70s rock and the disco sound."
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Couple that with female vocals and lyrical sensibilities that lend themselves to Frank Zappa and early Bjîrk repertoire - the result is truly eclectic. By the mid-1980s, sisters Naoko and Atsuko Yamano along with Michie Nakatani swept the United States' underground music scene, becoming favorites on play lists of college radio stations.
Quirky lyrics and undeniably hardcore guitar arrangements coupled with the girls' disarming charm and Japanese flavor won over the hearts of rock's elite. The band's success led to the tribute album, Every Band Has a Shonen Knife Who Loves Them, featuring Sonic Youth, Redd Kross and L7.
Shonen Knife signed a deal with Virgin, but eventually settled on Confidential Records for releases in the United States. The band toured with Nirvana twice: once through the United Kingdom in 1993 and in the United States in 1994.
"All members of Nirvana were very kind and gentle to us," Yamano said. "When Nirvana came to my hometown, Osaka, Japan, we went to eat dinner together, and they came to our show after their show. There were so many Nirvana fans gathered in front of our club that the neighbors got angry. I don't know if they're influenced by Shonen Knife, but I'm influenced by them."
Their latest U.S. sampling, Heavy Songs, is more focused than the previous album, Strawberry Sound, which was produced in the wake of Nakatani's split from the band. Heavy Songs shows a band that has creatively recovered from that split. The album features a duet with Ron Sexsmith on "An Elephant Insect" and a tribute to George Harrison with "Mango Juice."
The band's last tour through the United States was in 1998 and anyone jonesing for a live Shonen Knife fix just might be satiated by tonight's performance.
