Joining Yamano are Taneda (2006–present) and drummer Emi Morimoto (2010–present), and together they share their favourite foods, house pets and pastimes, all while quoting riffs from ’70s hard rock legends such as Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Bad Company and Deep Purple, with ever-present droning power chords and rock-school drumming, probably with a kick drum the size of a monster truck tire and crashes the size of U.S. Transported on a conveyor belt of Guitar Hero-esque power chords provided by the band’s only remaining original member, Naoko Yamano, and sporting high-pitched voices that sound as if they were recorded in a karaoke booth (and I don’t mean that in a bad way), with short reverb and a bright sonic finish, these three powerful ladies are “standing at the top with their hair dance.” (That’s from “Ramen Rock,” an ode to bassist Ritsuko Taneda’s favourite post-show snack.) On their latest record, Overdrive, Shonen Knife’s 20th album of their 33-year lifespan, the banana chips have been replaced by a range of new culinary delights, as the band shred their way through galaxies of fortune cookies, ramen and green tea. It was only after a few weeks that I found out that the person in question wasn’t mad and that the lyrics belonged to Shonen Knife’s most famous and damn catchy song, “Banana Chips,” as well as some lines from the Shaggs song “Philosophy of the World.” The “Banana Chips” song continued to haunt the vacuous alleyways of my tour-numbed brain for the duration of the trip.
I must admit, I only really became familiar with the band during a month-long tour of the United States back in 2011, when one of the touring party began, and proceeded incessantly, to sing lines from unfamiliar texts which at first appeared to be complete nonsense. Admired by Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain, and opening shows for Nirvana in the ’90s, the band continue to charm the underground and the overground with their sweet, terribly catchy, and subtly provocative tunes. Not to worry, there are enough banana chips to go around: since 1981, Shonen Knife have just kept on feeding the hungry masses with their special brand of buzzsaw, day-glo, banana-chip-flavored punk-rock.įor those unfamiliar with Shonen Knife: the Japanese all-female punk-rockers have provided a sugar-coated political alternative to Japan’s dominant J-pop scene, not only for Japan’s teenagers but for the rest of the world’s despondent youth (and, indeed, the despondent general population).
“Banana chips for you! Banana chips for me!” Shonen Knife sang on their 1998 album Happy Hour.
0 kommentar(er)
