The iconic all-female Japanese, pop-punk rock trio Shonen Knife are gearing up to celebrate the release of their brand new LP Adventure. In this their 21st studio album Naoko continues her effervescent pursuit of sugar coated rock with the return of original bass player and sister Atsuko… along with new drummer Risa.
Forming in Osaka in 1981, when Naoko first heard late ‘70s punk-pop particularly The Ramones, the band crafted their own idiosyncratic songs, fashioned brightly coloured outfits and DIY albums. In 1985, K Records released Burning Farm in the US and following that release with Sub Pop and various labels followed.
1989 saw the crème of the alt. rock scene (including Sonic Youth, L7 and Redd Kross) covering their favourite Shonen Knife songs on the tribute album Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them. They toured with Nirvana (on the ‘Nevermind’ tour), The Breeders and as part of Lollapalooza. They recorded sessions for John Peel and appeared on MTV’s ‘Beavis and Butthead’.
2016 will be the bands 35th year of rock, and what better way to celebrate than with an iconic and powerful new record like Adventure? To celebrate the release of the LP, Naoko has penned a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below. Adventure is out now via Valve/MGM.
Jump into the New World
When you jump into the new world, you might get nervous but it goes well if you have music in your mind. This song is like that. I made the melody line pop and cheerful. I wanted to use many guitar chords not like pinkish three chords songs.
School and business year starts from the first of April in Japan. There are many fresh men and fresh women in town. I hope they can try to keep on with this song.
Rock’n’roll T-shirt
I wrote this song because I love rock T-shirts. With ’70s style guitar riff, it became a groovy song.
When I go to shows of my favorite bands, I often buy their T-shirts because I can continue to feel the excitement of the show if I wear them. Rock T-shirt sometimes become a communication tool with other people. We can start to talk about the band on the shirt and expand the conversation. What a cool clothes!
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Calabash
Calabash is a lucky charm in Japan and a trade mark of a historical Samurai, TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi who was a lord of Osaka Castle. The theme of this song is my hometown Osaka. Osaka is a very ROCK town. People are friendly but don’t interfere other people.
Dog Fight
When I visited Katsura Hama beach in Kochi prefecture in Japan long time ago, I watched a dog fight. I was surprised. Two giant dogs wore Mawashi which is the same costume of Yokozuna of Sumo.
Kochi has lots of local speciality like bonito sake. Tosa Dog which is big strong dogs and long tail rooster are famous, too.
I visited Kochi again last year for sight seeing and went to the beach again. Actually, there was still the show theater for dog fight there. I didn’t see it at that time but I expanded my imagination there.
It’s a little scary but I made gentle melody line on it.
Wasabi
I like spice like mustard or wasabi. Wasabi is popular to western countries now used for Sushi. I want people to know it can matches with various food.
I made exotic melody lines. I tried to make Guitar riff and Atsuko’s vocal unison. It was my first trial.
Green Tangerine (Kabosu)
I got Kabosu tangerines from our new drummer Risa’s mother as a gift from her hometown Oita. I was inspired by them and made this song. I wanted Risa to do a lead vocal for the new album and I made this song.
Kabosu is a tiny green tangerine and Oita’s local specialty. It can be used like lemon.
So tasty.
ImI (Emoji)
When I write double horn sign with “emoji”, it’ll be “ImI”. Emoji is from Japanese language which means “picture letters”. Japanese emoji is different from English one but it’s fun. I’ve heard that DIO invented double horn sign so I put hard rock style melody line on this lyrics.
Cf. Recently I noticed that people in Japan starts to call it Kaomoji to distinguish from Emoji but before Emoji was invented, we call everything Emoji.
Hawaii
I haven’t been to Hawaii for many years. Recently I’ve heard that my friend went to Hawaii for her friend’s wedding ceremony. I saw her photo there and it made me that I want to go there. I’ve ever been there for sightseeing and having a show. We played at a big venue in Hawaii in 1994. One day before our show, Anthrax played at the same venue. I don’t remember so much but the atmosphere of Hawaii is very peaceful. I love that.
Tasmanian Devil
Shonen Knife was invited a festival in Tasmania island, Australia in January 2015. It was my first visit there. I was so impressed the beautiful scenery of the island and made this song. Tasmanian Devils are living there. It looks cute but very wild.
I saw them first time at a zoo in Brisbane in 2009 when we toured in Australia. It was the departure day to be back to Japan. Our flight was midnight and we had to spent more than 10 hours there. I We had They were eating raw mouse. I wanted to express such gap with twin lead vocals of Atsuko and I.
Cotton Candy Clouds
The motif is cotton candy which is my favorite. I wrote the lyrics first and when I saw it, the rap style melody line appeared spontaneously. I used only three guitar chords for this song but the arrangement became very colorful and a little bit inspired by 70’s Beatles.
