KNIFE ATTACK

You can fault them for being cute. You can fault them for wearing identical clothes. You can fault them for writing songs mainly about food and animals. But you can’t say the Japanese punk-pop trio Shonen Knife has lost its garage band touch. 

Opening with the under-two-minute Konnichiwa as part the Nihongo Fiesta last Saturday, Shonen Knife buzz-sawed their way through a catalogue of quirky punk ditties — everything from Banana Chips to Twist Barbie — before a quite happy crowd of promenade walkers and hardcore fans. It wasn’t slick, but it sure was fun. It was the kind of show that makes you forget your self-conscious notions of kawaii and kitschy cuteness, and just head-nod along with the band in time to the revved-up anthems… until you realize you’re singing a chorus that basically consists of “Pig out! Pig out! Pig out!” (during BBQ Party).

Guitarist and songwriter Naoko Yamano (the only original Shonen Knife member left since forming the band in Osaka back in 1981) now has admirable stage patter skills: she can get a crowd in just about any country to shout “Arigato” (as she did at MOA’s San Miguel By The Bay). And before the press she’s a canny conveyor of the Shonen Knife image.

We met Shonen Knife at the presscon arranged by the Japan Foundation Manila and held at the Heritage Hotel. Since the Nihongo Fiesta is meant to spread Japanese language and culture, it was refreshing to see some of the journos ask their questions in Shonen Knife’s native language. For the rest of us, it was refreshing that Naoko (who did approximately 99 percent of the talking) has given this whole Shonen Knife matter a good deal of thought.

I asked her why the band has remained so popular over the years with young girls as well as with punk rockers like Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain.

“I always have this question during interviews,” Naoko admitted. “Why are we popular with people overseas? I believe we are an all-female band, so it is very prominent. And also we are wearing matching costumes; these costumes (meaning the Mondrian-pattern dresses they also wore onstage) were designed by ourselves. And also the music is very pop, the melody writing is very pop, easy to memorize. And the lyrics are very special. I like to write lyrics about animals or fruits. For example, I have a song called Mango Juice, and Banana Chips. And about animals — Bear Up Bison, Insect Collector…”

I Am a Cat, I offer.

“Yes, and Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner. Many songs like this. I think it is very easy to understand, from children to old people. So I think it’s the reason.”

(In fairness, not all Shonen Knife songs fall under the categories of food and animals. On Saturday, they did a song about global warming, a song about a devil — Devil House — and their ubiquitous cover version of The Carpenters’ Top of the World that had both little kids and — I swear — 60-year-old foreigners pumping their fists in the air. And not all their songs follow the Ramones template: the group touches on Motown, surf, even heavy metal influences on last year’s album, “Super Group.” )

It’s important to note that when Shonen Knife started, their music was considered very underground, very much at odds with the prevailing J-Pop sound (which was probably a lot like local OPM). Nowadays, the Shonen fan base has broadened to include the Powerpuff Girls audience, but somehow, the notion of selling out seems irrelevant. The band continues to attract both the innocent and not-so-innocent: the vaulting Ramones-like riff to Riding on the Rocket cuts straight to the hardest hardcore punk’s heart.

I ask her what it was about The Ramones that initially sparked her to form a band. (The Shonens even have a side project called The Osaka Ramones and have opened for their idols in Osaka.)

“Before I started forming Shonen Knife, I was inspired by the Ramones’ songs. So when I decided to form a band, it was like them. The Ramones have very pop melody and their music is very fun — wearing leather jackets and worn-out jeans.” Of course, whereas Joey Ramone might have chanted “Now I wanna sniff some glue,” Naoko is more likely to chirp, “Now I want some barbecue!”

What comes across onstage with Shonen Knife is the same infectious, cartoonish power that the Ramones wielded like a well-oiled chainsaw. Like their idols, the Shonen girls love to whip their long tresses into a head-nodding frenzy during each punk chorus refrain. The long tresses caused one musician and fan in the Manila audience to dub them “The Friendly Sadakos” (after the hair-swathed ghoul in the Japanese horror movie Ringu).

Over the decades, dozens of rock gods have declared themselves fans. The Sub Pop label distributed their first US single and Kurt Cobain asked them to open for Nirvana during its 1991 UK tour, after watching them live in LA and being “transformed into a hysterical nine-

year-old girl at a Beatles concert.” People like Gene Simmons of KISS and Lemmy from Motorhead tend to show up backstage at their concerts (“Lemmy came to our show, and I got an autograph on my guitar,” Naoko says with some pride).

From the start, it was foreign music that spoke loudest to Naoko. “I don’t listen to so much J-Pop,” she says. “I am mainly influenced by American or British pop music.” The stripped-down verse-chorus-verse structure of a typical Shonen Knife song owes much to punk pioneers like The Buzzcocks, while the chirpy chorus harmonies recall the Beach Boys. Onstage, the younger new recruits — Ritsuko Taneda on thudding bass, Etsuko Nakanishi on meat-and-potatoes drum kit — are the perfect counterpart to Naoko’s overdriven punk chords and deceptively simply yet carefully architected solos.

You might think it’s hard to keep on writing songs about various types of animals and food products all these years. Not so, says Naoko at the presscon: “I try to keep my eyes innocent and pure. So over the years, Japanese fashion and music has changed, but my favorite things are always the same. So I try to keep my mind fresh.”

It’s worth considering that dozens of young Filipino bands — like Pedicab, who joined the Japanese trio onstage during their encore of Twist Barbie — owe some of their DNA to the idea of girl-empowered punk rock. Bands like Ang Bandang Shirley, Us-2 Evil-0 and the on-hiatus Boldstar similarly inherit the spirit that has moved Shonen Knife beyond cartoon band to true icon status. All this came about because Naoko realized something, decades ago in her Osaka home: that pop music might be one of the few places where you can create your own rules. “I think rock music should be unique,” she says in response to one question. “I like a DIY — do it yourself — spirit.”

So laugh at the songs about mango juice and chocobars if you will, or simply nod your head in bliss: either way, you can’t knock the Knife.