 Years
ago (1989 to be exact,) as a college age record geek, I heard about
about some new band from Japan: they were championed by then
underground heroes Sonic Youth and Redd Kross. They even had a tribute
album, featuring then current hipster acts like The Three O'Clock, L7,
and the aforementioned Sonic Youth and Redd Kross. Who the Hell were
these people, who somehow managed to get a relatively star studded
tribute album released before anyone even knew who they were? And why
did said tribute album feature a woman (not a band member) in a meat
bikini on the back cover?
Well, I never got an answer to that last question, but it became common
knowledge soon enough that Shonen Knife were three cute Japanese girls
who played a particularly naive type of three chord punk pop (which, it
should be said, was at time time still a very underground thing.) As
they played shows in the States in an attempt to ride their new wave of
hipster adulation, there were rumblings in the peanut gallery: they
couldn't really play, their songs (especially their lyrics) made them
sound like kids...damn, look at them, they ARE kids...and they were
just too innocent. Were we being taken for a ride, or perhaps more
importantly, were these innocent young women being exploited for the
sake of some ironic joke? Were we supposed to appreciate them, or
snicker knowingly at them?
Well, two decades and a better understanding of Japanese culture later,
the exploitation question has been answered: naivety is Shonen Knife's
raison d'être, their main focus. Head Knife Naoko Yamano is well
into her 40s, and she's writing lyrics like this:
I went down to the deer park
On a warm sunny day
You can feed deer at the park
If you buy deer biscuits
Sweet little deer came near me
It bowed many times at me
I fed deer biscuits to it
It looked very happy
Forgive the long intro, but the point is this: Shonen Knife may have started out as innocent, but now they're about innocence,
and they've got it down to an art. What first sounded cutely accidental
is now what powers Shonen Knife 2008, and "Super Group" hits its target
more often then not. Naoko's vocals are up front, unpolished, and wide
eyed as ever: she still sounds like a little kid, or perhaps more
accurately, she sounds like someone who never forgot what it was like
to be a little kid. Check out the song titles: "BBQ Party" (about a BBQ
Party,) "Time Warp" (about time travel,) "Slug" (about, you guessed it,
a slug) and the aforementioned "Deer Biscuits." There's no symbolism,
there's no sly reference to anything. They're just songs about the sort
of day to day things that seem extraordinary to a mind that's refused
to become cynical. Even the "doom" song, "Muddy Bubbles Hell" (about
muddy bubbles, in Hell) is Hades as seen through the eyes of a kid:
It's bad! You'll get hurt! Don't get burned!
The impressive thing, however, is that the music manages to convey the
same naivety without relying on the amateurism that marked them
initially. They keep it light, even with "dark" chords, and while
they've long since learned how to play, the guitar solos are still
(mostly) one string wonders. The best thing, however, is that the songs
invite you in, instead of just presenting an image: the title track
actually succeeds as arena rock, "Muddy Bubbles Hell" has an
understated but nonetheless palpable darkness, "Slug" works quite well
as three chord pop thrash, etc. What could...what should
have been inconsequential becomes solid: it's light hearted, but it's
not easily dismissed. Once the listener accepts the Shonen Knife
universe for what it is, "Super Group" has plenty to chew on.
---
Available at Amazon Japan
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