Five Days of Shonen Knife: Day Five - Live Knife!

November 13th, 2009 was the day that Shonen Knife, one of my favorite bands of all time, came to my town and delivered a night of blistering rock n' roll that left me an even bigger fan than I already was. What an awesome night!


Answering the call to rawk....


As you can see, the little point & shoot camera I brought along wasn't really up to the task of taking pics of the action. Oh well, I guess you could argue that my blurry photography fit the spirit of the moment anyway...


Naoko may always be a humble music fan in her heart, but years of touring and recording have made her a true rock star. She really engages the crowd and clearly loves to play music. She was terrific to watch.



Bass player Ritsko and drummer Etskuo really do carry the Shonen Knife torch proudly. They absolutely fit into the band perfectly and really captivated the crowd with an infectious enthusiasm! Plus, they're top-notch musicians.


For us old-school fans, there was a very special treat. Atsuko, Naoko's sister, and Shonen Knife's original drummer (later bassist) was there! She joined the band on the last leg of the tour, and came up on stage for the encore!


The show went by so fast! It was a great night of good vibes, positive energy, and rock n' roll!


My friend Chip had the foresight to take a photo of the set-list. Thanks Chip!


It was a good feeling to see the band signing the posters I made! The posters were a big hit it seems. I had several people approach me and tell me they liked them, and that was very gratifying. Just before the show, Shonen Knife's super-cool tour manager, (and a multi-media whiz in her own right), invited me behind the scenes and the band thanked me too!

I gave the band members some candy, including Jujuy Fruits, Whoppers & Swedish Fish, and then proceeded to forget everything I intended to say to them. I mostly just smiled and nodded. :)

The band, Atsuko, and their tour manger were wonderfully nice and friendly people. Truly the most sincerely kind rock stars I've ever met.


My loot from the night, including a broken drumstick and an official Shonen Knife workout towel! (Everybody needs one) I also brought along the CD insert from one of Shonen Knife's early USA releases specifically for Atsuko to sign.


All in all, an amazing night that I'll never forget. I spent the evening with some true icons, and it was a gloriously satisfying experience I have to say. I don't know when they'll tour North America again, but I can tell you that I will definitely go wherever they play next time around.

Thank you Shonen Knife, for renewing my faith in rock n' roll.

Five Days of Shonen Knife: Day Four - Why Do We Love Shonen Knife?

Shonen Knife was a pet project imagined by two office ladies that originally met in college. They started out with a quickly recorded cassette tape and highly rudimentary musicianship. They didn't even quit their day jobs until the mid-nineties. So how did Shonen Knife become a beloved phenomenon that's lasted for 27 years?


It's simple, really.

Shonen Knife is still loved today because they tapped into something the world needs badly. A wonderfully positive vision that never turned a cynical eye onto the world. To see a band that sings about jellybeans, cookies, and the joy of bicycling without a hint of sarcasm and irony makes them a true breath of fresh air. Shonen Knife frequently experiments with new styles and sounds, but they never changed the vision. They're the Ramones on a sunny day.


Shonen Knife is still loved today because of the bond they've formed with their fans. Everything I've heard is that all of them have always been very approachable, friendly, and kind to their fans. It makes sense when you think about it, after all this is a band made by fans of music themselves. Shonen Knife exists purely out of a love for music, and it shows.


Shonen Knife is still loved today because they understand exactly what rock n' roll is supposed to be. Their music is simple, but wonderfully catchy. They've recorded songs that are up there with the best pop-nugget classics.

One day listening to their music, I realized that I knew all the words without ever trying to memorize them. Their music gently became embedded in my head, and now I find myself humming their songs all the time. I don't mind it one bit. :)



So you see, it's easy to love Shonen Knife, and it's no mystery how they've managed to continuing rocking after 27 years. They have one of the best formulas for musical longevity I've ever seen, and I hope they're around for another 27 years.

If you're fellow fan, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Why do love these ladies from Osaka so much?

Five Days of Shonen Knife: Day Three - Knife Collector Link-O-Rama...

So in this installment of Five Days of Shonen Knife, I thought I'd make an attempt at gathering a bunch of links and resources for all you Shonen Knife freaks.

By no means can I say that this is an exhaustive list. If you know of something online that's too good to not be included here, then feel free to share it in the comments!


I pretty much have to start with the THE SHONEN KNIFE NEXUS! This easily to most through place on the web for all your Shonen Knife needs. Here you'll find band history, an overview of their recordings, new and old tour info, and reports from fans all over the world. I love this site!


There's also of course their official web site! A fine place to get a glimpse into the SK universe. There's mostly Japanese content here though, so your mileage may vary.


This well-written FAQ was last updated in '97, but is still is quite helpful, and it also explains what happened to the Knife Collectors Fan Club...


Yeah, I hate MySpace too. It's a gaudy old home to plenty of dreck, but when you visit Shonen Knife's MySpace Page, it's a lot more bearable. There's always the music samples...


Unfortunately, a busy band like Shonen Knife just doesn't get enough time to maintain their Twitter account, but thankfully their new American record label Good Charamel is helping out. Their Twitter is full of mostly daily tour updates and fun tidbits. I'd follow both for good measure. :)


Speaking of Good Charamel, Shonen Knife's western label has done a heck of a job promoting the new album and offering tour support. Their Shonen Knife webpage will be handy for following up on future releases.


Panache Booking is the band's booking agency here. You can download some nice resolution promo photos, and their stage plot diagram. (Hey, why not?) I sort of doubt you can just call and book SK for your birthday party, though...



If you're an LJ user, here's a community for you!
The Journal for Shonen Knife Fans


A nice fan blog (on MySpace) full of freshly posted videos right here!


Alright, so how about music n' interviews...


Jenny Woolworth's Women In Punk Blog is full of neat stuff, and you'll going to especially love this. She's got MP3s of "Minna Tanoshiku", Shonen Knife's first cassette tape! Only 70 total copies of this ever existed, so unless you've got some dough, you're not getting this rarity any other way! It's available right here!


Youpidou's terrific blog Gle-Gle has got five, count em' FIVE fan recordings of Shonen Knife shows ranging from 1992 to 2005, and they all rock! Get em' here!


A 1997 interview with the band here!

A phone interview with Naoko and Michie, also from 1997, right here!

An interview with most recent incarnation of the band is available at J-Pop World. Now you can find out their blood-types!

And Style Invasion has a very recent interview with Shonen Knife, focusing on their fashion sense!


Photos And Other Stuff...

J-Blogger Mallocup has some nice photos from a Tokyo show back in March over at I Rub Your Brog.

A cool and very recent set of pics from Flickr user letsmakeart...

Also a rockin' set from the current tour by photographer Erik Hess...

A nice group portrait from Steve Hopson. What a charming trio!

Flickr user Ventolin sums it up well: "Shonen Knife, Period!"

Flickr user jcbehm serves up some freaky psychedelic images from a show at the The Entry.

And hellokitty2399 has some groovy shots from a recent show at a club called Mangos.

Whew! After all that, what do we do next for Day Four & Five? I'll figure it out tomorrow!

Five Days of Shonen Knife: Day Two - The Redd Kross Connection...

One more reason to love punk rock/power pop legends Redd Kross is that they were instrumental in helping Shonen Knife reach across the pond and find a larger audience.

少年ナイフ had already been together for a few years when Jeff and Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, (along with Thurston Moore) helped them them get a series of gigs in the USA, thus spreading word of the cult-band to new heights. Jeff McDonald and drummer Victor Indrizzo also lent a hand on Shonen Knife's first official full-length album in America, the must-have classic 712.



On 712, the ladies from Osaka decided to record a tribute to Redd Kross. The song is an awesome little gold nugget on an album of wonderful gems...



The mutual admiration didn't end there. Redd Kross returned the favor on their underrated album Third Eye with a song appropriately titled "Shonen Knife"...

"Come right in now, enjoy a choco bar
With the Shonen Knife
Yes, the rock and roll stars
Then wash your face at the public bath
Just around the corner, down the bamboo path, uh-huh"

Alright, more Shonen Knife goodness tomorrow. See ya later!

Five Days of Shonen Knife: Day One....

As I've said before, I'm very eagerly anticipating the the Shonen Knife show coming to my town this November 13th!

I'm finally going to see one of my favorite bands of all time, a band I've loved since I first got to hear their recordings in the 90s!


In celebration of the big event, I'm going to share Shonen Knife goodness for the next five days!

Let's kick it off with some terrific early Knife footage, courtesy of YouTube user rolltammy! This clip is just the encore, but if you click through, you'll see that the entire concert has been uploaded!



Tomorrow, I'll post some more video, and some cool links as well, see ya then!

Shonen Knife North American Tour 2009!

When I heard that Shonen Knife, one of my favorite bands in the whole world, is going to stop by my town next month, I just knew that I had to create a poster for them. I have to say I'm pleased....



The super group from Osaka kick off their North American tour this month! You can see the tour dates here. Go out and support em'!



Shonen Knife visits Richmond, Va. on November 13th at the fabulous Plaza Bowl, brought to you by the good folks from Community Chest! See you there!

How Do I Choose The Films That I Watch?

So awhile back a movie-loving friend of mine was making small talk and asked me "So have you seen those Bourne Movies, what did you think of them?"

I just shrugged and replied "Naw, I've never seen any of em', actually."

"Really?" he said with sincere surprise, "I figured you would have seen those by now, they're pretty good"

And so I explained the way watching films works in my world...

"Look man, it's like this, I can only see but so many movies in my lifetime. I have to make choices, and if I have to choose between Matt Damon jumping around rooftops and a 1970's Japanese nunspoiltation pinky-violence flick, the movie with the crazy nuns is going to win."

With only a limited amount of time in my life, it's become clear that I have no time to waste on movies that don't mean anything to me. I have to be picky and seek out films that will deliver what I want. So what movies do I want to see?


I want to see films that challenge me and the way the world looks to me. I want to see films that take me to places far away, from small towns in America, to small towns in China. I enjoy movies that take me back into a time before I was born and give me a peek into a context I've never understood, and I enjoy movies that are happening right now in the moment.

I look for movies that are overlooked and neglected, that barely saw the inside of a theater and wound up being passed around on badly dubbed videotapes.


I want to see movies that are funny, sometimes laughing at the subtleties of life, and sometimes finding humor in low-brow places. I want to see movies that were made by the seat of the pants, and movies that were works of self-indulgent love.

I want to see films that are heralded as classics. Some of these classics are wonderful examples of what the medium can do, but some are classics because they do everything wrong. I love films that are beautiful and uplifting, and yet feel drawn to pathos and sadness.


Seeing a film is somewhat like going on a trip, seeing things you've always wanted to see, and discovering things that never occurred to you. Often this takes you to far away places, and sometimes right next door. All that matters to is that I go somewhere.


As I said, I have to get a little picky about what movies I watch, I have so many to see and so little time to see them. This doesn't mean that somebody else's choices are below mine, if Transformers does that for you, that's okay. We all need to decide what's right for us.

So what you look for in a film, and what do you want it to do for you?

We Are SCANDAL!

In the JPop world, SCANDAL continues to knock my socks off as their plan for world domination continues unabated. They look like they're having the time of their lives, and the rather wota-ish crowd looks they're enjoying themselves too!



Check out the related vids too, this whole concert is all there!

Sunrise Over Fuji-san...

A short and beautiful video via this Flickr stream of a lovely sunrise on Mount Fuji. I can't wait to see this for real someday...



I posted another gorgeous Fuji-san sunrise video here...

Greetings From Asheville, North Carolina!

Asheville and I go back a long ways. I've got family there who I used to visit almost every year growing up. I'd spend the summer eating my Great-Grandma's fried chicken with biscuits and greens from her garden, and then I'd sit on the front porch reading comic books and listen to the sounds of the racetrack just over the hills.

Even as a kid, it seemed like the mountains of North Carolina were the most beautiful place on Earth....





I haven't been down there in quite awhile but I hear about it every so often. Apparently the hippies and hipsters have learned what I know about Asheville, and are moving there in droves. The music scene is hopping, festivals are flourishing, and people are calling the town the new Austin.

I wonder if the old southern charm from my youth remains there? I'll have to get back down soon, I bet it's just as beautiful as I remember...

Mono No Aware: A Sensitivity To Things

A strong reoccurring theme that frequently appears in Japanese film, music, and art is sadness that's wrapped in beauty. Recently as I was watching a Japanese film about a group of men following out a suicide pact, I realized that every single one of the previous Japanese films that I watched earlier in the week had ended in loss, tragedy, or an ambiguous sense of melancholy.


But yet, not a single one of these films left me depressed and cold. The thing is, despite the longing and sadness on the screen, these films were absolutely beautiful, and the beauty of those films is what resonated strongest within me, and so I fell for the strange power of Japan's most personal examples of film making.


From the early arts of the Edo-Period, and through the difficult post-war years, the Japanese mastered expressing what they call "mono no aware", a transcendental understanding of our lives being impermanent and the world ever-changing.

This zen-like acceptance greets tragic events with a bittersweet awareness that they cannot altered, much like the lazy flow of a river that occasionally floods over violently. I find this cultural philosophy fascinating and inspiring.


With this understanding, Japanese films which deal with heavy-hearted emotions often contain a positive undercurrent that helps the viewer see the ending in a affirmative way. I've found over the years that I simply adore a good sad Japanese film, and likewise I savior sitting in the dark listening to a wistful enka song.


To some people, the Japanese passion for the melancholy must seem somewhat odd. But you see, the yearning and the despair never bring me down, rather they help me embrace life and this gorgeous world we're born to, and as weird as that may seem, that makes me very happy.

And with that, I leave you with a lovely enka song performed by Fuyumi Sakamoto. Enjoy!



This post is also my entry in the July 2009 Japan Blog Matsuri....


About the films in the images above...

Tokyo. Sora is a fascinating study of loneliness in modern Toyko by minimalist filmmaker Hiroshi Ishikawa. Trailer here.

Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story is considered by many to be his masterpiece, an amazing film about generational differences in post-war Japan.

Ikiru is Akira Kurosawa's highly personal film about a man reflecting on his own mortality.

5 Centimeters Per Second is a gorgeously animated film made up of 3 short stories. A beautifully sad small-scale epic with a glimmer of hope within. Music video for the film's theme song here.

If you have your favorite films that explore these themes, please share in the comments, I'd appreciate your suggestions!

Rob Ullman Gets Lurid In An Atom-Bomb Bikini....

So I'm counting myself among the incredibly fortunate people to get their mitts on an early copy of illustrator Robert Ullman's first hardback collection of pin-up art, Atom-Bomb Bikini!


Rob does the sexy pin-up thing in a style all it's own, and cooks up some delicious cheesecake that's bound to get any red-blooded male's (or girl, it's all cool with us) temperature up. You're pretty much guaranteed a eye-popping, sweaty good time as you lust over the pages of good and bad-girl hotness!

Rob's got a cool style that's his own, but gives a nod of respect to other masters of the craft. My favorite images in here are a couple of terrific Jack Kirby tributes with a babealicious twist. Oh, and Rob's a big hockey fan, so if that's your bag, you're gonna love this book. My other personal faves in here are the rough sketches he shares with us, giving you a window into his creative process. The whole package is a groovy 64 page tome of babe-worshiping art in lurid full color!


So what do you have to do to get a copy of this book? Well, the most immediate thing you can do is hop on over to Rob's blog and you'll see the details there. Another option is to get your ass to San Diego's ComiCon and meet the artist in person! (Table P-10, in the small press section where the cool people hang out). And if you live in Richmond, Va., drop by his book signing on August 1st!


Atom-Bomb Bikini Blog

Robert Ullman's Twitter

Girls Meet Jazz in SWING GIRLS!

Shinobu Yaguchi's terrific 2004 film スウィングガールズ, aka Swing Girls (That's the Korean poster above) instantly became one of my favorite movies before I was even quarter way through watching it. It's a simple little film that wins you over with it's upbeat tone, physical comedy, and the absolutely charming cast headed up by the delightful actress Juri Ueno.




Swing Girls is the story about a high school student named Tomoko and her summer school classmates. Tomoko lacks direction and the motivation to complete anything she begins. Her friends are pretty much the same, with minds set on materialism and karaoke.

None of them want to spend their summer trapped in math class, and through chance, (and largely due their slack efforts) the girls happen into being pressed to form a band by fellow male student Takuo. Takuo is tired of being in a marching band, and wants to play some swingin' jazz...



Along the way an epiphany comes to Tomoko and the girls. They realize they love jazz music, and when their services are no longer required, the void left behind becomes something to motivate them. And so the Swing Girls are born...




From here on it's pretty familiar movie territory. Our underdog girls struggle to polish their craft and hone their group into a tight jazz unit. An unlikely mentor tenatively approaches them, and helps instill the heart and soul that the band needs to finally break through to their potential. Naturally the girls set their eyes on a major concert event, and work hard to get on the bill...




I'm not exactly giving away anything revelatory here. Yaguchi's film doesn't have any interest in breaking new ground and you can pretty much guess how this story plays out. What you do have is a movie that is so wonderfully endearing and good-hearted that you can't help but be taken in and captivated. The cast is completely likable and has you cheering them on to succeed and come out on top.

The film is beautifully shot and the details on the screen are rich and colorful. The other thing that makes this film work so well is the comedy, mostly physical and often visually hilarious. Swing Girls is a winner all around, and it's a nice break from much of the considerably darker material that's out there in Japanese cinema.



Of course if you're going to have a movie with a band, you need music, and that's where the film really gets impressive. Director Shinobu Yaguchi is well-known for his commitment to realism and accuracy in his films. All of his movies are preceded with through research and training where needed.

Every single girl in this film actually learned to play the instruments they used in the film, and by time the movie was finished, they were a true swing band in every sense of the word. When the Swing Girls perform in this film, every note you hear came from them.


This film was a such a huge hit in Japan, that the Swing Girls (and boy) were brought together to perform a few live concerts, which they delivered with the same joy and enthusiasm you see it the film. C'mon, how cool it that?



Trailer for Swing Girls here.
A news story about the film here.
More concert footage here!