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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 26, 2014 2:15:44 GMT -5
Shonen Knife @ The Corner Hotel, Richmond; by hradcanska, on Flickr The girl who wanted to play the drums since she was 9 years old. Oh Ettchan, I do not fear your frowny-face. Get yourself a speedcore band to challenge you. I am listening to "Do You Happen to Know" right now — whoooooooooo! Such supple, pointed playing throughout. Pushing a hair's breadth ahead of the beat, come on Ritsuko, let's GO Ritsuko! And she got to make that larger tub go TOOOM once in awhile. Oh geez, how enjoyable that whole album is.
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Nov 26, 2014 9:29:04 GMT -5
Sometimes, I think it's a shame that SK can't have 2 drummers, but, that would be silly.
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Post by tangerinesun on Nov 26, 2014 17:39:17 GMT -5
Sometimes, I think it's a shame that SK can't have 2 drummers, but, that would be be AWESOME!!!! Fixed the typo, no charge.
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Post by skswede on Dec 1, 2014 22:59:39 GMT -5
To watch Etsukos drumming in Muddy Bubble Hell is pure art.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 3, 2014 4:57:59 GMT -5
To watch Etsukos drumming in Muddy Bubble Hell is pure art. Agree agree agree agree agree! This clip is exactly that, is this what you had in mind? Big tom-tom of doom, little tom-tom of brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrilliance.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 3, 2014 5:02:28 GMT -5
SK at SM Mall of Asia, Pasay, Manilla, 2010 Feb 27
I know you know this show, but if you haven't seen this edit... it’s ten minutes of shameless Etsuko worship.
Most humble regret, Naoko-san, but could you take two steps to your left and stay there, please? Your opaque self is occluding Our Lady of the Trap Kit.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 3, 2014 5:35:16 GMT -5
Etsuko Nakanishi
By Leslie Hampton Drum Magazine 2009 December 03 “Caught in the Act”Her heavy snare and big swing gives a huge punch to their sound.
Two concert photos and fifty words of appreciation after a club date in San Jose, California.
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Post by solingen on Dec 8, 2014 20:26:09 GMT -5
For those wondering after reading this thread., Naoko explains things in this blog post over at the GC blog. Also, she makes an important statement about the other former members as well.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 8, 2014 22:18:24 GMT -5
For those wondering after reading this thread., Naoko explains things in this blog post over at the GC blog. Also, she makes an important statement about the other former members as well. Yeah... that is the compulsory official statement. Dropping Etsuko so soon after she herself publicly promised to come right back needed to be explained to the fanbase. Whatever Etsuko's expectations, and whatever Naoko may have done in years past, it would have been a painful situation. The old Shonen Knife was basically gutted over and over, as one valued member after another called it quits, refused to commit 110%, died violently even... while Naoko soldiered on, together with whomever was left and whatever side players she could hire. There is a hint of weariness in her letter. I think the plain English summary is, "About holding the chair open for one or two precious years, while we fill in with hired guns... I've done that, it's not what I want, and I'm sick of it. So, no. SK is going to be one whole thing, a real thing, not a maybe thing, not a sometime thing. Because who even knows how much longer this can last?" There were other choices, but there's no way I can hold this one against her. I think we can infer that Ritsuko agreed but kept silent. And it looks like a fantastic call, when suddenly there's Emi!
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Post by skswede on Dec 10, 2014 12:56:44 GMT -5
If you ask me about Etsoku she will never ever come back to shonen Knife she will probably step dancing on Naokos grave.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 10, 2014 13:20:55 GMT -5
If you ask me about Etsoku she will never ever come back to shonen Knife she will probably step dancing on Naokos grave. Because Naoko's decision not to wait for her short-circuited an amazing career, you mean? I'd feel bitter about that, too. Being asked to join Shonen Knife -- you get that lucky about once in a lifetime, if at all.
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Dec 10, 2014 15:09:22 GMT -5
If you ask me about Etsoku she will never ever come back to shonen Knife she will probably step dancing on Naokos grave. Because Naoko's decision not to wait for her short-circuited an amazing career, you mean? I'd feel bitter about that, too. Being asked to join Shonen Knife -- you get that lucky about once in a lifetime, if at all. Well, if Etsuko ever decides to make a comeback, she will have no trouble finding a new band; my guess is that she will have her pick of the crop.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 11, 2014 3:44:45 GMT -5
Well, if Etsuko ever decides to make a comeback, she will have no trouble finding a new band; my guess is that she will have her pick of the crop. I sure hope you're right, it'd be a great thing for all. I'm certain her old band-mates would have NO problem watching her star rise again. They worked well together. It was during Etsuko's tenure that Naoko had the thought that maybe "Super Group" would make a good title for an album. Dammit, that was the jinx! Band chemistry is so dicey, though, and touring is rough on a young family, and rock music worldwide is living off leftovers, etc. etc. etc. Etsuko could be playing recording sessions every week, we'd never know about it. But her public profile has submarined completely, I can't locate a contemporary mention even on the JP web.
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Post by Broccoli Man on May 17, 2015 13:18:49 GMT -5
I'm 5 months late to this thread, but that what this forum is about, right? One can join in at any time... The first video I ever watched of SK was "On Top Of The World", the one that has the smiling Etsuko as the picture on YouTube. My band is doing a cover of that version and this was my study material. I'm thinking, wow, this drummer is really good AND really good looking too! I could work with her any day, I wish I were in a band with with her instead of the old crusty guy we have now, but it will never happen. So here's this really cute drummer, a big ball of black hair with a huge smile attached, and what are obviously the brains of the group on lead vocals and guitar. After listening and watching a few times I made the comment to my bandmates that the bass player doesn't know what she's doing, she's not following the changes that the guitar player is doing. Then I listened to the studio version and other live versions and realized what she (who I would soon come to know as Ritsuko) was doing, and that is playing root notes while the guitar player (who I would soon come to know as Naoko) is playing chord changes on top of those root notes that are NOT the root notes (if that makes any sense if you're not a musician), thereby creating the structure for the song (and we do get good audience response when we play it). As for Etsuko, I kept trying to find more video of the group with her, but could only find Atsuko and Emi videos, and through my searches for Etsuko I fell in love with this wonderful band. And this is only since the beginning of February of this year! I know I'm wandering a bit here, but if it weren't for the "TOTW" video with Etsuko's bright smiling sunshiny face, I may never have gotten this far into the group and this forum and the "I Love Shonen Knife" group on FB. The history and resources from everyone have been incredible; as Tan says there are 1000 years of collective information here that just can't be beat. Another thought about Etsuko's and Michie's departures, I know Michie left on her own (even after Naoko and Atsuko pleaded with her to stay in the band) and has disappeared, and now it appears that Etsuko has gone that way also. I sure hope Ritsuko doesn't go down that same hallway and we never hear from her again. Sorry for the length of the post, and if this needs to go elsewhere in this forum please move it to an appropriate thread, but that my shout-out to Etsuko!
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Post by tangerinesun on May 17, 2015 21:48:15 GMT -5
... that's my shout-out to Etsuko! Comparisons will trap you... but to realize what Etsuko did for the SK, you only have to listen to the same songs with and without her. Or entire albums with and without. She's the difference between the band that eked out Candy Rock, and the one that did Genki Shock! three years later. The older album is the Yamano sisters plus hired help. It has a lot of good playing, and some big rock moments. The drums are in your face. It sounds great overall, and a little stiff overall. When Etsuko shows up, the drums don't suddenly stop driving, but now they're more fluid. There's more splash and shimmer, and the metronome feel is all gone, because now somebody's here with a statement to make and the full intention to make it. She wasn't low-key and good-natured like Naoko and Atsuko, she wasn't impossibly engaging like Ritsuko, she wasn't uninhibited fun like Emi. She was tack-sharp, she came to conquer, and my feeling is that in her own way she was holding up the entire tent while she was there. It's a different thing with Ritsuko. Yeah, she's camped out on the root a lot. Nothing fancy, just planting a lot of big deep notes under Naoko, who doesn't mind straying in search of a sound. When it doesn't seem to be working, it might be that somebody's a little out of tune. Ritsuko glues everything to everything else — the band to the audience, the audience to the band, the band to itself. She usually manages an awesome sound. And when not dancing, she holds that J-bass on one thigh like she urgently needed it to put out a forest fire.
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