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Post by tangerinesun on Jun 23, 2017 14:08:36 GMT -5
[Interview] Lessons from noodles × Shonen Knife on how to build relationships with female comrades.
Active as girls-band pioneers, both groups also have active roles overseas. Talking face to face about differences from male bands, secrets for sustaining something for a long time at your own pace. Three pages of Japanese, pretty thoughtless
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Post by ljerk on Aug 28, 2017 8:50:14 GMT -5
Interview - 1993 (Electric Ballroom ?)
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Post by tangerinesun on Aug 28, 2017 16:31:12 GMT -5
Nice! Electric Ballroom did a million segments like this, but I can't tell so I asked. Somewhere on earth there's a person who can look at that interior wall and name the room where Naoko was sitting in her Issey Miyake-like black garb. That London's Burning channel has been amazingly busy with its 25 year old VHS tapes, the place is a small gold mine: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYddhQ8i88xcRCgcEw-qyzg/videos
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Post by tangerinesun on Sept 4, 2017 14:57:55 GMT -5
In hindsight, there's some silliness happening on both sides of the interview, but it's one of the best short pieces on SK ever. Partly because the journalist knew something about what he was doing, and partly because SK were enjoying being newly-minted rock stars and hadn't yet learned to keep their mouths shut. Shonen Knife: Cuts Like a KnifeDirect from Osaka, Japan, these sweethearts of the underground translate American power pop into a language all their own 1993 April 15 by David Wild for Rolling Stone Magazine www.rollingstone.com/music/features/cuts-like-a-knife-19930415 Imagine if Pink Lady were possessed by the spirit of the Ramones or perhaps a more punkish, Japanese version of the Go-Go's and you'll have a good idea of the unique sonic and visual appeal of this Osaka-based outfit...
Asked to describe her long-term goals with the band, Atsuko perks up. "I want to be like the Beatles," she says. "And I want to tour with pretty, handsome boys' band."
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Post by tangerinesun on Sept 4, 2017 21:27:52 GMT -5
Tasmanian Devils and 70s rock: A chat with legendary Japanese rock powerhouse Shonen Knife2017 AUG 28 by Radi Safi for the HAPPY blog hhhhappy.com/tasmanian-devils-and-70s-rock-a-chat-with-legendary-japanese-rock-powerhouse-shonen-knife/ HAPPY: There are references to places and cultural icons from all over the world on Adventure (Tasmanian Devil, Hawaii, Wasabi) – how does your experience traveling around the world influence your music?NAOKO: Most of my lyrics are inspired by my daily life. I write down some key words in my notebook when I experienced or I saw interesting things. Especially during tours, I can find many interesting topics. The lyrics of Tasmanian Devil was born when I visited Brisbane Zoo in 2009 and saw Tasmanian Devil. They were eating rats. I was so scared to see it and made lyrics.HAPPY: Are there any bands you’re really digging at the moment?NAOKO: Last month, it was ASIA but now it’s PILOT, which is a 70’s Scottish band.
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Post by tangerinesun on Sept 21, 2017 3:16:58 GMT -5
There is a reason Kurt Cobain so adored Shonen Knife2017 SEP 08 by Anna Rose for The Brag thebrag.com/shonen-knife-australian-tour-2017 For her part, Yamano admits that of course, more mainstream success wouldn’t go unwelcome. “Actually, I, of course, want to be on the mainstream radio and touring with our private jet,” she giggles. “Yet I don’t know why, but we are a very DIY band. We play our instruments and we make songs by ourselves… We have even always made our costumes by ourselves – actually our bassist Atsuko makes our costumes.”I don't want to get you too excited, this interview/profile is a half-baked mess. Somewhere Frank Zappa is sneering. You can play spot-the-screwup, starting with competing statements about a career span of 36 years (true) and "40-odd years" (not nearly as true). The author compares Shonen Knife to the Billboard Top 10 crossed with… Black Flag. Finally, someone realized! There's no actual payoff for the provocative headline, it's just journalistic trolling. Blame that one on the editors, if any.
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Post by tangerinesun on Oct 2, 2017 6:22:06 GMT -5
Shonen Knife: The 13th Floor Interview2017 SEP 26 interview by Marty Duda for The 13th Floor www.13thfloor.co.nz/shonen-knife-the-13th-floor-interview/ NY: I listen to various kinds of music. My favourite music, recently, is the music which I cannot make. I like to listen to funk or disco music, like Earth, Wind and Fire, Con Funk Shun, Michael Jackson – music like that – or death metal music, like Cannibal Corpse or High on Fire or Sleep, because I cannot make such music; so, I like to listen to them. MD: Have you tried to make funk music?NY: I would never try to make funk music. I’d like to try, but it’s very, very difficult. MD: Yeah! You’ve got to be Bootsy Collins in order to pull it off!NY: Yeah, it’s beyond my imagination! MD: I think the interesting thing is, when people try to do something that doesn’t come naturally to them, they then invent a different kind of music; so, it might be worth exploring at some point.NY: [ humoring him ] Someday, I’d like to make such music, but I’m contented just listening to them...
With an audio podcast of the interview recorded on the phone (15:16). The interviewer isn't always sure how to talk to Naoko, and Naoko's not always sure of what he's saying. Marty Duda is a host on Radio New Zealand who runs The 13th Floor.
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Post by tangerinesun on Oct 6, 2017 17:45:41 GMT -5
95bFM Auckland NZ, Breakfast with Mikey Havoc October 4, 2017 PODCAST ONLY Routine interview with 2 songs live in-studio, semi-acoustic with tambourine. A morning show, so there's a lot of newsreading and chatting in Kiwish. Stream: 95bfm.com/bcasts/mikey-havoc-breakfast/1373# << click the widget by the headline for October 4 D/L 325.26MB: 95bfm.com/sites/default/files/Wednesady_Break_041017_0700.mp3 Today on your bFM Breakfast: no one can speak French (well, maybe Maria); His Worship the Mayor's getting pretty good at pre-empting our lines of questioning; Harry's got no time for Mikey's hi-jinx; it's only Shonen Knife, playing live in studio (!); and Sarah keeps blowing Lillian's news items.Select playlistStevie Nicks and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers — Stop Draggin' My Heart Around My Bloody Valentine — Only Shallow Bootsy Collins — I'd Rather Be With You The Breeders — Wait in the Car Vince Staples — Love Can Be… New Order — Crystal Liv.e — OMM Rodrigo Y Gabriela — Stairway to Heaven 00:45:30 Shonen Knife — "Jump Into the New World" (album track)News, Weather & Surf report 02:01:30 Interstitial plugLord Echo — Just Do You (feat. Mara TK) Pixels — So Lucky Nicola Cruz — La Cosecha 3Ds — Beautiful Things Beastie Boys — Break The Root Down - Preston Reset edit Hair Die — Backburning 02:12:15 Naoko interview 02:14:30 "Sushi Bar Song" live, EN and JP lyrics 02:16:22 "Twist Barbie" live 02:18:15 DJ valediction, announcements & depart
02:19:36 Shonen Knife — "Rock'n'roll T-shirt" (album track)Emergency Broadcast Network — Super Zen State (Power Chant No 2) The Pleasure Majenta — Radical Social Incest Roy Irwin — Storm
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Post by tangerinesun on Oct 7, 2017 20:13:05 GMT -5
Out of order, September 13–October 01 on the 2017 tour of AU/NZ. Five a lot alike, but usually there's some little something. Dealing With The Setlist Conundrum2017 SEP 13 by Rod Whitfield for The Music digital magazine themusic.com.au/interviews/all/2017/09/13/shonen-knife-naoko-yamano-rod-whitfield/ …Yamano admits that writing a Shonen Knife setlist while trying to please everyone is almost impossible. "It's very very hard," she states. "I always need two or three days to decide a setlist… People's favourite songs are different by country, so I will have to think about what are the Australian people's favourites."Shonen Knife Ramen Adventure down under
2017 SEP 14 by Staff for X-Press Magazine xpressmag.com.au/shonen-knife-ramen-adventure-tour-down-under/ We’re known for our animals in Australia. Is there any chance one of them might make there way into a Shonen Knife song?
It already has! I have a song called "Tasmanian Devil". I saw these little animals at the Brisbane Zoo last time we toured Australia. The Tasmanian Devil was eating a mouse. It was so scary for me. But they’re a very cute animal despite being so wild and it was easy for it to find its way into my lyrics.Shonen Knife: Humble, Underrated, Pioneers
2017 SEP 15 by Jarrod McGrath for BMA Magazine Canberra bmamag.com/2017/09/15/shonen-knife-humble-underrated-pioneers/ With such a fascinating and original history and variety of musical endorsements I keep imagining an amazing documentary on the band. Has anyone else ever thought the same of them?
“Mmmm long time ago, I think it was ’90s Japanese TV station made a short documentary TV program for us. Also I have published a book called Shonen Knife Land…” Short... documentary... program. There was one where a TV crew followed the band around for part of a US tour, the one with "sellout" or "sold out" in the title. I mean Blast Off! would have qualified... Shonen Knife: Rocking At The Sushi Bar!! – OzAsia Festival Review2017 SEP 30 by Adrian Miller for The Clothesline Arts Magazine theclothesline.com.au/shonen-knife-ozasia-2017-review/ Nexus Arts, Fri 29 Sep. Not being at all familiar with the music of Shonen Knife I had certain expectations of a band that had done a Ramones tribute album. What I was not expecting was the amount of happiness they project… Shonen Knife Breed Joy Through Punk at the Oxford Art Factory
2017 OCT 01 by Jodi Lewis for Speaker TV www.speakertv.com/music/shonen-knife-breed-joy-punk-oxford-art-factory/ The band was dressed to kill and apparently rehearsed to kill, delivering a tight and consistently enjoyable set, punctuated with anecdotes from the road. Of course they are sickly sweet, undeniably and endearingly twee— but simultaneously tough, hard-working bad bitches with twenty studio albums under their belt… You can't be sickly sweet, twee, tough, and bad all at once, so it must work like ping-pong. Tsundere Knife.
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Post by tangerinesun on Dec 26, 2017 16:51:46 GMT -5
The "what about Kurt Cobain" interview to end them all, maybe. Shonen Knife Remembers Kurt Cobain 22 Years Later: ‘His Eyes Were Very Beautiful Clear Dark Blue’2016 APR 07 by Greg Prato for Alternative Nation www.alternativenation.net/shonen-knife-kurt-cobain-eyes-blue/ Alternative Nation: When did you first find out Kurt Cobain was an admirer of Shonen Knife’s music? Naoko: Our manager in the early 90’s told me about it. But I didn’t know Nirvana at that time. After that, I read an article of Kurt’s interview in a magazine and I got to know. He said at the interview article, “Be careful about Shonen Knife or you’ll be cut into pieces.”[ Naoko refers to an article in print, but Nirvana were using the kind of language she mentions in a 1991 interview at the Reading Festival for Japanese TV. shonenknife.proboards.com/post/20337/thread ] Alternative Nation: What do you recall about filming the video for “Tomato Head”? Naoko: We rented a bowling alley and a flour factory in Los Angeles and filmed. Looking back now, the budget was huge and we wore costumes of bowling shirts, white overalls.
When filming at the factory, we hired a catering service. A popsicle selling car came and we bought some. Marty Friedman – who was a guitarist from Megadeth – visited us, because our A&R person at Virgin Records was a friend of his. Alternative Nation: Do you think we will ever experience an alt rock musical uprising like the one we experienced in the early ‘90s? Naoko: I don’t think so. Wonderful music might have run all in the early 90’s, but we can try to refresh and re-birth it again.
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 2, 2018 19:08:53 GMT -5
One of Naoko's best-ever interviews, I think this was posted once long ago... but the link to the interview is no good anymore. It's Japan Times, so if you don't subscribe this counts against your free page views for the month, but it's an unusual gush of information from Naoko's memory. Shonen Knife after a Tokyo gig Dec. 2. | Daniel Robson photo for Japan TimesThe "gig" was the 2011 Space Christmas Tokyo show at Shindaida FEVER From Naoko's gig blog Space Christmas 20112011/12/18(日) This tour is our one-man show… we played some Ramones covers as Osaka Ramones and our new song “Sweet Christmas” in Santa Claus costumes for our 2nd encore. Shonen Knife celebrates 30 years2011 DEC 29 by Daniel Robson, staff writer www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2011/12/29/music/shonen-knife-celebrates-30-years/ Today we celebrate 30 years under the Knife. Yes, it was on Dec. 29, 1981, that three teenage girls — Naoko Yamano, her sister Atsuko and their friend Mitchie Nakatani — entered an Osaka rehearsal studio for the first time… [ Naoko: ] “Our first rehearsal was at a studio inside Rock Inn, an instruments store in Osaka, on Dec. 29, 1981. Usually in Japan in December, people prepare for the New Year. People have to clean out their home, but we escaped from our parents to rehearse. I forget which songs we played, but my first song was ‘Parallel Woman’ and Mitchie’s first song was ‘Miracles,’ so we might have played those songs. We were very excited and we had so much fun, because we could make a loud noise at the studio!
“Our first live show was on March 14, 1982. We were very, very nervous — especially Atsuko. She had a bit of a fever, ha ha. There was no dressing room at the club, so we prepared for the show in a very dark staircase. Actually, it wasn’t even a club but a big rehearsal studio (Studio One). We could only fit 20 chairs, so with 20 people it was packed. The tickets were ¥100, and we played just seven or eight songs.
“In August 1989, we played overseas for the first time — just one show in Los Angeles. But our bassist, Mitchie, couldn’t take any holidays; she had to work. So I asked my friend to play the bass. Our record label at that time in America (K Records) booked the show, and Redd Kross and Sonic Youth, they were all friends with each other and they came to the show.
“We played again in America in 1991, and Kurt Cobain came to our show in Los Angeles, and then Nirvana asked us to tour Britain with them in November and December 1991. It was our first long overseas tour — we’d never even played such a long tour in Japan, so we were very nervous and very excited… 〜〜〜〜〜 Don't you wonder who it was that went with the Yamano sisters in 1989 on their supposed vacation to LA, to substitute for Michie on bass? Rock Inn is a national chain of music instrument retail outlets now owned by the Tokyo-based Yamano Music. Not to be confused with the ROCKIN stores of Hirano Musical Instruments Co.Ltd. For locations in Osaka, there's a store connected to Namba Station and another at at Tennouji MIO Plaza Mall which doesn't seem to be under the Yamano umbrella. They're in shopping malls. Very unlikely that either of these stores has been at the same location since 1981.
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 3, 2018 4:26:35 GMT -5
Übergeek Dave Cawley from Baltimore public access cable TV drops by the 9:30 Club in Washington DC to alarm Shonen Knife before their DC show on the 1997 Brand New Knife tour. About 3 minutes of interview with 5 1/2 minutes of footage copied from the Blast Off! tour documentary. Squirmy. The Atomic TV guys are awful. Topics: The "On Top of the World" commercial for Microsoft, favorite American TV shows, favorite Japanese band, Mothra. Atomic TV: Shonen Knife interview2015 MAR 27 by Atomic TV (08:26) Atomic TV's Big Dave Cawley (King of Men) interviews Shonen Knife. From the Atomic TV "Leftovers" episode.www.atomicteevee.com/2015/03/atomic-tv-9-the-atomic-tv-leftovers-episode/
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 3, 2018 4:31:51 GMT -5
Pre-show interview at the CAMERA Japan 2013 Festival in Rotterdam, in English, with an official event videographer from Miyako Studio.
What's it like to play for 30 years, things Naoko likes about NL, Ritsuko's appreciation of art museums, hopes for a rockin' show in an upscale concert hall, the Seoul Flower Train movie, and Naoko secretly wants to do an SF movie soundtrack.
Interview Shonen Knife - Camera Japan 2013 2015 NOV 16 by Miyako Studio (03:23)
Not quite as uncomfortable as Atomic TV, or the fast-talking interviewer at the Handmade Festival coming next.
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 3, 2018 4:35:25 GMT -5
Naoko passes the usual talking points to Yusef, who has practically no knowledge of whom he's interviewing. Leicester Rock City, hard rock, Buzzcocks, Ramones, the Overdrive album, offer to open for Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones. Ritsuko and Emi endure in stoic silence with occasional expressions. Shonen Knife | Handmade 20142014 MAY 15 by Demon TV. (05:39) Japanese pop punk trio Shonen Knife performed at Hansom Hall on the Saturday of the Handmade Festival, filling the room with music lovers and music. We were lucky enough to sit them down with Yusef for a chat.www.shonenknife.net/english/index.htmltwitter.com/ShonenKnife ----- Presenter: Yusef Mustafa Camera Operators: Peter Hutchinson and Joe Richards Sound Operator: Peter Collins Editor: Joe Richards Special thanks to Holly Holdsworth and Rebecca Whittaker.
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Post by tangerinesun on Jan 4, 2018 23:19:28 GMT -5
While I'm in retro-mode, for some reason I don't find any reference to this one here. RItsuko joined officially in 2008 at the beginning of October, so Naoko makes it a point to announce her new status. Shonen Knife were in Japan, so this probably got done in email. Shonen Knife Interview2008 OCT 20 by Andrew for J-Pop World www.j-popworld.com/Interviews/Shonen_Knife.php How did your latest recording sessions compare to those in the past? Naoko: …I learned the methods of recording more and more. We could work efficiently now. On the new album "Super Group", Etsuko and I accepted a new member Ritsuko as a bassist. Now Shonen Knife became a 3 piece band. She played the bass for the new album…
What does playing music mean to you? Ritsuko: I can't realize. Playing music is an exciting thing like eating a giant cake during my whole life. In 2006 Atsuko got married and moved to Los Angeles. What was that year like? Naoko: Shonen Knife couldn't play a lot of gigs. Atsuko went to the US and we couldn't book shows. Etsuko, you first played drums for Shonen Knife back in 2003. Tell us how you first met the group. Etsuko: I played 3 shows in September 2003 as a support drummer and became the full time drummer in 2005. Before I met Naoko and Atsuko, I supposed that they might be scary persons and I was nervous but after I met them—actually they were gentle persons. And I got relaxed. Tell us a little about yourself and your background. Etsuko: I grow up in Nara city of Nara prefecture. It's an old historical city. It's famous for "Great Buddha's temple" and wild deer.
I liked music and physical education classes in school. I was a shy child but I liked to be the center of attention. Now I like to watch TV and get relaxed at home. In summer I like to go to the sea, go to swimming pools, see fireworks and go to Japanese summer festivals.
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