Since we’re doing a Jaime roundtable, I thought I’d break out some old punk reviews for the intermission. This Shonen Knife first appeared on Madeloud, the Forever review I think was pubished in Bitch Magazine.
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Shonen Knife, Free Time
I haven’t heard any of Shonen Knife’s albums since 1998’s sublimely silly Happy Hour. Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that they were still a going concern. So when I picked up their latest, I was excited, but a little nervous as well. They’ve replaced their founding bassist, they’re a decade past their heydey — Lollipops and Fish Eyes forbid, but…is it possible that they suck now? Could their cuteness have curdled?
I needn’t have worried. Shonen Knife’s formula has stayed the same: Ramonesesque three-chord songs backing adorably dada lyrics about food, animals, or any other topic as long as it is treated as if it were a food or an animal. It’s simple, it’s unpretentious, and — even if the indie scene has moved on to other things — it works every bit as well in 2010 as it did in the 90s. The most characteristic outing here is undoubtedly “Capybara,” an insanely catchy tune about…well, you know. “South American animal/always biting grass….roly-poly body shape/swimming very well.” Sing it in a winsome female voice with a Japanese accent, shifting into a Beatles-y psych chorus to announce “Sleeping, biting, all the time/Sleeping, snoring, all the night” — it’s so comforting. In fact, the only way it could possibly be improved is with a techno version sung in Japanese — which is thoughtfully included as a bonus track.
“Comforting” pretty much defines Shonen Knife’s whole aesthetic. Greil Marcus and a million sad aging morons may point to the Clash and mumble incoherently about fighting the power, but in Japan they know that punk is music to shake your toddler to. “Rock N Roll Cake” isn’t about keeping the faith — it’s a recipe for woolgathering. (“Rock cake/ I want to sleep inside it…Roll cake/I can have funny dreams.”)
Even a song like “Economic Crisis” is not a call to arms but a cheerful ditty. And “Perfect Freedom” isn’t about the allure of Dionysiac abandon, but is instead a thoughtful, cautionary note from your mildly dotty aunt. “An…archy in the UK/it might be a mistake.”
“Love Song” though, is my absolute favorite. The band nods to girl group garage with a tune that adds some sway to the rock as they sing about how they don’t really like love songs, but everyone likes to listen to them. “Maybe I have a strange mind,” they muse, and then, in half parody, half capitulation, they start trotting out the clichés. “I want you, ooooo/ I need you, oooo/ such phrases/embarrass me.” The completely disarming sincerity of the distanced disavowal sung in those little girl voices just about breaks my heart. There are another six albums that Shonen Knife released over the last 12 years, and I’m thinking I’m going to have to go back and get them all.
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Forever, Forever
According to their press materials, Forever was conceived in a van. While travelling as part of Me and My Arrow, Shenna Corbridge (vocals), Jen Nigg (bass and vocals), and Joel Lopez (drums) got the opportunity to go on another tour instantly. Their bass player didn’t want to…so the remaining three just picked up a fourth (guitarist Jael Navas), formed a new band and went anyway.
Forever certainly sounds like it’s the brainchild of a bunch of folks who want the road to go on…well, forever. The music is enthusiastic, unpretentious, professional pop-punk that hits all the genre expectations — fast (but not too fast) tempos; catchy, familiar hooks; raw (but not too raw) production; vocals with a tinge (though just a tinge) of cowpunk swing.
Live, I bet they’re fabulous; enthusiastic, as happy to play in front of 2 people as in front of 300, in love with the true-believers thrashing away in the audience. On record, though, it’s hard to see the point. Not that there’s anything wrong with Forever, just as there was nothing wrong with the first million bands that sounded exactly like them. The only real variation on the 15-minute record is “Who’s Haunting Me?” which picks up speed enough to verge on hardcore. It’s hardly earth-shattering, but when you’ve been in the van this long, any change in scenery is worth pointing out.
Listen To If: You’re a Very, Very Old Punk or a Very, Very New One
Listen To While: Jogging Short Distances
You’ve summed up Shonen Knife’s appeal perfectly. Banana Chips and Cycling is Fun are two personal faves, precisely because they take me to simple pleasures is a way that short-circuits my cranky filters and killjoy censors.
But you fixin to step off Greil Marcus. Do I detect a little agony of influence?
Greil Marcus really is not an influence. I’ve hated him since the first time I read him. Gushing pseudo-intellectual fanboy crap. Barf.
Sorry; too much brew last night.
No need to apologize for Shonen Knife enthusiasm!
Well I agree that Greil Marcus is annoying, but picking on the Clash, is that necessary?
Since I went on tour with them, in an (basically) all girl band, “the Innocents”, with another all girl band “the Slits,” I must defend them before you stuff them away into the plaid shirted past. You are right that the constant banging on about this mythological band is totally boring: it is antithetical to what punk meant, but it is not early punk that is at fault, but the interminable discourse that put punk into everybody’s safe bourgeois bedroom.
The whole point of punk was over as it began, and of course we women did not produce anything that was even vaguely palatable to record companies. Nor did we want to.
However, it must be said that it was The Clash who had the temerity to take two girl bands on tour. Women with instruments was a big taboo. So for me, The Clash were in their time pretty exemplary and in the beginning their presence was charged and vital. What happened in the subsequent years where “Rock the Casbah” was played from tanks going into battle in Iraq, or the band is cited by Frederic Jameson, in his essay about postmodernism… well, the first is horrid, the second is self-negating in as much as Jameson imagines them into a few simple lines and reduces them to simulacrum of themselves, more or less proving the nature of his postmodern. I agree things have gone into overdrive with the deification of the band. However, they were righteous, whereas the metaphysical Clash, to which is ascribed a whole bunch of bourgeois attributes that had nothing to do with what and who they were, is worthy of your disdain.
Similarly, I would defend the Sex Pistols pre-Sid Vicious as radical…Sid represents the other disgusting side, of that “image of punk,” of the creation and consumption of the idea of what punk should be a la British and American press even as he lived and especially as he died. My eventual point is that the retrospective look back to compare the hardness, or radical-ness or what ever the f==k you want to call it, is softening and problematic, because, all references to the past dilute the present and being in the present is fundamental to something that should not claimed, be defined, postured or posed.
I think references to the past often enrich the present, actually. Where we are now doesn’t mean anything without knowing where we were.
Be that as it may…I’ve got no problem with the Clash’s music. I quite like their first album, and even enjoy London Calling (though I don’t know that I ever need to listen to it again.) I like the Sex Pistols too. It’s the idea that decent rock music poses some sort of existential challenge to the establishment that makes me sneer. I’m perfectly willing to say that the Clash deserves better than Greil Marcus, though.
To clarify the Sid V point, he became a commodity as soon as he joined the band and cut himself on stage. He pandered to the audience as well as Malcolm McLaren and the audience had already begun to parody itself and wanted the perfomace of punk, not punk anymore. Before all that he was very sweet, but then he turned into a mess. (The Nancy business apart from all that).
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I am suggesting it is not fair to historicise the then of punk. I’m being a purist I admit. My point is that at its best punk itself is not a temporally connected thing. Certainly, it could not sustain itself and did not want to in some ways. It was hard to reconcile what happened with what it started as.
The music was not the vehicle of change ha ha, it was mostly in the things that were peripheral and integral in the early days.In many ways there was a lot of just fucking with people because you could. I’d say that what it did was educate a lot of kids about their situation and offer an option. Perhaps it became a new tribe, but the tribe was aware of how it was being “handled”.
I remember Jimmy Pursey on stage at the Vortex, talking about how if you didn’t have the punk clothes you shouldn’t worry because “they” just wanted your money and sod them. It hadn’t really occurred to those east end boys that they were a “market”. What happened with Sham 69 later was fairly shocking, but I’d say he did speak to his audience in the best sense of how a union man might have spoken. I’d say that the seed-skepticism that punk instilled in people had ramifications, just not readily perceivable in direct change.
“It’s the idea that decent rock music poses some sort of existential challenge to the establishment ”
Well, not anymore.
And yeah, I’d definetly take “Give Em Enough Rope” anytime over one of the most overpraised albums of all time- “London Calling.”
I think it’s fairly dicey to suggest that rock music ever in itself posed a real challenge to the establishment exactly, though I guess you could make a case in terms of its relationship with the Vietnam protests. But I think probably spirituals and the civil rights movement might be an even better example, and that of course wasn’t exactly popular music.
The most iconic, effective music-as-protest moment I can think of is actually classical; Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial. That was notably backed by Eleanor Roosevelt, though…but still, I think it counts as protest and as effective, despite being (because of being?) backed by elements of the establishment, at least.
Oh really, anything by the Clash is among the “most overpraised albums of all time”? Seriously? Let’s see…pick anything that won a grammy at random.
Nope, I agree with Steven. London Calling is regularly cited as one of the best albums of all time, and it is thoroughly mediocre, bordering on annoying. Grammy albums come and go; nobody really cares past the night of the show, do they?
I’m just listening to the first Clash album, and it’s not really as good as I remembered either…sigh. So it goes.
Okay, then don’t let me interrupt your enjoyment of The Wall, Exile on Main Street, Hotel California, and anything by Billy Joel,The Ramones and Patti Smith, Ha ha.
London Calling is definitely more highly rated by critics then any of those except Exile on Main Street (which is also overrated, but which I like significantly more than London Calling.)
The Wall is critically a joke; it never shows up on best of lists (I still like it quite a bit, honestly — probably better than London Calling.) Hotel California doesn’t usually make best of lists either, which is fine with me; I’m not a huge Eagles fan. Billy Joel is critically loathed…which is fair, because he’s awful, though I still have nostalgic affection for him. The Ramones are great, and have a lot of critical appreciation…they seem to be rated about right, at least for me. I like Patti Smith pretty well, though she is probably somewhat overhyped.
I think you may be mixing up popular success and critical success a little? I think Steven was talking about the later mostly….
Dark Side of the Moon. At least it had a lot of stickers and posters. And the Led Zeppelin record with Stairway to Heaven.
The Ramones are the anti-Clash, barf.
Music critics really are the bunghole in the body of human discourse.
Oh lord, I just contributed, I’m a bunghole as well
The Clash album is not really about the music per se. It was about not being 128-256 tracks and taking back the chance for people to be able to afford to make music. So I don’t think that it was ever intended to be the best for its pure content.It was significant for other reasons.
Yeah , ‘Give em enough rope” is better.
But because you opened the door and I can :
Top ten most Overrated Albums in the realm of coolness and mystic in ten minutes:
Patti Smith : Horses
Pink Floyd: The Wall
John Lennon :Imagine
Cream : Disraeli Gears (any and all Eric Clapton)
Nirvana : Never Mind
Ramones : Rocket to Russia
Bob Dylan : Blood on the Tracks
Fiona Apple – When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You know that you are right.( For that frickin title alone)
David Byrne :(Pretty much all individual albums)
Sting : (Absolutely all his individual Albums)
And I reserve the right to add anything that comes to mind in the next half hour for my B list.
Eh, some music criticism is fun, some sucks, just like most things. I’m actually enjoying having some music discussion here; doesn’t happen all that often.
I really like Pink Floyd still; lovely easy-listening prog. The Ramones are really fun and unpretentious, which does indeed make them unlike the Clash, I would agree.
Led Zeppelin is probably my favorite band. Stairway to Heaven is tedious, but the rest of that album (Led Zeppelin IV) is solid.
The idea that any critic likes the Wall is crazy. Everybody hates it. (Except for millions of fans, of course. And me.)
Nevermind is great…but still probably overrated at this point.
I like Blood on the Tracks, but pretty much everything Dylan is overrated.
And I hate Eric Clapton.
Noah if you have Horses play it and see what you think now…
If I had to choose my favorite punk song…probably “Anarchy in the UK” which is still brilliant.
However, live the Clash were better.
I’m adding David Johanssen to my shit list, (not all the Dolls just him for being “all that”) and endorsing the Heartbreakers.(:
To return to the politics of the Clash for a moment. When we were on tour, the different cities were convening emergency meeting to decide whether we (mainly the Clash) could play. There were demos where ever we went and the political message of insurgence was definitely perceived as a threat to law and order. For a minute it was helpful.
I don’t agree with everything Marguerite said, at least, I like Nirvana. And a lot of Led Zeppelin. I did some of the animation for Jokerman but I can’t listen to Bob Dylan. I’ll shoot myself now.
Noah : I just absorbed your “easy listening comment” and I can’t stop laughing. Steely Dan perhaps…okay for easy listening (:
I guess we all have that need.
Dylan can be hard to take. I still like his ballads (“Buckets of Rain” is gorgeous) but the hype around him remains unendurable.
I don’t really want to listen to Horses again. I don’t hate it though. And I do really like the New York Dolls. I don’t think I’ve ever heard solo Johanssen, so maybe that helps.
But endorsing Tom Petty is just wrong.
I think the Sex Pistols are really overrated too. The Minutemen and Dead Kennedys…and just lots of American punk is a lot more enjoyable to me. Weirder and more musically interesting and funnier…but I do still like the Sex Pistols.
No, the Heartbreakers I meant was the Johnny Thunders Walter Lure version.
But how did I overlook Tom Petty as one of the worst overrated whiners of all time. Skin crawling.
Well as I said early Glen Matlock Sex Pistols, not Sid Vicious (and I did obviously have contact with them. So my feelings are altered by that I suppose )
I don’t have any problems with what to me is American New Wave.
At the time, I couldn’t bear Debbie Harry’s music,mostly for political reasons, but it’s grown on me. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t put it on at home. At the time I loved James Chance/ James White and the Blacks, (punk proper or new wave– not sure) but on record it is hard to take.
Sure the Minutemen why not, Dead Kennedy’s too.
Certainly by the 70s rock wasn’t considered a threat by anyone. I was thinking more on the lines of a brief moment in the 50s not long after Elvis first appeared. No doubt certain establishment people were wigged out by it. But that’s probably a different thing entirely from considering it an “existential threat.” But like you hint at, Nixon’s attempt to shut down Lennon is probably the closest thing to that effect.
The Sex Pistols were definetly overrated. One could pick & choose, though. That live “Johnny B. Goode/Roadrunner” medley is as incendiary as the 70s got.
As far as the Clash goes, I was definetly talking about critical attention. That’s about the only kind of attention “London Calling” got early one. Rolling Stone named it the best of the 80s at one point. It was the “hipster’s choice” for many, many years. Is it still?
The Clash got by on hi-energy early on. And it worked pretty well. By the time they calmed down a little bit, I don’t think their musicianship had advanced enough to compensate. Unlike say with the Stones, where the musicianship can shine through even on some of the weak tracks.
Just to pick nits, I don’t think “Disraeli Gears” has ever been as critically esteemed as the other discs Marguerite listed. I like most of the rest on that list, though. “Blood on the Tracks” is overrated. Though I like Dylan’s music, I don’t care for his lyrics. “Nevermind” is excellent but “In Utero” is much better. I like what I’ve heard of the Ramones. I can see how Patti Smith can get annoying at times. Depends what side of the bed one gets up. Her later work like “About a Boy” compares favorably to her early stuff.
I guess I should be proud to say I haven’t heard “The Wall” yet!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17440514
Aw, Pink Floyd’s great. The Wall’s a bloated slog, but I still appreciate it for that.
More and Ummagumma and Meddle and for that matter Dark Side of the Moon still hold up quite well; nice sense of line, trippy sense of humor, some awesome hooks — not un-metalish at moments. I wonder if Caro likes them….?
Anyway, Elvis…using black performance styles and influences the way he did certainly was an afront in various ways — but he obviously wasn’t particularly interested or able to use those political implications. I do love Elvis, though.
Hah; just read the link. That’s a great story. I hadn’t realized that Freed’s demise was in part motivated by racism. So definitely some political implications there. Good point.