Shonen Knife is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Osaka in 1981. Heavily influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, The Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the trio crafts stripped-down songs with simple yet unconventional lyrics sung both in Japanese and English.
Atsuko Yamano is a founding member of the Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. When the band was first started, Atsuko played drums and provided backup vocals. A former fashion designer, she was also responsible for designing the band's stage outfits. After the departure of Michie Nakatani, Atsuko switched from drummer to bassist. Atsuko retired from the band in 2008 to marry, and moved to Los Angeles. During the next several years she occasionally toured with Shonen Knife but did not play on their studio albums. She returned to the band as a full-time member in 2017.
Naoko Yamano is a musician and founder of the Japanese rock trio all-female band Shonen Knife.
Candy Rock is a 2003 album by the Japanese rock group Shonen Knife. It is one of their few albums not to be released in the United States. All of the songs are sung in Japanese.
Happy Hour is a 1998 album by the Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. The cover artwork is by Yoshitomo Nara. It is the last album by the group with their original bass guitarist, Michie Nakatani.
Rock Animals is a studio album by Shonen Knife. It was originally released on September 8, 1993 in Japan. It peaked at number 59 on the Oricon Albums Chart, as well as number 39 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.
Let's Knife is a studio album by Shonen Knife. It was originally released on August 26, 1992 in Japan. It is the group's first album sung entirely in English. It peaked at number 64 on the Oricon Albums Chart. In 2007, Rolling Stone Japan placed it at number 37 on its list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time".
712 is a 1991 album by the Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. The album was named after the contraction of the Japanese words for the numbers 7 (nana), 1 (ichi) and 2, which, when contracted, sound like "na-i-fu". Naifu is the imported word in Japanese for "knife".
Pretty Little Baka Guy is a 1986 album by the female Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. It was re-released in the US as side one of a record/tape, with side two being Live In Japan. There have been many releases of this album in various countries over the years, with each release containing different rare tracks.
The Birds & The B-Sides is a collection of B-sides, cover versions, live releases and variants released by Shonen Knife.
Yama no Att-chan. is the second album released by Japanese pop punk band Shonen Knife and is almost exclusively in Japanese. The album was named after Atsuko, their drummer, the honorific "-chan" being added. The title thus functions as a pun, since the drummer's name, when rendered in the traditional Japanese style, is Yamano Atsuko.
Strawberry Sound is an album by the female Japanese rock group Shonen Knife, released in 2000. It was their first album without founding member Michie Nakatani. It was released only in Japan.
Live in Osaka is the first completely live album from Shonen Knife, released in 2006, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their 1981 debut.
Michie Nakatani is a Japanese former musician, singer, and songwriter and was one of the founding members of the Japanese alternative rock all-female group Shonen Knife.
Tokyo Encore was the final release by Gumball. After leaving Columbia Records at the end of 1994, the band released a live album compiled from the band's 1993 tour of Japan and sold through their fan club on their own T.E.C. Tones label. Gumball were joined on stage by members of Shonen Knife during the performance. The album features live covers of songs by The Beatles, Deep Purple, and the Germs.
Burning Farm is the first album by Shonen Knife. It is almost entirely in Japanese, with only "Twist Barbie" on the original release in English. The Japanese 8" vinyl had eight songs. The CD re-issue bonus tracks "Parrot Polynesia", "Watchin' Girl" and "Banana Fish" first appeared on the Zero Records compilation LP Aura Music in November 1983.
Minna Tanoshiku or Everybody Happy is the first release by the Japanese rock band Shonen Knife. It was released in cassette-format only in 1982 in the band's native Japan. The first 50 copies were released by the band themselves, and the insert features the lip prints of the three band members, although Michie Nakatani once said that the lip print was by her grandmother. An additional 20 copies, without the lip inserts, were pressed by Zero Records before the band requested that further pressings be ceased.
Super Group is an album by the Japanese rock trio Shonen Knife. It was released in Japan on 7 November 2008, in the USA on 20 May 2009, and in the UK and Europe in 2010. The original Japanese CD issue was released as a mini-LP cartoon package with a gatefold and poster inside.
Osaka Ramones is Japanese pop-punk group Shonen Knife's 16th studio album. All of the songs on the album are cover songs of the punk group Ramones. The album's cover art takes its inspiration from the Ramones album Road to Ruin. Five songs on the album were recorded in at GCR Audio in Buffalo, New York with Producer Robby Takac in late 2010 and it was intended to be a mini-album. Lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Naoko Yamano later decided that Osaka Ramones would be a full-length album celebrating Shonen Knife's 30th anniversary. The rest of the album was later recorded in Osaka, Japan and mixed at GCR Audio.
Overdrive is the 19th studio album by Japanese pop punk trio Shonen Knife. It was released on April 14, 2014 in Europe, and on April 16, 2014 in Japan. According to band leader Naoko Yamano, because their album Free Time (2010) was heavily influenced by punk rock, and Pop Tune (2012) had explored a more pop-oriented sound, Overdrive was a chance for the band to explore a more hard rock sound. The album's lyrics cover a wide array of topics, from green tea, fortune cookies, and cats.
