Just got back: Shonen Knife is, at heart, a punk-pop band, and their Ramones covers (“I Wanna Be Sedated,” for one) bear that out. I went with my friends Sean and Eloise (Greatest. Winggal. Ever.) and had a great time — the trio tore through “Konnichiwa,” “Twist Barbie,” and “Flying Jelly Attack” at the start, then revisited most of their discography (“Map Master,” “Kappa Ex,” “Rubber Band,” “Banana Chips,” “E.S.P.,” and the two versions of “Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner,” one of which verged on speed metal). Great stuff.

(Somehow we ended up dancing at Studio Z.tv and the DNA Lounge later, where I ran into three of my current/former students. I was so embarrassed. They probably were too.)

Popularity: 1% [?]

To combine the Japanese and cover song posts: The greatest pop cover version in the history of recorded popular music ever — and by popular music I only mean music since the ’50s, not “popular music” in the Richard Thompson sense — is (of course) Shonen Knife’s version of the Carpenters’ “Top of the World,” off the If I Were A Carpenter tribute album.

Hear it (5.44 mb, 192 kbps m4a).

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’m currently in total grading hell, plus a lot of other things besides, so I haven’t had time to post anything.

But with this post I’m officially changing my short-lived “Earworms” series — dead meme, anyway — to “Your New Favorite Song.”

I’ve written about the “Orientalist” pleasures of Shonen Knife before, and this particular song — yes, it’s about food, and yes, there’s a kind of infantilized pleading in the lyrics, and yes, “strawberry” is charmingly pronounced “stroh-berry” — won’t change naysayers’ minds. It’s not even typically punky like the best of the tracks from, say, Let’s Knife. But there’s something about this 1996 song (left off Rock Animals and collected on The Birds and the B-Sides) that made me keep pressing the rewind button just so I could hear it again.

The refrain before the chorus (“But I can’t make strawberry cream puff / And I can’t get strawberry cream puff”) perfectly encapsulates the paradoxical ephemerality of the pop song — okay, this pop song — as well as, um, strawberry cream puffs:

It can easily disappear
It’s just like a daydream
If you eat it only once
You’ll be obsessed with it all your life!

Here’s your new favorite song: Shonen Knife’s “Strawberry Cream Puff.” (3mb mp3)

Popularity: 1% [?]

For the past few days Madeline has been calling me an Orientalist. (I wanted to tell her that Edward Said would be spinning around in his grave at the rank misuse of the term, but…)

This was because I had spent the past week singing “I’m gonna eat jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly jelly beans” in anticipation of the Shonen Knife concert last night.

“They’re infantilized 40-year old women,” Madeline said.

“But Izzy really likes their songs, though,” I said. (This was true: Izzy now asks for the “strawberry song,” or “Strawberry Cream Puff.”)

“They wear girly mini-dresses,” Madeline said.

“But you really like that Carpenters cover version,” I said. (This was true: with the exception of Matthew Sweet’s “Let Me Be The One,” the Shonen Knife track is the best thing on If I Were A Carpenter.)

“They use all these food metaphors,” Madeline said.

“But so does Cibo Matto,” I said, but I think that proved her point even more.

“And you like them because they speak bad English,” Madeline said.

“But they rock!” I answered feebly.

The show, in any case, was a total blast. I went with a big bunch of people for once: my old friend Jane, June, Ellen, my colleague and fellow Throbbing Gristle fan Darren, Jerry and Max — sorry, I didn’t get to talk to the latter two because I was busy chatting with the women. =) Three of them were actually Friendster friends, too.)

Deerhoof opened the show. The tiny Satomi Matsuzaki “conducted” the group’s off-kilter, choppy, art-damaged songs; the drummer, sitting on the floor and banging on something (I couldn’t see — like some of the people I was with I suffer from Short Asian Person Syndrome) made a total racket. (Though when Deerhoof started with “Panda Panda Panda,” June turned to me and said, “Now I think we’re participating in Orientalizing.”)

Shonen Knife played a relatively short set (maybe an hour?), but one which didn’t disappoint: it was still an hour of sweet, sugar-laced, punk-pop with aggro guitars. They started the concert with “Konnichiwa” (I guessed that one right) and promptly went into “Flying Jelly Attack” and “Twist Barbie.” (I looked over at Jane and there was no hiding the look of glee on her face.) Some new songs followed, including one about someone with “a poor sense of direction,” and the evening ended with (I think) a sped-up version of “Pretty Little Baka Guy,” with a red spotlight shining on stage during the slow headbang part. (The crowd, as was the band, was flashing devil horns at this point. It was Hard Rawk after all.) Then a fantastic encore with “Top of the World” (Madeline’s favorite) and “Banana Chips.”

(I’ve also come to the belated realization that I’m getting old — my drinking abilities have been sadly diminished, as proved by the last three concerts I’ve attended. Sigh.)

Popularity: 1% [?]