Shonen Knife Shonen Knife, the all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan in 1981.[ Heavily influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, and early punk rock acts, such as The Beach Boys and The Ramones, the trio crafts stripped-down songs expressing infectious melodies and simplistic, exuberant lyrics sung both in Japanese and English. Despite their pop-oriented nature, the trio maintains a distinctly underground garage rock sound rooted in edgy instrumentation and D.I.Y. aesthetics, which over the course of their nearly over three decade career has earned them solid, worldwide cult following and made avid fans out of seminal '90s alternative rock acts such as Sonic Youth. The groundbreaking band has been accredited to paving the way for Japanese rock bands to find recognition with international audiences. More recently, since the original member and bassist Atsuko moved to Los Angeles and left the band, Naoko and Etsuko played with support bassists. On the new albu...[more]