Pop-punk band from Japan plays for sister-city exchange

How perfect is this? Beloved Japanese bubblegum punk trio Shonen Knife headline a fundraising concert for Garland County students traveling to Japan as part of the Sister City Educational Exchange.

Proceeds from the band's Friday night show at Low Key Arts in the Spa City will help 21 students spend a week, from May 31-June 8, with a host family in Hanamaki, a city of just under 100,000 in the Iwate Prefecture of the country's northern Tohoku region.

"This is a life-changing opportunity" for the eighth- to 12th-graders, says Mary Neilson, executive director of the Sister City program in Hot Springs. "They will visit schools and have a chance to interact on a level that they haven't been able to in the past."

The program is in its eighth year and, along with sending Garland County students to Japan, the Sister City group also welcomes students from Japan to Hot Springs.

For band leader Naoko Yamano, the news that she and her Shonen Knife mates were helping Arkansas students travel to her homeland was a pleasant surprise.

"I wasn't aware of it," she says in an email from a recent tour stop in Sellersville, Pa. "That's a cool project. I've never been there, but Hanamaki is a popular city of sightseeing for people around the Tohoku area. It's famous for being the birthplace of the poet Kenji Miyazawa. I'd like to visit."

Singer-guitarist Naoko and her sister, Atsuko Yamano, formed Shonen Knife in Osaka in 1981 with Michie Nakatani and quickly developed a style influenced by the Ramones, '60s girl groups and the do-it-yourself punk movement, writing bouncy, minimalist and carefree songs about candy, rock 'n' roll and cuddly animals. In the early '90s, the trio caught the attention of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, who sang the band's praises in interviews and had them open shows on Nirvana's 1991 U.K. tour.

Over the years, the band has shared stages with Redd Kross (and wrote a song about that Los Angeles band) and Sonic Youth and have appeared at mega concerts like the Lollapalooza Festival, All Tomorrow's Parties Festival and the Fuji Rock Festival. Their songs have appeared in programs like Powerpuff Girls and Gilmore Girls and their cover of The Carpenters' "Top of the World" was featured in the 1998 remake of the film The Parent Trap.

Their 23rd (!) album, Adventure, was released last year on Good Charamel Records and is loaded with guileless, feel-good Shonen Knife jams like "Wasabi," a tribute to that nasal-passage-clearing condiment; the T-Rex-style strutter "Rock 'n' Roll T-Shirt"; "Hawaii," a sweet plea for a trip to the islands; and "Imi (Emoji)," which could have been a Motorhead outtake, if Motorhead wrote songs about emojis.

"We recorded it at Yotsubashi LM Studio in Osaka," Naoko says. "I like recording because I can see how the sound progresses."

The sisters are joined by drummer Risa Kawano for their current tour.

For someone who named a song about a bad seafood experience after the band Blue Oyster Cult and recorded an entire album of Ramones covers, it's no surprise that Naoko doesn't keep up much with current music.

"I like '70s and '60s classic rock and I don't have any favorite new records," she says, although she adds that she'd like to find out more about new groups.

The concert is sponsored by KYE-YAC International, a Hot Springs-based nonprofit focused on youth causes, which has been a supporter of the Sister City program, Neilson says.

And the show, Shonen Knife's first in Hot Springs, should have something for Japanophiles and music lovers.

"This really reaches across to people who are interested in Japanese culture as well as [music]," Neilson says. "Shonen Knife has been around forever. There are fans of theirs from back in the '80s that are excited about seeing Shonen Knife. They know how cool it is to get a band like that right here in Hot Springs."

Weekend on 05/11/2017