Shonen Knife

Shonen Knife's first album, 1983's Burning Farm, has all the things the band became (slightly) famous for (well, the things that endeared the group to indie rockers anyway, like cuteness and catchy tunes). While they can barely play their instruments and the vocals are amateurish at best, they play and sing with an unbridled joy that gives the record all kinds of charm. They sound like schoolgirls playing early Beatles songs filtered through the Ramones, Blondie, and the Rezillos -- only with no pesky technical proficiency to get in the way. The lyrical concerns are truly their own, too, with songs about parrots, elephants, Barbie, and cleaning products sung mostly in Japanese. It would be easy to go too far and call them the Japanese Shaggs and wink at their cuteness, but if you forget the image and just listen to the music, they were so much more interesting than that. They were also very influential to bands like Redd Kross and Nirvana, as well as the whole American indie pop scene of the late '80s and early '90s. Many of these songs ("Twist Barbie," "Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner's Theme," "Burning Farm," and "Watchin' Girl") were redone for 1993's Let's Knife in inferior, cleaned-up versions. If you have that album, you need to check this one out to hear the Knife in their early, more exciting stage. If you have no Shonen Knife and are looking for a place to start, picking up this record and the slightly superior second album, Yama-no Attchan, would be a good idea. [Burning Farm was reissued in 2004 with the addition of two bonus tracks: live versions of "Watchin' Girl" and "Twist Barbie."] ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide