Shonen Knife

Shonen Knife, written in Japanese as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife", is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, 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 simplistic 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 long career has earned them a solid, worldwide cult following and made avid fans out of seminal '90s alternative rock bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Babes In Toyland. The band has been credited with making "the international pop underground more international" by "opening it up to bands from Japan". They have also performed as a Ramones tribute band under the name The Osaka Ramones.

Links To Peel
Peel seemed to discovered the band in the mid-80's, possibly through his trip to Japan in 1986 with Janice Long for a BBC Radio One documentary on the World Popular Song Festival. The band didn't get a chance for a session on Peel's show until the early 90's, despite Peel regularly playing the band's material. However after 1992, Peel seemed to have lost interest in the band, after they were signed to major record labels and their sounds became more commercialised. After Peel's death, the group performed at the John Peel Centre in 2013 to pay tribute to the man.

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1991-12-08. Broadcast: 25 January 1992. Repeated: 03 April 1992, 18 July 1992 2. Recorded: 1992-09-01. Broadcast: 02 October 1992. Repeated: 28 November 1992
 * Two sessions. Both sessions are found on an unofficial cassette release of the Peel Sessions 1991-92
 * Flying Jelly Attack / Watchin' Girl / Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner's Theme / Antonio Baka Guy / Boys / Chinese Song


 * Get The Wow / Animal Song / Ice Cream City / Elmer Elevator / I Am A Cat

Other Shows Played
(This list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive. Please add more information if known.)

1987 1989 1991 1992 Others
 * Peel 049 (BFBS): 'Making Plans For Bison (LP-Pretty Little Baka Guy)' (Subversive)
 * Peel 050 (BFBS): 'I Wanna Eat Chocolate Bars (LP-Pretty Little Baka Guy)' (Zero)
 * Peel 051 (BFBS): 'Kappa Extract (LP-Pretty Little Baka Guy)' (Zero)
 * Peel 056 (BFBS): 'Devil House (LP-Little Baka Guy)' (Subversive)
 * 27 July 1987: Devil House (LP - Little Baka Guy) Subversive
 * 13 August 1987 (Rockradio): I Wanna Eat Chocobars - Pretty Little Baka Guy LP - Subversive (755)
 * 17 August 1987: 'Twist Birbie (8" LP-Burning Farm)' (K)
 * 07 September 1987: Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner (8" LP 'Burning Farm') Zero
 * 27 February 1989: Ah, Singapore (8" mini-album - Pretty Little Baka Guy) Zero
 * 20 November 1989: I Wanna Eat Choco Bars
 * 14 April 1991: Blue Oyster Cult
 * 17 November 1991: Space Christmas (single) Seminal Twang
 * 02 December 1991 (Ö3): 'Space Christmas (7")' (Seminal Twang) (JP: 'I'm one of those people, I have to admit, who really dislikes the whole Christmas period, mainly because it's the time of the year at which we become incredibly sentimental about children, and the old, and also the homeless by and large, whereas the rest of the year round, of course, we couldn't give a toss about them. I really hate that: it's their one day a year they really needed us. The rest, forget it. I'm sure it's not the same in Austria. Is it, I wonder, the same in Japan?')
 * 08 December 1991: Making Plans For Bison (LP - Pretty Little Baka Guy) Subversive
 * 26 December 1991 (Radio Mafia): Bear Up Bison (7" - Space Christmas) Seminal Twang
 * Tiger 91: 'Space Christmas (7")' (Twang)
 * 04 September 1992: (JP: 'On the Saturday at Reading, I was unable to get along to the tent at all because the whole of the backstage area was so jammed with people pretending to be NME and Melody Maker journalists that you couldn't really fight your way through them. But our Thomas, even before he got to Reading, in fact for weeks before, was saying that the thing he was looking forward to most was Shonen Knife. Where he got this from I simply don't know at all, but this is what he was after, and after he had seen them, he pronounced himself well-satisfied with them. So, Tom, if you're listening, this is a record by Shonen Knife, and you ought to be asleep by now.') Shonen Knife: 'Bear Up Bison (CD single-Space Christmas)' (Seminal Twang)
 * 06 September 1992 (BFBS): Space Christmas (7") Seminal Twang
 * 07 November 1992: Riding On The Rocket (7") August
 * 24 December 1992: Space Christmas (7") Seminal Twang
 * Best Of Peel Vol 16: 'Elephant Pao Pao (LP-Shonen Knife)' (Giant)