Review: Genki Shock!

Genki Shock!
Shonen Knife
2006

In December of 2006, a friend and I strolled into a local Tower Records, which was going out of business. For those who may not remember, Tower Records was a very popular music store that went bankrupt that same year. Like many businesses that are folding/closing/ending/etc, they were having a "going out of business" sale in which all their merchandise: books, music, DVDs, posters, etc was being sold at ridiculous prices. The good kind of ridiculous, of course; by which I really mean: "the kind in which consumers win."

I sifted through bins and boxes for CDs and anything else I could get for super cheap. I couldn't find much except for a Sonic Youth single which I ended up giving to someone as a gift. I was about to grab a Streets CD but my friend had seen it first and claimed it for himself. As a consolation, he handed me Genki Shock! My first reaction was, "Dude, what the fuck?" because it was pink. He calmly responded, "Trust me, you'll like them." And this is where the review starts.

This was my first exposure to Shonen Knife, later reading that they'd been around for a while. My initial reaction was obviously of bewilderment. Surely, a pink album cover (the cover is only pink in the US; in the Japanese release, the cover is yellow) could only be indicative of girly music, right? What the hell had my friend easily convinced me to get? Not like I could really complain since I only paid about 2 bucks for it.

I was flabbergasted at how much I enjoyed the album because it defied every expectation I had. Granted, those expectations were ridiculous and had no substance but the more legitimate (though still stupid) expectations regarding the music itself were more: "this music will probably be very cutesy and more appropriate on a children's television program." Or very low.

The album itself is a collection of stuff that I would call a mix of various guitar-driven genres like pop, punk, hard rock, and faint echoes of metal (particularly that gnarly solo on "The Queen of Darkness") and jazz ("Broccoli Man") simply because of the lyrical content and delivery. Pop: Not necessarily saccharine-sweet stuff but nothing that (for example) Black Flag would sing about like giant kitties and glasses ("Giant Kitty" and "My Magic Glasses", respectively).

From the first track, the aptly-named "Introduction" which serves as a preview for a later track ("Giant Kitty"), I was intrigued and amused at how it lulls you into a false sense of security with the track being presented as if it was coming from a distant boombox as it explodes into "S*P*A*M" which is probably what grabbed me and never let me go since I first heard the album. The rest of the songs that followed maintained a similar energy though it did lull you into another false sense of security (or at the very least led you in one direction and then POW!) in which- "WHOA! This solo on 'The Queen of Darkness' is pretty sweet!"

Yes, it's like that. Not to say that the songs in between are filler but they don't grab you with the same cutesy shiny gleeful ferocity as the first few tracks and the closing track. So, don't dismiss "Broccoli Man" as run of the mill pseudo-jazz or anything of the sort. The guitar work is what stands out for me especially when the distorted guitars aren't strumming away but when you get to stuff like "Rock Society" and "Under my Pillow" which serve as perfect showcases for how varied their guitar playing abilities are. Very talented dames these dames.

My only beef would have to be with the obvious fact that Naoko Yamano singing in English is something you just have to get used to. It's not atrocious but it's not that easy getting used to it either but fuck it, the music's good. My only other beef is the fact that their guitar work left a deep chip in my shoulder that I haven't been able to heal. Well, that's not such a bad thing because it just motivated me to at the very least learn my scales.

8/10