Shonen Knife makes its point with positive punk

Page 2 of 2 -- Shonen Knife celebrates its groundbreaking beginnings this year by rereleasing its first four albums, beginning with 1983's ''Burning Farm." The albums, which have been long out of print, have been remastered and given bonus songs. There's also a tour, which brings Shonen Knife to the Middle East in Cambridge tonight.

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The band began in Osaka when sisters Naoko and Atsuko Yamano, along with Michie Nakatani, began playing instruments to emulate their American and British rock heroes and to alleviate the boredom of their office jobs. Naming themselves after a brand of Japanese pocket knives, the trio quickly found success playing their pert arrangements in Japanese rock clubs.

''We were very popular from the beginning because an all-female band was rare at that time," Naoko Yamano says. ''The only person who didn't like it was my father. He didn't like me carrying around a giant guitar case because the neighbors could see me and he was embarrassed. But later he admitted that he liked Shonen Knife."

While Yamano's father may have initially objected, a large number of prominent American and British musicians fell in love with Shonen Knife's music, and in turn introduced the band to Western audiences. In 1989, bands such as Redd Kross, White Flag, and L7 covered Shonen Knife's songs for a tribute album called ''Every Band Has a Shonen Knife Who Loves Them." In 1991, a then little-known Nirvana asked Shonen Knife to open for them on a British tour.

''At that time, I didn't know who Nirvana were," Yamano says. ''So I went to the record store, bought their CD, and listened to their music. The music was very, very hard, and their photograph was a little bit scary. So I thought they were scary people before the tour. But after I met them, they were very kind and they were gentlemen."

Attention from the Nirvana tour, along with high-profile collaborations with Sonic Youth, led to a deal with Capitol Records and a spot on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour. But perhaps their greatest achievement that year was landing a spot on a Carpenters tribute album called ''If I Were a Carpenter," covering the song ''Top of the World." Here was a Japanese band that made a career of filtering American music, performing an inherently American song, but interpreting it from a punk-Japanese perspective. It was the kind of musical hall of mirrors that could even make Michel Gondry's head spin.

As the alternative rock and grunge scene gave way to sleeker pop, Shonen Knife found itself traveling from major labels to small, independent labels. Its 2000 album, ''Strawberry Sounds," never saw a release outside of Japan. It suffered another blow when bass player Nakatani left the band, leaving the Yamano sisters to go it alone (Atsuko now plays bass, and the band uses a temporary drummer on tour). But none of this has seemed to slow down Naoko, who recently finished recording songs with her sister for a new Shonen Knife album.

''I wrote a song about spam e-mail, and I wrote a song about anime," she says. ''So you see, I can write about more than food."

Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.

Shonen Knife plays the Middle East Upstairs tonight at 9:30. Tickets are $12. 617-931-2000.