Thursday 1 July 2010

Answering the eternal questions...

There are so many vital things for philosophy to determine, but which mainstream philosophers have simply ignored, preferring such pointless abstractions as defining synthetic and analytic statements or - even worse - getting hung up on jouissance and differance.

Useless.

In an attempt to open up the truly important philosophical questions to the people, Last Django presents the first in a series of queries to establish truth by democracy once and for all.

Question Number 1 - Which was the better swampy surf-punk Japanese all-girl band of the 80s - Shonen Knife or The 5678s? By way of helping my students with their own research, allow me to present Option A:



And Option B:




[Footnote for No Good Boyo - neither of these bands contains twins. Sorry.]

7 comments:

No Good Boyo said...

I've wrecked two laptops assessing these videos. Should have used PCs. Anyway, it has to be the 5678s. Better songs and attitude. Shonen Knife have an excellent video, but their name is irritating.

Nothing is better than NiNa. Featuring Katie Pearson, the only woman who could persuade me to go lesbian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqQwotGgHXQ

Sauti Ndogo said...

Tend to agree. The 5678s have the edge. All three songs are catchy. But hardly punk surely? More like 1960s bubblegum music.

The standard by which all all-girl groups must be measured is The Ronettes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyGO5NRhzvk

Gadjo Dilo said...

I thought the 5678s always dressed as geishas, but here they look more like the Ramones - I'm disappointed and pleased all at the same time!

Talking of irritating names, the Japanese also had the Sadistic Mika Band, a pretty funky outfit in their day.

Gyppo Byard said...

Gentlemen - I'm glad we have reached the correct consensus. I would give the 5678s the edge any day (not the one out of U2, obviously).

Boyo - Quite.

Sauti - It's *Japanese* punk, or underground, or alternative. Or Something. It's Punk in the sense of the DIY aesthetic, certainly... The Ronettes have the power to reduce me to jelly, and are one of several reasons I hate Phil Spector.

Gadjo - I've not seen them dressed as geishas, but in the interests of ethnomusicological research would be happy to. Can you provide a link? In Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' they appeared dressed as the Ronettes but barefoot, performing 'Woo Hoo":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIKORxPeFq8&feature=related

Daphne Wayne-Bough said...

Sorry I'm a bit late with my assessment here but I too would rate the 5678's above Shonen Knife, for the simple reason that the latter have made a poor attempt at composing English lyrics by cutting headlines out of newspapers and jumbling them up, and additionally do not seem to understand the need for rhyme, whereas the former have eschewed any attempt to sing in English at all and just shout English-sounding noises, proving they have pretty much grasped the essence of rock music.

This level of philosophical debate would make late-night French talk shows much more watchable.

Gadjo Dilo said...

Gyp, it seems I cannot provide the link. I'm sure they were dressed as geishas when I saw them performing on Jonathan Ross, but then I could also swear blind that Serena Williams came round last night while I was asleep to show me her backhand technique. Memory is a strange thing.

Gyppo Byard said...

Daphne - for the full genius of Shonen Knife lyrics, I recommend "Twist Barbie" and "Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner". The 5678s may be the better band, but lyrically they provide less grist to the post-modern mill.

Gadjo - Pity. All I can say is I wish I'd seen that.