Shonen Knife's current line up.

Four thousand people in the audience, and I get stuck sitting in front of the woman packing heat. No, not the kind you load with bullets. Much worse. Balled up into some sort of cotton torpedo and wedged into the pocket of her designer jeans was a pair of granny panties on which various love notes to John Rzeznik were scrawled in T-shirt paint. Halfway through the Goo Goo Dolls set, Granny Panties awkwardly snuck toward the stage and let ’em fly…right into the back of some dude’s head. I wonder if he figured out what hit him.

What was I doing at a Goo Goo Dolls show and why am I bringing this up on a blog supposedly about Japanese music? Would you believe it if I told you Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac started a record label that releases Japanese albums called Good Charamel Records? I didn’t believe it either until he responded to my e-mail asking if he’d like to spend a few minutes talking about it while he was in town.

One full set and an encore later, a buddy and I waited at the front of the stage for Mr. Takac to come out and chat. He showed up bearing gifts; namely Shonen Knife’s new English album Free Time and Good Charamel Records’ latest J-Rock compilation I Love J-Rock.
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