Lolita No.18

Take equal parts Ramones fan girl and cartoon violence. Beat the shit out of it with a Stratocaster and let it congeal in an amp cranked up all the way to eleven. Congrats! You’ve just baked up a perfectly good batch of Lolita No.18.

Japan Nite’s site describes Lolita No.18 as “pioneers of all-girl punk rock.” Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover that these days, the only original member of the band is also (not too surprisingly) the founding member Masayo Ishizaka. The other members called it quits in 2001 after a farewell performance at Club Quattro in Shibuya. Ishizaka formed the current lineup in 2002, pretty much picking up where Lolita left off a year or so earlier.

Ishizaka formed the band in 1989 while still in high school. Since then the band has toured the States, Europe and all over Asia playing with acts like Japan’s premiere punk presence in the U.S., Shonen Knife. Don’t think of Lolita as the Knife’s second guitar though, there’s one distinction they’ve got that Shonen Knife only wishes they had. They are the first and only Japanese band Joey Ramone produced.

If that isn’t a good sign, I don’t know what is.
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