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The pillows

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For information on the cushion, see pillow.
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the pillows are a Japanese rock band, best known outside Japan for their music in the anime series FLCL.

Contents

History

Early beginnings

the pillows formed in 1989 when Sawao Yamanaka struck up an unlikely friendship with one half of the legendary Japanese punk band Kenzi & the Trips. Bassist Kenji Ueda, short-lived replacement of the original Kenzi & The Trips bassist Jun Gray and original Kenzi & Trips drummer Shinichiro Sato teamed up with guitarist Yoshiaki Manabe of the hair metal band Persia and the young, charismatic frontman Sawao Yamanaka to work on what would become one of the catchiest asian pop rock bands to cross the Pacific.

The original Coinlocker Babies made their independent debut with the five-song demo tape Pantomime. The original lineup, then Sawao Yamanaka and two other unnamed individuals on bass and drums, toured and performed for almost two years under this name and were featured on the extremely popular VOS (Video on Street) bi-monthly VHS compilation tape entitled "God Save The Punx", among others. The Coinlocker Babies were on the verge of indie success and the inevitable major label contract when the three piece split due to unknown reasons. The details behind what happened to the original lineup of The Coinlocker Babies isn't known but in 1989, Sawao Yamanaka was already hard at work on another project. During this year, Sawao unveiled the new Coinlocker Babies, a four piece consisting of Sawao Yamanaka (Rhythm Guitar/Vocals), Yoshiaki Manabe (Lead Guitar), Kenji Ueda (Bass), and Shinichiro Sato (Drums). This name didn't stick for very long, however. The story as to where the band's odd name came about is that allegedly Sawao Yamanaka was hanging out at Yoshiaki Manabe's place and an English post punk and mod rock band compilation record entitled Pillows & Prayers hanging on Manabe's wall inspired him. The name stuck and late into 1989, the pillows were signed to Captain Records and got to work on their first official release. During the first half of 1990, the foursome toured and worked on recording another copy of Pantomime.

The grass is always greener on the other side, and in 1990, the pillows jumped Captain Records and took a contract with the major label Pony Canyon. 1991 saw the release of their first full album, Moon Gold, which was produced by Ryomei Shirai of the long running Japanese synth pop band the Moon Riders. In 1992, shortly after their second album, White Incarnation was recorded, Kenji Ueda left the band. Kenji Ueda was succeeded by the musically versatile and seasoned studio musician Tatsuya Kashima in 1993.

In 1994 the band once again moved, this time to King Records, and released Kool Spice. With Ueda no longer in the band to combat Sawao's eccentric diversity and rapidly changing musical interests of which were evident during the latter tracks of White Incarnation, the pillows' style started drifting away from their style of eclectic pop rock and wildly experimented between varying genres; during this time, the band's bass driven style of music could best be described as jazz, although lack of conventional jazz scales and progressions in Sawao and Manabe's playing cause some dispute over the validity of this.

1995 was the year in which the pillows released Living Field, an album that was widely ignored, but which many fans consider the most imaginative record of the pillows' career. Living Field was much like Kool Spice in that it's hard to pin a genre on the album. Swinger's Night Club show shades of Latin jazz influence while tracks like Something Like a Romance and Angel Fish give off a vibe of the percussion-driven pop funk made popular by Jaco Pastorius and other fusion artists in the seventies. Standout tracks include the reggae song Native World, the sixties nostalgic rock jam The Killing Field, and the beautiful single track Daydream Wonder. Some fans consider the listenability of Living Fields its outstanding feature, and superior to the pillows' later works. The multi-layered acoustic overdubs, Hammond organ samples, brass, upright contrabass, woodwinds, and other various percussion instruments presented many listeners with something new everytime he or she listened to it. While a musically diverse and intricate album, Living Field was not a commercial success, leading some fans and critics to speculate the end might be near for the band.

Growing popularity

It was on their transitional record, 1997's Please Mr. Lostman, a play on the name of The Beatles cover tune "Please Mr. Postman", that the pillows finally got their foot within the door of Japan's mainstream scene. Preceded by a series of hit singles, and evocative of such American rock bands as Weezer and Pixies, it catapulted the band to mainstream success in Japan. By far the biggest hit off of Please Mr. Lostman and by far the best example of Yoshiaki Manabe's musical chops was the soft, mellow ballad Strange Chameleon. Many of the pillows' most enduringly popular songs were introduced on this album, and are mainstays of the band's live sets nearly ten years later.

1998 would bring Little Busters, another underground success for the band. The album solidly established the band into the upbeat "90's Alternative" style, while melding it with British pop sounds of the sixties, strongly reminiscent of The Beatles, perhaps inspired by the band's trip to England that same year. Several of this album's songs would be prominently featured in FLCL several years later, but some of the band's best rock songs are also present on this album. "Nowhere", with a sound combining sixties pop rock with ninties hard rock, and "Patricia," evocative of George Harrison, were among the excellent yet often overlooked songs from this album. Unlike their later albums, Little Busters had a very cohesive sound, making a straight listen through this album quite enjoyable and fulfilling. Perhaps the pillows' most enduringly popular song, Hybrid Rainbow, was featured on this album.

In early 1999, Runners High was released, following the singles "Instant Music" and "No Self Control." This album shed the band's sixties influence, substituting more punk and grunge into the band's sound. Runners High would sadly be the last album to feature bassist Tatsuya Kashima. Late that same year, Happy Bivouac came out, and many fans consider this album to be the band's best rock-oriented project. Their style continued to evolve, and Sawao paid tribute to The Pixies with "Back Seat Dog", a song which followed the exact structure of The Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man," as well as one tune named after Kim Deal.

That same year, the pillows were approached by Gainax, an anime studio famous for hits such as and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Gainax wanted to license the pillows' three most recent albums, for their latest anime, entitled FLCL. the pillows saw this as a good opportunity to get their name out and agreed, even going so far as to compose two new songs specifically for the anime. These tracks became the singles Ride on Shooting Star and I Think I Can. August of that same year saw Tatsuya Kashima's replacement by former Chewinggum Weekend bassist Jun Suzuki.

the pillows would not release another album until 2001; the FLCL soundtracks sold well, as did their own best-of compilation, Fool on the Planet. Sawao concentrated his energies on Delicious Label, his record company side project. Manabe released a solo album as Nine Miles, continuing the reggae experimentation hinted at in earlier albums.

The band rarely makes reference to their earlier music, seldom playing any pre-"Lostman" songs at concerts but in 2004, their video documentary "Walkin' on the Spiral" was released and focused on the pillows' earlier music with old clips of live shows and interviews from various points in time while simultaneously celebrating the group's 15th anniversary.

Recent developments

Without any singles promoting it, the pillows released their next album, Smile. This album was considered highly progressive and experimental for the band, and there is some conflict between fans over the album's lasting quality. In 2002, the FLCL anime became available in the United States, giving the band more noteriety outside of their native country. In October of 2002 Thank you, my twilight, the pillows' tenth studio album, was released alongside a double CD collection of B-sides entitled Another morning, Another pillows.

After another short break (during which Sawao released four solo tunes under his Delicious Label, Manabe released a second Nine Miles album, and Sato toured with various other bands such as the reformed PEES), the pillows released Penalty Life in November 2003 and later Good Dreams on November 3, 2004. These two albums are cause of many dissenting opinions among the band's fans, especially in the west, but are generally considered of far lower overall quality compared to earlier releases. May of 2005 saw the release of a domestic version of Penalty Life within the United States by Geneon. The band promises further state-side releases.

In the summer of 2005, Sawao Yamanaka played in a side project, The Predators, along with Jiro of GLAY fame on bass and Shinpei Nakayama of STRAIGHTENER on drums.

Their newest album entitled MY FOOT was released on January 12, 2006. The album was quite well received by worldwide fans. Preceded by the successful singles "Nonfiction" and "The Third Eye," the album sold well, and, due to the surprising success, the band opted to release a third single, "Gazelle City," in February of 2006. With a growing international fanbase and growing domestic sales of their albums and singles over the past four years, the pillows may be, after many years, on the verge of worldwide success.

Delicious Bump Tour in USA

In March 2005, the pillows played their first ever U.S. show at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, with fellow Japanese band Noodles. After that, they began touring with Noodles, hitting other large market cities including New York City, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. This initial splash in the United States was called the Delicious Bump Tour in USA and a tour video was released on DVD under the same title. In interviews, band members said they were extremely surprised and pleased at the warm reception, and urged fans to try their non-FLCL music.

MY FOOT TOUR in USA and Mexico

In early 2006, rumours were spreading that the pillows would be touring in Mexico, many fans speculated if this meant that the pillows would be making a tour through the US also. These rumours were officially confirmed May 23, 2006, when the official, MY FOOT TOUR in USA and Mexico Shows, was opened up to the public. The tour begins June 16, 2006 in Mexico City, Mexico and ends June 28, 2006, in San Francisco, California.

Buster-kun

"Buster-kun" has been the pillows' mascot since about 1997, when they visited London and saw an interesting-looking toy in a shop window. The toy pops up occasionally, such as in the Hybrid Rainbow video, and on the cover of the "Hello, welcome to bubbletown's happy zoo" video/dvd. Buster-kun is often featured on band shirts, and has been offered on various occasions in the form of the popular Kubrick toys, as a keychain. Fans of the pillows are affectionately known as "little busters", the title of one of their songs, which was used extensively in FLCL.

Members

Discography

Singles

Soundtracks

External links

the pillows discography
Pantomime | 90's My LIFE | MOON GOLD | WHITE INCARNATION | KOOL SPICE | LIVING FIELD | Please Mr. Lostman | LITTLE BUSTERS | RUNNERS HIGH | HAPPY BIVOUAC | Fool on the planet | Smile | Thank you, my twilight | Another morning, Another pillows | Penalty Life | TURN BACK | SYNCHRONIZED ROCKERS | GOOD DREAMS | MY FOOT

 

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