In the interest of full immersion in Japanese, to aid my language learning skills, my ipod nano has slowly been turning Japanese, I think it's turning Japanese, I really think so, since moving to Japan. the pillows have long been one of my favorite bands. I discovered them randomly on my first visit to Japan in 2004; they were doing an interview on some variety show, and then played the video for their then new single, Walking on a Spiral. I was smitten like a hello kitten, and spent a long time after returning to the States trying to track down their music to varying degrees of success. I would discover that their songs were used in a short lived but amazingly bizarre & comedic anime series called FLCL (Fooly Cooly). the pillows have been releasing albums since 1991, undoubtedly a large portion of their fame since their inception comes from being highlighted as the band responsible for much of the FLCL soundtrack. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
the pillows certainly don't hide their admiration for the pixies, from their sound, to the suspiciously similar name, to the song titled Kim Deal, they owe a lot to Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV and company. If we're being honest, what "alternative" rock (shuddering like Sideshow Bob getting smacked with a rake at the use of that distinction) sounding post-1990 band doesn't?
This song, Funny Bunny comes from their 1999 album Happy Bivouac, which had a number of ripe tracks plucked like precious pomegranate fruits for use in the FLCL series. The band has a discography of more than 18 albums, and I can make the safe assurance to all that are interested, there's no wrong place to start with this band; it's pretty much all good. Though, I will say, Good Dreams & My Foot might be the two albums of theirs I listen to the most. Enjoy...
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