Ride on Shooting Star... what a legendary pillows song.

I remember when I was in middle school... I'd stay up all night waiting for FLCL, and at the end of each episode, the previews would play the into riff to Last Dinosaur! And then the closing, ROSS!!! The song combined with the scenery from Japan made me feel SO magical...

[quote="Tidusauron12"]SO magical...[/quote]
hehe...hehehe

You need moar shit from the early-to-mid 90's. That's what got me into it.


Kool spice, living field and PMLM should be in there.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]Can someone explain the Pillows/Pixies comparison to me?
I'll be honest, the only real exposure I have to Pixies is Doolittle. And the only song that sounds REMOTELY like it could be a pillows tune is Here Comes Your Man.
Don't we have any other better comparisons?[/quote]

I have never understood the Pixies comparison. Just because you were influenced by a band does not mean that you will sound anything remotely like them - except in instances where you copy one of their songs, where you will still sound remarkably different.

I like the Pixies, but they would be infinitely better if they had a real vocalist, instead of an annoying-as-fuck fatass, who happens to be quite musically talented, talking into a microphone.

Anyway, if there were any good comparisons to the pillows, we would all be fans of them. If you look at IM, there really isn't much consistency with what else we like, and none of it sounds like the pillows. A lot of great bands don't have good comparisons. Who does Led Zeppelin sound like? Who does Queen sound like? And people have had 40 years to copy both of those bands. However, I suppose one must consider that, once you get really familiar with a band's music, a lot of comparisons just seem half-assed, at best.

[quote="sheerheartattack"]I like the Pixies, but they would be infinitely better if they had a real vocalist, instead of an annoying-as-fuck fatass, who happens to be quite musically talented, talking into a microphone.[/quote]
Yea, I totally agree with you. I think they should have let Kim Deal take command for most of their songs. She really shines in Gigantic.

edit: not the Surfer Rosa version, which I fucking loathe
this is superior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTQmClWe ... re=related

I'm picking out songs that I know my friend will like, hence no KOOL SPICE (I'm not too big of a fan on the effect they have on the vocals on most of the tracks).

I was hoping for a blurb about them, hence why I thought comparisons would be good. I have the following "notes":
+ Pillows are Japanese, and old (20 years and counting!)
+ Hybrid Rainbow has Brit-Rock influences
+ Ladybird Girl has American pop influences

And things like that. A few questions-- Terminal Heaven's Rock has a unique sound from most pillows songs, sorta alt. rock, but for some reason, I think of reggae. Is that a proper comparison? I make a similar comparison between Tokyo Bambi and ska...

I think it'd be more accurate to say that the pillows sound more like The Breeders. Sawao adored Kim Deal, and I'm sure that in addition to the Pixies, he listened to The Breeders. You listen to a lot of songs by them, and you defintiely see that "pillows feel". Songs like Flipside, Divine Hammer, Saints, Head to Toe, and Hellbound for example show where Sawao got his influence of Kim Deal from. As far as Pixies songs go, there's some stuff on Trompe le Monde (their last album) that reminds me of the pillows sound, but that's about it. Oddly enough, the one Pixies song that really sounds like the pillows is one written by Kim Deal, and it's their newest one from 2005 called Bam Thwok. Even though it was written well after Sawao started songwriting, it's obvious how similar the sound is to the pillows. I'd defintiely say it was Kim Deal, and not directly the Pixies that had the biggest influence on Sawao.

Bam Thwok: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDOOpNHXc6o[/url]

Divine Hammer: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_l4ZOVJ-ts[/url]

[quote="Son Goshin"]I think it'd be more accurate to say that the pillows sound more like The Breeders.[/quote]

Yeah, because if you want your friend to get a good grasp of what kind of music a band makes, you'll reference another band that is equally obscure.

Also, it's kind of a mediocre comparison.

WTF are you talking about? If said person knows about the Pixies, they probably know about The Breeders. Besides, I was clarifying that more for you and GR, not Takagi's friend. Who not to say they haven't heard of them anyways. And not once did I say the pillows sound exactly like The Breeders, but that it's [b]more accurate to say[/b] the pillows sound like The Breeders as opposed to the Pixies.

And I don't see why it's a mediocre comaprison. Find me another band that has a more simialr sound to the pillows. And I'll give you a hint, it ain't Nirvana. As you stated, just because a band is influenced by another, it doesn't mean they'll sound just like them. But if the pillows sound like any of their influences, it's most definitely The Breeders.

[quote="Son Goshin"]If said person knows about the Pixies, they probably know about The Breeders.[/quote]

Totally wrong here. I heard of the Pixies years before I ever heard of the Breeders.

Sheer, cheer up mate. Listen to some more pillows.

C'mon, now.
[quote="Son Goshin"]that it's [b]more accurate to say[/b] the pillows sound like The Breeders as opposed to the Pixies.[/quote]

But [b]why[/b] does it matter? Let's say the pillows are the number 0, Breeders are 999 and Pixies are 1000. Sure, [i]it's accurate to say [/i]the Breeders (999) are closer to the the pillows (0), but it is far too marginal to be significant. The claim has little to no tangible value.

[quote="Son Goshin"]And I don't see why it's a mediocre comaprison. Find me another band that has a more simialr sound to the pillows.[/quote]

I don't want to look. There is no need to look! Like sheer said:

[quote="sheerheartattack"]A lot of great bands don't have good comparisons.[/quote]

If you make comparisons BEFORE THEY EVEN HEAR THE MUSIC, the first thing the listener will pick up on is how [i]dissimilar[/i] it is to what ever comparisons you have made for them. You immediately lose credibility, especially if the comparison you make is with a band they are familiar with.

Be reasonable now, guys. Since when has "Who do they sound like?" ever been a question that you had to have piles of answers for? Blurbs? the damn thread title... Are you kidding me? You are trying too hard to encapsulate EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PILLOWS into the one PERFECT, SUCCINCT, ALL ENCOMPASSING description of the band. Comparisons will not achieve that if they are so obscure or marginal... And you can't just beam all of your experiences and feelings of the music directly into their brains simply with words. [b]They have to become fans on their own.[/b]

[quote="Takagi"]I'm picking out songs that I know my friend will like[/quote]

GOOD. Just do that. That is all that you need to do! This isn't supposed to be made out into a seminar to pillows fandom. If you know he'll like the songs you have in mind... [i]gasp[/i]... then you don't need anything else to influence him. It's not about what WE think he should like, you know. It's about him. You know him better than any of us.

Protip: It's not on your ass if he doesn't care for them. If he likes them, then he will discover more songs as time goes on.

There's my essay. It's under 350 words if you don't count the quoted posts.

weezer is far more comparable to the pillows than the breeders or the pixies.

and just like weezer, i wish they'd stop releasing albums. UGH.

[quote="Cloudy_One"]:dizzy: C'mon, now.
[quote="Son Goshin"]that it's [b]more accurate to say[/b] the pillows sound like The Breeders as opposed to the Pixies.[/quote]

But [b]why[/b] does it matter? Let's say the pillows are the number 0, Breeders are 999 and Pixies are 1000. Sure, [i]it's accurate to say [/i]the Breeders (999) are closer to the the pillows (0), but it is far too marginal to be significant. The claim has little to no tangible value.

[quote="Son Goshin"]And I don't see why it's a mediocre comaprison. Find me another band that has a more simialr sound to the pillows.[/quote]

I don't want to look. There is no need to look! Like sheer said:

[quote="sheerheartattack"]A lot of great bands don't have good comparisons.[/quote]

If you make comparisons BEFORE THEY EVEN HEAR THE MUSIC, the first thing the listener will pick up on is how [i]dissimilar[/i] it is to what ever comparisons you have made for them. You immediately lose credibility, especially if the comparison you make is with a band they are familiar with.

Be reasonable now, guys. Since when has "Who do they sound like?" ever been a question that you had to have piles of answers for? Blurbs? the damn thread title... Are you kidding me? You are trying too hard to encapsulate EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PILLOWS into the one PERFECT, SUCCINCT, ALL ENCOMPASSING description of the band. Comparisons will not achieve that if they are so obscure or marginal... And you can't just beam all of your experiences and feelings of the music directly into their brains simply with words. [b]They have to become fans on their own.[/b][/quote]

Holy crap, you guys are taking this too seriously. My first post about all this wan't even pertaining to Takagi's friend. I went off topic, sue me. I was responding to GR's post, it looked like this:

[quote]Can someone explain the Pillows/Pixies comparison to me?
I'll be honest, the only real exposure I have to Pixies is Doolittle. And the only song that sounds REMOTELY like it could be a pillows tune is Here Comes Your Man.
[b]Don't we have any other better comparisons?[/b][/quote]

So I explained what I thought about the Pixies/pillows comparison. And I didn't think much of it. And if we look at the bolded part of that quote above, I gave him what [b]I[/b] thought was a better comparison. So even if we go by your logic Cloudy, 999 is still closer to 0 than 1000. It's my argument that the music Kim Deal's music reminds me more of the pillows' sound than Black Francis', plain and simple. If you disagree fine. Also, people are always going to ask what a new band sounds like. I already know it's hard to do that, hell it's usually impossible, but in this case I thought the comparison between Kim Deal/The Breeders and Sawao was valid. I won't talk about the subject anymore since now this is taking this thread way off topic. I swear, it's like half of IM has a bug up their ass lately.

Don't play the "taking it too seriously" card. Many topics come up that are repeats of the same discussions. This is one of them. When it comes to "comparisons so I could get my friend into it", I am not satisfied with some of the same conclusions being drawn up and accepted. I feel that the Pixies/Breeders/Weezer comparisons are lackluster and I remain confused that they pop up so frequently. On page one, I posted my main reasoning for not liking comparisons as a selling point (What the subject OP is asking us to do, make comparisons). I feel it's best to just mention the genre and let the listener make his own judgements. My post on page two is more elaboration on why I don't like comparisons. We've all been on topic the whole time.

And if you don't want to talk about it anymore, that's fine by me. I have little more to say, as well.

Good advice has already been stated for Takagi:

1.) Keep it to around 30 minutes

2.) Choose the proven winners that most people attribute to getting them into the band themselves (Carnival, Little Busters, Runners High, etc.)

3.) Comparisons may not be effective in this case, possibly even counter-productive. As Planobuster said, "ask your friend to describe them after he's listened to it." Letting the listener draw his or her own conclusions will be more straightforward.

4.) It's ok if your friend doesn't like whatever you have chosen for him, so deliver it in a simple fashion so as not to feel like you've wasted time and effort afterwards looking for the [b]perfect[/b] pillows sampler in the case that he doesn't like it.

I'd also say to just casually remark that they had some different sounding music in the earlier portion of their career. Living Field should be like a treasure jem, waiting to be found out.

Be sure to tell us the result, Takagi. I think you have more than enough data for the task at hand.