Release date has been set. [b]April 6th.[/b]

Who will play bass? Five different bassists perform on STROLL AND ROLL. They are...

[b]Kenji Ueda
Tatsuya Kashima
JIRO
Tomoyuki Miyakawa (HiGE)
Yoshinori Arie (VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE)[/b]

holy.

shit.

http://pillows.jp/p/information/newrelease/3276.html

DVD will contain 3 PVs including Cuckoo no su no shite de.

Also...
[quote]発売元：DELICIOUS LABEL　販売元：キングレコード[/quote]
They're no longer with AVEX? Sweet.

I am freaking out so hard about this, on many different fronts.
Guest bassists galore? Incredibly sick, I don't think anybody could not dig that lineup.


But fucking back on KING RECORDS???

When did King Records EVER put out a poorly-produced pillows album?
NEVER.
FUCKING.
NEVER.

OH GOD I CAN'T CONTAIN THE HYPE

this is literally insane.

Well then.

So their website lists Delicious Label as having made the record, and King Records being the one doing marketing/sales, I think? Amazon Japan shows Delicious as the label for the album...so self-made pillows release, distributed via King Records.

Indeed. However, I can't see this being a factor in the artistic quality of the album unless King Records actually mandated certain outcomes from the albums that The Pillows submitted to them back when they were last signed with King. It's possible that Avex did so as there's arguably more "commercial appeal" to the Avex releases and people have often suggested this in criticisms, although I don't think it's so far-fetched to say that such an artistic direction was not simply an autonomous decision or natural outcome for The Pillows. Contrastingly, it's doubtful that King had that much control over The Pillows' output on their label as evidenced by the sonic transition from the 2nd Movement into the 3rd Movement, and the fair degree of eclecticism thereafter, although King may have had some say over things like which tracks got onto albums and whatnot. So, I can't say that The Pillows signing to King Records would somehow result in a better album as the band would be liable to just keep doing what they're doing, but I can definitely say that because Sawao's putting up his own money to make music rather than relying on grants and budgets from labels, that's gotta give the band a little bit more freedom, which will HOPEFULLY mean that [i]Stroll and Roll[/i] is a better album, if we're to put our faith entirely in Sawao's songwriting abilities. I certainly do, as he is a god.

This might be the first physical pillows album I buy in almost a decade O_O

I think the thing that you can see a stark difference for the pillows on King vs Avex is the overall production/mastering. I don't think the songwriting itself was pushed to any particular direction by either label (although which songs got to make the album may have been more controlled with Avex, perhaps? hard to say).

Listen to My Foot and Wake up! back to back, and you'll notice a pretty big difference in the tone of the albums overall. It's pretty common that a record label will push for specific producers and such to be used, so a big label like Avex pushing bands to get a sort of standardized sound makes sense, in a sad way.

We'll see how it turns out. I'm definitely pre-ordering this one, and I encourage everybody to either preorder or buy it if you like it after it comes out (like, quickly) so that it helps their rankings on the charts. They may need our support more now than ever before, if you think about it.

Oh for sure, there's a reason that My Foot was the last pillows album I really LOVED, and the last physical album I bought. There's a very noticeable difference. You heard it right away with Scarecrow I believe being the first single after the My Foot related ones? The sound is just very different. I mean, look at their label mates on Avex. Mostly pop icons. I don't think they knew how to properly handle the pillows sound at all.

Do we know why they split with King Records in the first place? I feel like I remember knowing a reason, but it escapes me.

Either way, PUMPED. I'm gonna say I WON'T be pre-ordering until at least sound samples or a single is released, I am hopeful, but I still know the reality of the situation lol. I will definitely buy it right away if it is a hit

how'd you feel about "Radio Telegraphy"? I thought it was fantastic but not enough to convince me of the solidity of the rest of the album. "About a Rock'n'Roll Band" did a better job of that imo even though [i]Moondust[/i] didn't turn out to be that great.

I wasn't aware there was a recording of it?

All I know is Avex never got a hidden track thank you note.

SANK YOU KING RECORDS

An awesome thank you track at that...

Here's Radio Telegraphy for anyone like me who hadn't heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dDl1-NEiHM

Figured it belonged here being on the new album and all...

I dig it, definitely a step above most Moondust tracks, IMHO, but not enough to commit me to preorder the album, yet. Maybe after a few more listens, who knows