[quote="Son Goshin"]Now I know it's been explained on one of these threads before, but how'd you go about getting all these releases at the same time, Dimsim? Was it an easy process to get them shipped to the US for you?[/quote]
I live in Australia, but the process is the same regardless of where you live: get From Japan or Zenmarket to buy whatever items you want; FJ or ZM receives all your items at their warehouse; you ask them to throw all your items together in one parcel; and that big parcel gets shipped to you. Easy peasy.

Yeah I'm in Australia too, it's all about that proxy shopping hehe

A couple cheap finds:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/UqdOjJq.jpg?1[/img]

Found NINE MILES' first two albums. 200 yen each.
Pictured together with the Solomonic Polar Bear himself.

According to some reports, last night during the Return to Third Movement show in Shibuya, Sawao talked about:

-There’s gonna be a vol.3, but it hasn’t been decided when it will start yet.
-The new album is nearly finished, and the album tour will be after vol.3.
-The 30th anniversary is going to be a big thing, but it won’t be at Budokan.
-the pillows will make their return to America.

Soooo he literally just confirmed everything that we've been waiting to hear?



Seriously though, the title [i]Lostman Return to Budokan[/i] would have been so awesome.

One source: https://mobile.twitter.com/No_Gi_Ku/sta ... 4764734464

They also noted that Manabe suggested maybe there should technically be a volume 4 tour as well, it sounds like?

Gonna hit as many west coast shows as my job and body will allow when they get out here. I guess we could be looking at a Fall/Winter US tour again, boys and girls! Mark your calendars and save up some personal time.

[quote="Marekenshin"]They also noted that Manabe suggested maybe there should technically be a volume 4 tour as well, it sounds like?[/quote]
Feel like if they did Vol. 4, it'd be the last one, which would be a shame cuz they'd just miss [i]My Foot[/i]. And I mean...[i]My Foot[/i] is better than the last three albums that came before it and the next four that came after and it's one of their most consistent albums ever and it's got "My Girl" which is imo one of the most underrated songs they ever made and deserves to be played live again...goddamn I love that album.

New album almost done...regardless of opinion, I'm glad their album release streak has been pretty steady throughout all the changes.

I'll be at the NYC show whenever they decide to come on over! Hopefully we can get another special track or two live a la Swanky Street.

[quote="Mafu"]According to some reports, last night during the Return to Third Movement show in Shibuya, Sawao talked about:

-There’s gonna be a vol.3, but it hasn’t been decided when it will start yet.
-The new album is nearly finished, and the album tour will be after vol.3.
-The 30th anniversary is going to be a big thing, but it won’t be at Budokan.
-the pillows will make their return to America.

[/quote]

Cool I can see them before the 30th anniversary maybe.

Great news! Definitely hoping to catch at least one show whenever this happens. Thanks for the updates!

On the latest episode of Sawao Sez:

(roughly translated and abridged)
"My voice has stayed in good condition during this tour and I'm in a good mood.
Runners High and Happy Bivouac are already 19 years old!
Back then, I couldn't sing the songs as well, but now I am able to sing them solidly.
Yay.
One of the reasons why the pillows never made a big break is because I was not good at singing.
I'll do my best until the final day."

...then he goes on to advertise his cousin's spa and show pictures from the recent Wasao visit.

[quote="Mafu"]One of the reasons why the pillows never made a big break is because I was not good at singing.[/quote]
I mean, maybe if he was a better singer (mostly in a live setting, because there's nothing wrong with those studio takes), his music woulda affected more people, but I hardly think that was a significant factor. Difficult to say why the pillows never became one of Japan's biggest rock bands. Maybe their specific style didn't have the wide appeal that all the other big bands of their time had; and I really think it was a matter of style, because even at their worst, the pillows still put out songs that were as good as (or usually better than) what any other freaking huge band puts out. the pillows getting close-but-not-quite-there to true mainstream success is one of the biggest letdowns of the past 20 years in rock music, if you ask me; I'm sure if they were three white guys coming up in the US in 1991-1993, they woulda been one of the biggest bands in the world.

Too bad Sawao only maxed out his vocal skill attributes a few years ago (imo, it was during [i]Don't Forget Today[/i] and [i]Moondust Light for You[/i] that he was really killin' it). The band had already been around about 25 years at that point, so it's only after all this time that we're really seein' him at his best. Although I think that peak in his skill as a vocalist has also coincided with the band kinda slowin' down a little in terms of energy; feels like they're not playing as [i]hard[/i] as they did three or four years ago. Somebody let me know if they ever see "New Animal" played at album speed ever again.

[quote="Mafu"]...then he goes on to advertise his cousin's spa and show pictures from the recent Wasao visit.[/quote]
haaaaaa like "come to my cousin's spa for no particular reason". and Wasao will outlive us all.

It's official: The Pillows are "on point". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYeT2PEmSc4

^OK, that dude's reaction was pretty cool. He seemed to really like Manabe, and it's cool that he was open o enjoying it, despite the song not being in English. He pretty much summed up that Sawao quote, "Good music knows no race and no borders."

[quote]Too bad Sawao only maxed out his vocal skill attributes a few years ago...[/quote]

I really gotta disagree with this. Why does Sawao think his voice was so bad? I mean, yea, it kind of was during the First Movement (singing with "dumplings in his mouth", as he said), but he really improved once PML came out. If anything, his voice has suffered in the last several years, and it's not as good asit was during the pillows' prime years of the late 90's and early aughts.

I mean, you listen to the studio recording of Kanojo wa Kyou, and then compare it to something more recent like Pulse or Energiia. Can anyone honestly say that he sounds better on the latter two? Even the live videos from that late 90's era have Sawao's voice sounding better. He was more relaxed then. I feel like he's been trying too hard in the last 8-10 years with his wailing, especially when it's in a live setting.

IMO, the definitive best representation of Sawao's singing voice comes between LF-LB. Songs like Climbing on the Roof, Ice Pick and Black Sheep are a joy to listen to, and a main factor in it is his voice. But we all age, and that's a factor in all this. I just don't get the whole "my singing was bad back then, but is much better now" thing.

His studio performances are all pretty great, and yeah, with regard to those, the older ones are generally better. But I think you can hear pretty clearly from old live performances that he didn't exactly have [i]natural singing talent[/i] (which is absolutely not to say that his performances from back then were [i]bad[/i]). So I doubt it was particularly easy for him to sing all the super emotional, soaring 3rd Movement songs, especially the ones from their four classic albums. Nevertheless, back in the early 3rd Movement, he did a great job of handling those really demanding songs; whenever they'd do one that required him to go hard in his upper range ("Hybrid Rainbow", "Skeleton Liar", "Let's See If That's True or Not"...like, half of their songs from that period), he would push himself so hard and the result would be an incredibly earnest, sincere performance. But perhaps, by his standards, he wasn't actually "good" at singing; that is, able to hit the notes with real control and accuracy.

Sawao's lack of a natural singing ability definitely hindered him as he got older. On the DVDs from [i]916[/i] to [i]Pied Piper Go to Yesterday[/i], you can find countless instances of him doing that thing where he kinda curls the note in the back of his throat (it's hard to describe, but I think people know what I mean). My explanation for it is that, with age, he was losing the energy that allowed him to freaking belt notes that were outside of his comfortable range. [i]Lostman Go to Budokan[/i] marks a turning point, as I noticed that he was doing less of that throat thing in that performance, and was sounding a bit more comfortable with ultra-taxing songs like "Hybrid Rainbow", "Strange Chameleon" or "Konoyo no Hate Made". From that point on, he got better and better, by which I mean his vocal notes were a lot cleaner and less strained, while at the same time maintaining a high level of energy, power and sincerity. I guess after all the years of singing, he was starting to get the hang of it.

While you might dislike Sawao's "wailing", I absolutely love it, but aside from that, his "wailing" over the years reveals his progress as a vocalist. In early 3rd Movement, he was eradicating his voice doing that, but it sounded incredible because you could hear how much power he was putting into it. Later on in that Movement, he was still putting tons of energy into his "wailing", but it was often held back by that throat thing (e.g. "Hybrid Rainbow" on the [i]Wake Up! Stand Up! and Go[/i] DVD). But nowadays, he can go straight for those high notes without them sounding painful or awkward. In fact, all his vocals are sounding much more controlled and on-the-mark these days; he's still doing that throat thing, but it sounds much more like a stylistic quirk than the crutch it was 10 years ago.

What I'm saying is: Sawao sounds like a real pro now. I think in the late '90s and early '00s, his vocals were those of a young guy who could sing okay but really needed to give 110% to play these incredibly demanding songs that he was writing. Then, around the mid-'00s, it felt like he was struggling, having lost some of that youthful energy he needed to push him past his limits. Now, he sounds like he can go onstage every night and comfortably sing the high notes on any given Pillows song. And I think, as a result, he's sounding better now (or at least recently) than ever before: while I love the punk energy and sincerity of Sawao's vocals from around the end of the '90s, I'd take his [i]Don't Forget Today[/i] or [i]Moondust Light for You[/i] performances any day. I mean, "Konoyo no Hate Made" from [i]916[/i] is amazing, but "Konoyo no Hate Made" from [i]Moondust Light for You[/i] is just immaculate. Sawao's vocals are soaring unrestrained in that video; he might not have the energy of his early 30s, but he's got enough left that, when combined with his new level of skill as a vocalist, he's able to give the best live performances of his life. Or so I think; I know many fans would disagree with me.

So if you ask me what Sawao means when he says "I couldn't sing [those] songs as well, but now I am able to sing them solidly", I'd say that he's talking about his skill and ability as a singer. While many will argue that Sawao's vocal takes and live performances were better back in the day, I think if you listen closely, you can tell that he's a more [i]skilled[/i] singer now than ever before, whether or not that that results in better songs and performances or not.