Oh man.. Fighting Pose is probably the most catchy song ever.

And that guitar at the end, sounds like Sick Vibration, doesn't it?

Most definitely Sick Vibration. I'm likin it.

[quote]Oh man.. Fighting Pose is probably the most catchy song ever.[/quote]
I shall propose a hypothesis.

There exist members of the pillows fan community whose adoration of new material grows in an inverse proportion with the shit factor of said material. Y/N? Granted we only have a small clip, but I can't seriously be the only one [i]violently underwhelmed[/i] by it?

haha, whoa kind of brutal don't ya think...?

i definitely need to hear the entire song. it's just a b-side after all (even though quite a few of their b-sides have been gold)...

[quote="Jomei"]There exist members of the pillows fan community whose adoration of new material grows in an inverse proportion with the shit factor of said material. Y/N? Granted we only have a small clip, but I can't seriously be the only one [i]violently underwhelmed[/i] by it? [/quote]

Yes. And to your question of underwhelming, sort of.

Let's just be clear. The pillows have sounded essentially the same since My Foot.
FIGHTING POSE has a kinda cool name, but what we have now is essentially one sort-of-interesting vocal hook repeated over and over, with some Sick Vibration drumming, and some Sick Vibration guitar near the end of the clip. Hardly anything to get excited about.

Yeah, occasionally they'll release something interesting like Ameagari, 1989, or like, That's a wonderful world. But clearly no one at pillows HQ is making any efforts to change things up. If I were Manabe I'd probably be bored out of my mind.

This new-track auto-fellation that Jomei is mentioning really makes me think: Are you guys just not listening to other music? Do you guys just have some giant wall between the pillows and other bands that allows no cross-comparison? I mean, if the pillows are the only band you listen to, I can see how a new track here or there would be pretty awesome. But I really wonder of many Busters here are living in a musical vacuum.

The Pillows have sounded the same since Penalty Life I would say. Pied Piper is PL part 2 hahaha. The only album that has a cohesive "different" sound was WUx3 I think, but eh, what are you gonna do? Go meet them in Japan for their 20th anniversary? Sounds good to me

ehhhhhhh... I need to hear it all but from the clip for Fighting Pose sounds lacking.

I'm not going to buy this single now... Whoever does, get the one with the stickers and scan 'em for us. (unless they both come with stickers then go ahead and get the one with the PV.)

I don't think any of the previous four records "Blew the last album out of the water" upon release. They were all ok-good range. Hopefully Ooparts is great, of course. And, worst case scenario if Ooparts sucks... Oh well. Opinions will be for many people that the pillows didn't put out their best stuff in the years x through y. So what. If that matters to anyone, fine, but I just like to cherish what I like and not dwell on what I don't.

And to what GR just said above me... I agree completely here. Good Dreams wasn't my TOP CHOICE for RECORD OF THE YEAR, as My Foot wasn't, Wake Up! wasn't, and Pied Piper CERTAINLY wasn't. We liked them enough, plenty of good tracks. But I can't pick one of them that would score an "A" in what I want from a music album.

I don't think the pillows will ever be as epic as they were back in the [i]day[/i]. And you guys know what I mean by that.

Nonetheless, they do pretty good for a 20 year old band.

And that's how I feel on the subject. They're pretty hit or miss lately... but I still gotta say I see no real problem up until we hit My Foot. Good Dreams (album) had enough awesome lead guitar lines to keep me listening for a long time (as long as some intricate song writing here and there). My Foot had a few excellent songs here and there. Wake Up! had a clean-cut sound with songs that appealed to some people and then some songs that were just "great pillows songs". PIED PIPER... well, let's just say that I haven't listened to any track from that album in months.

I wouldn't say I have a wall like some fans have, but I definitely have a hard time getting into non-pillows music. My main issue is that I can't find anything that is as satisfying as 1990-2004 of the pillows career. I mean, WTF band has a discography that fucking awesome? I haven't found one yet.

Ajikan's discography is half shit. Ellegarden is OK. Portugal. The Man? Meh. Arctic Monkeys are pretty good. I tend to prefer Nirvana, but Kurt fucking killed himself after the third damn album. I don't know, it's hard to find music that has interesting melodic progression combined with actual skill used in playing the instruments (mostly referring to Manabe's masterful lead guitar lines which for a long time worked perfectly with Sawao's songwriting); usually the music gets generic sounding or it feels like "I should be listening to *insert favorite pillows song here* instead of this... song that isn't as good as said song*.

It's a terrible thing when musicians start to deteriorate in old age. I don't get it. As Beethoven grew older, his works grew larger and larger in scale, even though his ability to perform went down (being eventually completely blind, yeah). the pillows however, seem to be declining in their old age... maybe swallowing too many complacency pills. Instead of using their knowledge to further enhance and build on their discography, they're relying on the same hooks that worked on music from a decade ago. It just... doesn't work. In order for a band to stay interesting, they have to build and evolve; that's what made us love them in the first place... their ability to change their style rapidly without loosing their... well, sound. These days they don't pull it off quite as well.

I'm starting to feel like they aren't as concerned with making music with an edge rather than "having fun" now that they are popular and older. That makes me a bit sour because I believe that as a musician, it's a responsibility for you to contribute as much as you can to musical society, especially when you have the capability to produce what the pillows have. Nonetheless, that's just my opinion, and it's pretty stupid to expect anyone to live by (it's a tendency I picked up from my classical music studies). Essentially, something is missing in the heart of the pillows machine. Some type of connection isn't there anymore. At least, I'm not feeling it as much these days.

EDIT: And damn it Mare (among others), I'm not saying I hate the new stuff, I just find it less than AMAZING1111 when compared to other music I listen to nowadays.

Back in the day I chose Hybrid Rainbow over Beethoven's Fifth. Don't think I would pass up one of the catchiest Beethoven symphonies (have you heard that killer riff he uses!?) for "New Animal" or "Tokyo Bambi".

[quote="Tidusauron12"]I don't think the pillows will ever be as epic as they were back in the [i]day[/i]. And you guys know what I mean by that.

Nonetheless, they do pretty good for a 20 year old band.

And that's how I feel on the subject. They're pretty hit or miss lately... but I still gotta say I see no real problem up until we hit My Foot. Good Dreams (album) had enough awesome lead guitar lines to keep me listening for a long time (as long as some intricate song writing here and there). My Foot had a few excellent songs here and there. Wake Up! had a clean-cut sound with songs that appealed to some people and then some songs that were just "great pillows songs". PIED PIPER... well, let's just say that I haven't listened to any track from that album in months.

I wouldn't say I have a wall like some fans have, but I definitely have a hard time getting into non-pillows music. My main issue is that I can't find anything that is as satisfying as 1990-2004 of the pillows career. I mean, WTF band has a discography that fucking awesome? I haven't found one yet.

Ajikan's discography is half shit. Ellegarden is OK. Portugal. The Man? Meh. Arctic Monkeys are pretty good. I tend to prefer Nirvana, but Kurt fucking killed himself after the third damn album. I don't know, it's hard to find music that has interesting melodic progression combined with actual skill used in playing the instruments (mostly referring to Manabe's masterful lead guitar lines which for a long time worked perfectly with Sawao's songwriting); usually the music gets generic sounding or it feels like "I should be listening to *insert favorite pillows song here* instead of this... song that isn't as good as said song*.

It's a terrible thing when musicians start to deteriorate in old age. I don't get it. As Beethoven grew older, his works grew larger and larger in scale, even though his ability to perform went down (being eventually completely blind, yeah). the pillows however, seem to be declining in their old age... maybe swallowing too many complacency pills. Instead of using their knowledge to further enhance and build on their discography, they're relying on the same hooks that worked on music from a decade ago. It just... doesn't work. In order for a band to stay interesting, they have to build and evolve; that's what made us love them in the first place... their ability to change their style rapidly without loosing their... well, sound. These days they don't pull it off quite as well.

I'm starting to feel like they aren't as concerned with making music with an edge rather than "having fun" now that they are popular and older. That makes me a bit sour because I believe that as a musician, it's a responsibility for you to contribute as much as you can to musical society, especially when you have the capability to produce what the pillows have. Nonetheless, that's just my opinion, and it's pretty stupid to expect anyone to live by (it's a tendency I picked up from my classical music studies). Essentially, something is missing in the heart of the pillows machine. Some type of connection isn't there anymore. At least, I'm not feeling it as much these days.

EDIT: And damn it Mare (among others), I'm not saying I hate the new stuff, I just find it less than AMAZING1111 when compared to other music I listen to nowadays.

Back in the day I chose Hybrid Rainbow over Beethoven's Fifth. Don't think I would pass up one of the catchiest Beethoven symphonies (have you heard that killer riff he uses!?) for "New Animal" or "Tokyo Bambi".[/quote]


5th symphony>9th symphony.


And all new work is kind of meh from the pillows since about '99 or so. Good Dreams, My Foot and WUx3 were pretty good also.

[quote="Tidusauron12"]I tend to prefer Nirvana.[/quote]

I think we found the problem right there. We might need to operate.

[quote]EDIT: And damn it Mare (among others), I'm not saying I hate the new stuff, I just find it less than AMAZING1111 when compared to other music I listen to nowadays.

Back in the day I chose Hybrid Rainbow over Beethoven's Fifth. Don't think I would pass up one of the catchiest Beethoven symphonies (have you heard that killer riff he uses!?) for "New Animal" or "Tokyo Bambi".[/quote]

That's cool. I don't think the pillows have put out as many AMAZING tracks in their recent works either, but the ones that are really good are still really good.

I whole heartedly agree with Tidus, but I feel like they haven't really slowed down or declined.
As they grow as a band, their experiences change as well.
Look at it this way, Hybrid Rainbow is based on their trip to London, how they felt isolated but still
felt like they had some connection to very small but important moments/memories.
Read the lyrics to Hybrid Rainbow and watch the PV, it really makes the PV more colorful and exuberant.
Now look at New Animal, he is basically trying to explain himself as an artist, that he is different and he doesn't
care what others say to him about his style or his music. The difference is there of course, ONLY because of the
experiences he as well as the band go through. They're sound goes with the time, 1992-99 was a very enriching time
period where they themselves found out who they were as a band and as artists. Every track was pulled out of their lives
like memories are pulled when remembering or recalling them.

For example, whenever I listen to Patricia, I like to think that in some point in Sawao's life, he had met a girl
named Patricia, or some girl like her (he just gave her a name) who went at her own pace and broke his heart.
That goes for a lot of his songs, GIRLFRIEND has to be his one true love and how they were torn apart.
The mood and emotion from that song as well as the PV shows some truth or memory that Sawao had lost someone
very important. It reminds me of my history with my ex-girlfriend and how I lost her.
Memories.

Its just a thought, and maybe I'm just wrong, but I don't see the pillows making any real big changes in their experiences other than visiting the US again (Mr. Droopy, Pied Piper, etc... were maybe influenced by the trip)

But yeah I don't know why but for every album I still listen to them over and over again whether it was a not so Amazing album or just the opposite. I love their sound no matter what they do, to me their still THE PILLOWS.

Well that went from zero to tl;dr in no time.

[quote]But yeah I don't know why but for every album [b]I still listen to them over and over again whether it was a not so Amazing album or just the opposite.[/b] [b]I love their sound no matter what they do[/b], to me their still THE PILLOWS.[/quote]

Perfect example of my hypothesis.

I don't know about you but I love Ameagari ni mita Maboroshi
and thats their newest song and its full of passion, and just as amazing as
songs from 1996.
Sure they have songs that arn't as great as some old ones, and thats only natural.
But I appreciate their new style and sound because they grow, and still find a way to
keep me interested.

[quote="Jomei"]

[quote]But yeah I don't know why but for every album [b]I still listen to them over and over again whether it was a not so Amazing album or just the opposite.[/b] [b]I love their sound no matter what they do[/b], to me their still THE PILLOWS.[/quote]

Perfect example of my hypothesis.[/quote]

Is it so wrong that a person can love their favorite band's song even if they are not up to par with their old stuff? You and rhino seem to think that it must be an excellent song for people to like it excluding all external factors such as, hey, liking the band that plays it a whole lot as well.

The people on this forum love the new stuff as much as the old stuff and are well opinionated on which era has the best of them all. But I wouldn't go so far as to assume that it is "new-track auto-fellation" that's going on here as that'd be a rather brash assumption.

[quote="Marekenshin"][quote="Tidusauron12"]I tend to prefer Nirvana.[/quote]

I think we found the problem right there. We might need to operate.
[/quote]

I didn't mean I tend to prefer Nirvana to the pillows (though I have been listening to them a lot lately), I mean... Nirvana just doesn't have enough distinction of sound and interesting guitar work going for them. But I think "Nevermind" and "In Utero" are good fucking albums.

Of course, Nirvana doesn't have shit on my pillows.