Wow. Truly an exercise in off-topicness.


Anyways I don't think the current state of the pillows' music indicates a lack of skill on Suzuki's part, why isn't Sawao catching it for the sugar pop lyrics in the recent albums, or Manabe for the average-or-below guitar parts in several recent songs?


I don't think the drift away from sheer brilliance is all Jun's fault.

...Plus the guy plays a mean double bass:[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDSmKiTwbow&feature=channel_page[/url]

[quote="little_norbert"]Wow. Truly an exercise in off-topicness.


Anyways I don't think the current state of the pillows' music indicates a lack of skill on Suzuki's part, why isn't Sawao catching it for the sugar pop lyrics in the recent albums, or Manabe for the average-or-below guitar parts in several recent songs?


I don't think the drift away from sheer brilliance is all Jun's fault.

...Plus the guy plays a mean double bass:[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDSmKiTwbow&feature=channel_page[/url][/quote]

After listening to Blankey Jet City ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtmkzY_AxrE , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvtI-6LEHg ), I find bassists who play both electric and standup cool, but I'm not as wowed by it anymore. I love it as much as the next guy, but I've gotten used to it. Jun does play well though.

I love Kashima's bass, but I've recently been listening to a lot of pillows music again and I've been really surprised by some of Jun's bass parts, particularly on the more recent albums.

Who wants to start bringing the Jun avatars back with me?

so uh... was there any news about the new fragments cd?

I'm not quite sure what this is, but it looks like Jun's got a side band [that Sawao is producing?] as well now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rspXLDhS6U&feature=fvw

"the　pillows山中さわおを表題曲のプロデューサーに迎えた「ローカル線」でメジャーリリース。
上野啓示（Gt/Vo）と"ghoma"こと成瀬篤志(Key)、2人の天才の織りなす詩世界と奏でるロックに
身を委ねて欲しい！
レコーディングには鈴木淳(the pillowsサポート)、森信行(ex.くるり)も参加し、さらにバンド感を高めている。
2010年7月21日リリース！"

He was just involved in recording.

Edit: As in, the band is just the guitar/vox and keys guy.

Those guys sound pretty cool. Any confirmation on Jun's membership? At least they let him be in the PVs.

Who's Jun Suzuki?

[quote="AlucardX24"] At least they let him be in the PVs. [/quote]

Seriously, he's just [b][i]helping[/i][/b] with their song and they put him in the PV?

Come on Sawao, it's been 11 years, let Jun be an official member already.

Maybe Jun doesn't want to be a member so he can be respectful or some shit.

I understand why they kept him as a guest in the beginning, but at this point the only thing it's doing is [i]disrespect[/i] to Jun. Wether his work is super intricate or otherwise, the band needs a Bassist, and he's been with them for 11 years, touring, doing the occasional interview, and appearing in one or two PV's.

It's not as if the other members died due to some horrible disease, they just left the band. I don't know how much "respect" you can have for that, but i've never been in a real band so I could be wrong. Kenji, I can understand, The Pillows formed with him, but was Tatsuya a "guest bassist" as well?

The way I see it, he's put 11 years of his life into The Pillows, and if it were me, I wouldn't want to be rememberd as a "guest who just happened to play for 11 goddamn years", i'd want to be remembered as a true part of the band.

[quote="Spike"]I don't know how much "respect" you can have for that, but i've never been in a real band so I could be wrong.[/quote]

Well it's not even a matter of having been in a band—among the rock bands I know (spanning various genres), the pillows are the only one I can think of off hand that have had a "guest" musician tour and record with them for over a decade. Even bands where members have died (e.g. Thin Lizzy, Boston) have official replacements those members. So I've always just chalked it up to a weird idiosyncrasy of the pillows that I'll never understand.

[quote="Spike"] Whether his work is super intricate or otherwise, the band needs a Bassist, and he's been with them for 11 years, touring, doing the occasional interview, and appearing in one or two PV's.

It's not as if the other members died due to some horrible disease, they just left the band. I don't know how much "respect" you can have for that, .[/quote]

I agree, it was Ueda's and Kashima's choices to leave the band, and Jun deserves some respect and official status already.

I think Jun is a fantastic musician, but I can't really judge his bass ability.
Nonetheless, I still get kind of pissed when I see album art and PV's sans-Jun.

To be honest, at this point I'd be [b][i]way[/i][/b] more interested if I heard that Jun was releasing a fragments album than hearing about a new pillows' album.

[quote="Utsuseru"][quote="Spike"]I think Jun is a fantastic musician, but I can't really judge his bass ability.
Nonetheless, I still get kind of pissed when I see album art and PV's sans-Jun.[/quote][/quote]

Well, to be fair the first album was the only one to ever feature all 4 Pillows members, so Tatsuya got the same treatment. Also theres alot of album covers that are abstract artwork, etc. Though I agree, if there was a new album that featured the band members, Jun probably wouldn't be on it.

Partly why that Terminal Heaven's Rock poster is still my #1 Pillows item of all time since it has all the members.

[img]http://www.pillows.jp/image/goods/03_10_poster.jpg[/img]