[quote="Thinliine"]I don't think famous-ness in and of itself is bad; the problem is, bands are tempted to release stuff that's going to sell more albums, largely due to pressure from record companies and producers. There are some good mainstream rock bands (in Japan, at least); Sambomaster, for example, seems to be quite popular, but their music is as aggressive and uncompromising as ever.
I would rather a band stay obscure simply to avoid the risk of wimpifying their sound.[/quote]
Haha, I was gonna get you by mentioning Sambomaster, but it appears we were thinking on the same lines.
Yeah, from Seishun Kyosokyoku (an OP Theme in Naruto)...to releasing Boku to Kimi no Subete wo Rock'n'Roll to Yobe* which is, as you said, aggressive and uncompromising. Opening the album with Futari Bocchi no Sekai? Yeah, you can pretty easily tell that Sambomaster is very solid.
But I think there is a definite risk in doing this. Once people know their material can be absorbed by a much larger audience, there HAS to be at least a slight desire to "tone it down" or make it more generic, so they can win over the most fans. Being all obscure and "out there" will only capture a smaller number of those potential fans.
The fact that the pillows have been a band for 17 years is convincing to the idea that they won't cheapen out that easily...but it still worries me slightly.
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it'd defintiley be my guess now that the new album's coming out this summer, maybe even a little later if they have another single come out before the album's release. good to see the pillows aren't in any rush to put out another album. hopefully this makes for some real quality music.
