A friend on facebook asked me to post this. Apparently it is the result of his own research. Pretty interesting information here.


Thomas-James Kalogianis

the pillows – A History of the Songs of the Lostmen

The true history of the pillows begins in the early 1980’s, soon after legendary rock group “Kenzi & The Trips” disbanded. Whilst the pillows were officially formed on the 16th of September 1989, there were many significant events that lead to their 25 years of success. This is the story behind the pillows of Japan – Can you feel?
Kenji Ueda’s Influence

Born on August 30, 1965 in Sapporo at Hokkaido University Hospital, Kenji Ueda began playing acoustic guitar at just nine years old. He was inspired to move from acoustic to electric guitar somewhere between turning ten and eleven years old when he saw a television appearance by the New York American hard rock band KISS. From here he took up the bass guitar at the age of twelve and formed a band in junior high school called ‘Carol and the Cools’. One of the more influential bands that shaped Ueda’s style at an early age was ‘The Roosters’, known very much for changing their line-ups frequently throughout their active years and their eclectic mixing of punk, blues, ska and good old fashioned rock and roll. Some of his other career long influences include The Sex Pistols (his punk rock awakening), The Star Club, ARB (Alexander’s Ragtime Band – a Japanese Rock Band formed in 1978) and Anarchy.

After partially completing his high school education, Kenji decided to leave before concluding his senior studies, and still quotes on his personal website today that he ‘had no luck with school’. At the age of eighteen in 1983, he left Hokkaido for Tokyo upon invitation from Kenzi, a senior at Ueda’s high school, and leader of the then successful punk-rock group ‘Kenzi & the Trips’.

Prior to Ueda’s arrival, the role of the bassist for the Trips was undefined. Going by various historical resources and records, the role of the bassist was essentially seen by the public as indistinct up until this point. Ironically enough a similar situation would occur with Kenji Ueda and the pillows in the near future. Regardless, historical resources do show that Kenzi was the lead vocalist and bassist for the years 1975-76. In fact he was directly followed by a more experienced and established bass player at the time, Jun Gray.
Ueda officially joined Kenzi & the Trips in 1980 replacing the original bassist Jun Gray, who had only been an active member for three years. From here the group became one of the more popular punk rock bands at the time in Japan, particularly in Tokyo. The success of the group was widespread, as rock began to develop as a more widely accepted genre, although ‘the Trips’ - as they were commonly referred to among fans - were to unfortunately break up indefinitely in 1987. It was then that Ueda left Tokyo, moved back to Hokkaido and began working on putting another rock group together.

Koji Iwata (check history)
Born on July 23, 1968 in Otaru-shi, Hokkaido, Koji Iwata was an aspiring musician from a young age. He grew up together with Sawao Yamanaka, and they were both close friends throughout his middle and high school years. Once Koji had graduated from Hokkaido High School in 1984, he moved to Sapporo to begin a career in the music industry. It was here that his friendship with Sawao Yamanaka played a vital role as they formed the original Coinlocker Babies, where Koji was the bassist and provided back-up vocals. In 1989 Koji was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to an ongoing medical condition.

Once the original Coinlocker Babies had split, Koji ended up playing for a variety of different bands including a role as the bassist for the band ‘Ash’. In 1991 he landed a role as the lead guitarist for ‘The Chewinggum Weekend’, a band that saw moderate success in Japan, producing two albums and seven singles over nine years. This was Koji’s longest stint in the music industry until 1999 where tensions mounted between himself and Takashi Hashimoto, lead vocalist, to the point where the The Chewinggum Weekend separated. After taking a break from his musical pursuits, Koji decided to venture into a solo career starting in 2001 under a new stage name ‘HERMIT’. By 2003 Sawao Yamanaka had established his ‘Delicious’ record label and several of Koji’s songs were featured on a variety of its compilation albums. Tracks such as ‘Call Bell’ and ‘Sunny Day’ can be heard on the labels ‘My Room is Delicious – Volume 1 & 2’ compilations, along with other releases.

In 2003, Koji finally released his own solo album entitled ‘Frequence Eater’, followed by yet another musical break. Five years later, he released the 2008 single ‘Evil My Plan / Demon Tracks Vol. 1’ and this stands as his most recent - and final - solo work. His last official appearance was with the songs ‘Spooky Skeleton’ and ‘Lemon Tone (Ver. 1)’ on a 2008 Delicious Label compilation album called ‘Electric Rays’. Up until today his activities have declined in parallel with his health. Unfortunately since a young age Koji has suffered from a fatal disease that required him to receive regular treatment in hospital. There has been little to no musical activity from him since 2009.
Despite the dismal lack of publically available information, I’ve managed to exploit all the online resources within my reach, and in doing so I found a rather interesting BlogSpot page. The blog is dedicated entirely to HERMIT and it is very simple in terms of its layout. Containing only five pages filled with fluorescent pink text, the blog’s main page depicts a fan letter expressing love and adoration toward HERMIT and his music. Aside from this personal fan letter, there is a short biography, an incomplete song lyric section and a peculiar link to a page called “Diary of HERMIT [Diary of a Deadman]”. After opening the aforementioned page, the following text is displayed in unusually large font:

“If some part of me is cured, another part will just worsen. It's just the usual hospital visiting. Occasionally a complete health screening is recommended to me, but this time even an exorcism works for some people. The health screening I understand... but.. an exorcism.. am I cursed? First of all, of at least all the shrines here, there is not any man hired as a priest that is capable of such a special thing. But I've also been in so many car accidents... when I was about 20 years old I was so close to death...so surely this is a curse? Yoko calls me an "immortal man" because when it seems I am dying... I don't die.. maybe that's the most painful thing? (It is 14 more days until 251)”

It is my personal opinion that this is a direct translation of one of HERMIT’s diary entries. Whilst some of the entry doesn’t make sense, there are further links to other diary entries in a similar vein spanning 2003 to 2007. Unfortunately these entries are in an older website format and cannot be readily translated. One final note worth mentioning about Koji Iwata is a song dedicated to him called ‘That’s a Wonderful World (Song for HERMIT)’ by Sawao Yamanaka. The song is featured on the pillows’ fifteenth studio album, ‘PIED PIPER’. In the weeks surrounding the release of the album, Sawao wrote what he called “my explanation of the new album, PIED PIPER!” on the pillows official myspace blog. Keep in mind that this was prior to the re-launch of the social networking website in late 2012. The blog posted listed a few notes encapsulating Sawao’s thoughts about each track from the album, and the following was written regarding the ‘Song for HERMIT’:

“This track is for the artist ‘HERMIT’ who is on my label DELICIOUS LABEL. He has been a best friend since I was thirteen years old and he taught me rock. When we first came to Tokyo, we lived in the same apartment. We were young and silly and full of rock’n’roll. It was just awesome!”

Based on the song dedication above, the lack of musical activity since 2008 and the knowledge of his fatal medical condition since his early childhood, an educated guess would suggest that HERMIT may have passed away.

I enjoyed this post until that bit that Iwata may have passed away. Still, interesting background info on these two elusive characters in pillows history.

Guess I'll have to throw on some Killing Pop.

Wow, thanks Tidus for posting. And thank Thomas-James for sharing this highly interesting information.

Most interesting. Thanks for sharing.

There's more coming up, folks. He's not done with his research just yet.

The Coin Locker Babies Part 1

Formed in Hokkaido, 1986, The Coin Locker Babies originally consisted of the charismatic young front man and rhythm guitarist Yamanaka Sawao, Koji Iwata (HERMIT) on bass and Tsutomu Yoshida on drums. The group were known for contrasting their appearance and live performances from the surrounding punk-rock scene, with ruffled hairstyles and often employed acoustic guitar sounds. Their vocals were also considered to be in a higher register than what was commonly heard from similar punk bands. They had toured throughout 1986-87 as a very popular three-piece indie punk-rock group. They did not have the means to create a record as of yet, and their exposure and fans were not prompted by media, but from a voluntarily recorded demo-tape and word of mouth.

The name of the band is interesting in that it refers type of child abuse that occurs mostly throughout Japan, and to a somewhat lesser extent in China. Essentially newborn babies that are unwanted by their parents are sometimes abandoned in public coin-operated lockers, for example, at a train station or bus depot. The vast majority of people believe that those who commit this type of child-abuse intend for their newborn to survive, and that they are simply unwanted. The reason behind this is that the lockers in question are usually inspected by transport and station attendants, therefore the infant is often found quickly. Despite this there are many cases where newborns are deceased before they are discovered.

The group called themselves ‘The Coin Locker Babies’ after a novel of the same name written in 1980 by one of Japan’s more unconventional authors, Murakami Ryu. The story describes a pair of twins abandoned in a coin locker, and the interesting futures they assume. One becomes a transvestite hustler gone pop-star and the other develops a pole-vaulting career. Whilst I’m yet to come across any reference to the pillows playing sports, the cover art for one of their more recent albums shows all band members cross dressing as females. Regardless I think I would be safe to say that Sawao Yamanaka had some sort of influence in naming the band, particularly with the eccentric style he has portrayed over the years.

The Coin Locker Babies Part 2

In terms of popularity and notoriety, The Coin Locker Babies were nearing indie success in what was becoming an established punk-rock scene. Despite being on the verge of a major label contract in early 1987, and not long after Kenji Ueda had left the Trips, the three-piece group split for reasons unknown. Unfortunately the details around the disbanding of the original Coin Locker Babies remain a mystery, however it wasn’t long after this that Koji was to go into psychiatric care, a potentially contributing factor. Soon after, as luck would have it, Kenji Ueda invited Coin Locker Babies vocalist Yamanaka Sawao and former ‘Kenzi and the Trips’ drummer Shinchiro Sato to form a new band. At this stage, Yamanaka wasn’t able to play the guitar very well, so the group extended their invite to Yoshiaki Manabe (former PERSIA lead guitarist), establishing the final ‘Coin Locker Babies’ line-up in 1987.

During their major touring dates they were also featured on a variety of bootleg video releases. The most notable of these was the extremely popular ‘Video on the Street’ (VOS) series. Released in 1988, the VHS was a bi-monthly underground compilation tape known as ‘God Save The Punx’. The tape itself included performances by the Coin Locker Babies, Kenzi & The Trips and another lesser known punk band from the same era called ‘The Stalin’. Today the tape itself hasn’t surfaced in its entirety; however there are a few short video clips of the bands involved floating around YouTube and other video sharing websites of Asian origins. One of the more recognisable video clips is just over a minute in duration, showing Sawao singing a song called ‘I Don’t Cry’. In the coming months the group worked on recording their first demo-tape, which would eventually become the early work behind the pillows first EP. With just a small set list under their wings, The Coin Locker Babies set off to tour wider Japan in the lead up to the middle of 1989.

While the pillows were on a brief hiatus in early 1993, the The Coin Locker Babies re-united to perform one final tour, even acting as a support band for Suzuki Hideya from ‘Mr. Children’ – a relatively new pop-rock group that were taking off at the time.

Oh, man. Pretty cool stuff. Where's this guy doing his research? Is there more?

Neat, I can't wait to read more.

More coming up. He says he plans on going up through Kool Spice. As for sources, it's mostly blogs and websites on-line. I guess he's been looking deeply into old blog posts and things such as that.

Awesome! Looking forward to it!

This is great, I can't wait for more. Any way to confirm Hermit's still alive or dead? Japanese obituaries?
I'm gonna be really bummed out if he did pass away.

[quote="Raid"]This is great, I can't wait for more. Any way to confirm Hermit's still alive or dead? Japanese obituaries?
I'm gonna be really bummed out if he did pass away.[/quote]

[url]http://music.2ch-library.com/pillows/music8.2ch.net/musicjg/1179758840.html[/url]

This message board says something about Iwata being in prison, around comment 880. It wasn't really insightful or definitive.

Thomas also has the title of "The Most Good Looking Pillows Fan Ever"

Wow, interesting stuff. I had no idea that Iwata was in the same band as Sawao (for that matter, any time I've ever seen The Coinlocker Babies referenced, it always says "Sawao and two unknown other members" or something like that.)

Wow. This post really moved me so much that I decided to login and reply. I've missed these forums!

But this research is really amazing. Tell your friend that I appreciate it.