I think that most of us have probably seen the short clip of the Lesser Hamster PV as a part of Nite Sugar Waltz. I'm wondering why such a clip even exists, though. I mean, Lesser Hamster was recorded sometime between Living Field and Lostman, right?. Did the pillows actually consider releasing it as a single around that time?

I wonder if a complete version of this PV exists somewhere. I bet Sawao has probably got it on a VHS or something under his bed.

What do you guys think? Is there a complete version of the PV? If there is, do you think we'll ever see it?

And what about Liberty? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ComzXFgViCI

This is probably the sweetest minute and a half of music ever recorded. I wonder if they recorded a full version of the song comparable in length to what they put out on Turn Back, or if this is all that exists of it. Does anyone know more about this song's history?

/Discuss

The way the Liberty clip from Walkin' On The Spiral ends, it almost seems like that's all they recorded. It could have been a short song that they re-recorded into the full length piece which wound up on Turn Back, or there could be a full original version hidden away somewhere.

[quote="Spike"]The way the Liberty clip from Walkin' On The Spiral ends, it almost seems like that's all they recorded. It could have been a short song that they re-recorded into the full length piece which wound up on Turn Back, or there could be a full original version hidden away somewhere.[/quote]

Good point. The ending of the vid does seem rather abrupt. I wonder if they played it live at all. I've lurked here a while, but I haven't seen anyone really talk about this song's history. I wish my japanese were better; I imagine that some of the Japanese fans out there probably know a little bit more about songs like these.

[quote="Lesser_Hamster"]Good point. The ending of the vid does seem rather abrupt. I wonder if they played it live at all. I've lurked here a while, but I haven't seen anyone really talk about this song's history. I wish my japanese were better; I imagine that some of the Japanese fans out there probably know a little bit more about songs like these.[/quote]

From the [i]quip magazine interview[/i] about Turn Back.


[quote][b]From what period does your previously unreleased track, liberty, come from? [/b]

[b]yamanaka: [/b]we played it live in 1995. i was thinking i wanted to make it a single, but i didn't get agreement from the staff at that time, so it's out now (laughs). it was around the same time we were about to release tiny boat. tiny boat was released in january 1996, but it was not at a point where it was a musical factor so we postponed its release- it was really recorded in 1995. at the same time, i wanted to make liberty a single along with a song called future, but that wasn't released either. it's from that time period. i thought the lyrics were really good and i've always wanted to release it. i had trouble because the songs were refused; i thought, 'what are we gonna put on the album?' i gradually felt shut in by the other unfamiliar new songs. regrettably, i eventually gave up on the songs. but now here's my chance! i thought. yes! and this time we can just play around, and not worry about the sound. so i put in a horn section, something untypical of our sound from any time period.[/quote]

Ah, thanks for this.

Jesus, I would kill someone in front of their own mother to get ahold of a full version of Liberty from this era. And Futures, too. Shame that no videos of such a '95 performance seem to be floating around out there. I mean, imagine if this had been released as a single. It would have been [i]badass[/i].

I'm sure it exists. There was a ton of professionally-shot footage of their 92'-93' era live shows so i'd say it's reasonable to assume theres footage of it. Since Sawao wanted to make Liberty a single it's likely that the bit from WOTS is that PV footage. Although when they recorded it is up for debate, since Sawao said the studio didn't approve of the single.

[quote="Spike"]I'm sure it exists. There was a ton of professionally-shot footage of their 92'-93' era live shows so i'd say it's reasonable to assume theres footage of it. Since Sawao wanted to make Liberty a single it's likely that the bit from WOTS is that PV footage. Although when they recorded it is up for debate, since Sawao said the studio didn't approve of the single.[/quote]

Man, I wonder if we'll ever get to see any of this stuff. It breaks my heart knowing that this stuff might just be tucked under a matress or something. Not to turn this into a "GAWD THE PILLOWS SUCK NOWADAYS" thread, but for those of us who feel more partial to their older works, the release of this sort of thing is the closest we'll ever get to new pillows.

Hearing "Futures" is my Holy Grail of unreleased material by the pillows. Not that there's much to know about, but damn, it's between Tiny Boat and PML. It HAS to be amazing.

lol, what an ironic name it has (well, it isn't really ironic =P)

[quote="Son Goshin"] It HAS to be amazing.[/quote]
Pretty much.

I remember reading an interview with the pillows some time ago while lurking, where Sawao talked about how he listened to several unreleased songs and watched some old lives. It makes me wonder if he's got a trunk of awesome unreleased pillows shit in his bedroom or something. Within this trunk, he could have tons of material; unreleased songs (such as Futures), unreleased PVs (Lesser Hamster) and various live videos (early 90's stuff). Mind you, this is just the impression I got. I'm pretty sure that no such trunk exists. But, I have to wonder, if Sawao does have access to this stuff, then why not release it? Something like Futures, or a collection of old PVs including things like Kanojo wa Shisuta would make long-time fans really happy.

Same interview about Turn Back. Sawao mentioned that when they went looking for the masters they found a bunch of old material. Sawao can't choose what he releases, it's the studio that decides. Not to mention all the different labels they've been under for different periods of their career. There's probably alot they arn't allowed to release.

If I can only witness the complete Ame Ni Utaeba PV... I'll die a happy man.

[quote="Spike"]a bunch of old material.[/quote]Well, Mare is going to mail the pillows. He already said, that there is some room for non-paper-related questions. So we can ask about it. . .

I'll ask him if he intends to ever make an "unreleased/rare tracks" compilation, and if he would be willing to do such a series of songs on YouTube or something if the record label weren't into it (providing there isn't a copyrights issue, of course...god that's going to be fun to phrase ).

Yes! I will love you forever Mare! I think you should phrase it in a way so he can quantify it. That is, are there album worths of unreleased material, or due to the rapid pace he releases albums, do most songs get released.

Also, here's a list of songs we KNOW are in the vaults, although we do have live versions of a few like Henri Verdoux no Shougai and Chelsea Hotel:

[url]http://www.pirouzu.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4414[/url]

We got Flag Star, now I want more!