[quote="MrkJulio"]You know what's sad? Ever since the pillows signed to Avex.[/quote]

This is pretty much what I think, too. My Foot was the last thing they released with King Records and the last that I felt was really a good album throughout (despite a few conspicuously bad tracks.) Ever since then, they've had a few redeeming songs on otherwise bland albums I can't get excited about.

More troubling for me is the fact that the entire "feel" of the band seems to have changed since they signed with Avex. They used to seem like a down-to-earth rock band but now more than ever try to seem cool and hip with the opposite of the intended result. Worst of all, they feel painfully commercial with near-constant DVD releases I have trouble keeping up with, and seem to take their music much less seriously than they did in the past. They just don't seem like the same band they were up until 2006.

It's easy for me to get nostalgic about the group up through My Foot: back when I got into the band in mid-2004, I was fired up over every new release like Sono Mirai Wa Ima, Nonfiction, The Third Eye, and others - and I loved all of those even when a lot of the community was complaining about how bad Penalty Life supposedly was. Everything after that has been mostly disappointing for me, with the occasional exception that barely keeps me interested.

i really have no reason to post anymore: thinline usually says it all for me.

Pretty sure that's the general opinion shared between us as IM users.

No, not shared among all of us. lol

But there's definitely a segment of us that have been saying exactly that for quite a few years now.

[quote="Jomei"]No, not shared among all of us. lol [/quote]

Alright... this is true. I agree with it anyways.

King Records was a much better label, I agree
They also had much better album art back in the King Record days.

Well you don't see them playing a secret track with "thank you avex records" in it....

The music is still good, I think, but the production is awful in comparison to what it used to be, which hurts more than anything else. The quickest way to make good, original music sound like everything else is to give it the same bland over-production and mastering designed to create a general, broadly-appealing sound rather than a carefully crafted tone unique to the band.

I just want them to release a an album as good and heartfelt as the song [b][i][color=#FF0000]We Have a Themesong[/color][/i][/b] again.

Fuck Avex where is Pony Canyon?

[quote="ThinlineTele"][quote="MrkJulio"]You know what's sad? Ever since the pillows signed to Avex.[/quote]

This is pretty much what I think, too. My Foot was the last thing they released with King Records and the last that I felt was really a good album throughout (despite a few conspicuously bad tracks.) Ever since then, they've had a few redeeming songs on otherwise bland albums I can't get excited about.[/quote]

I agree with the whole post but especially this. My Foot is the last album to have at least 50% good songs, even if there were some stinkers on it. Every time I try to give Wake up another try, I get past Boat House and remember why I think it's a pretty trashy album. And sorry, it's not just the production, the songs are not good. I feel like they've jumped the shark or are even [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization]Flanderizing[/url] themselves, trying to recreate the success of Happy Bivouac and Penalty Life* and failing miserably in the process. I do feel like part of this has to do with the overt attempt at commercialization, for what it's worth. Either way, aside from Scarecrow, Boat House and Mr. Droopy, I can't think of any song since Wake up's release that I really like, just a few that I tolerate. The good news is that I think the pillows understand that they haven't been up to snuff lately, because their live sets have omitted all but one or two songs from this era.

*[size=75]success in terms of popularity, especially stateside[/size]

[quote="Spike"]Fuck Avex where is Pony Canyon?[/quote]

Now you're talking.

When I came to Japan, I was amazed to see so many huge displays for the latest Pillows releases with a bajillion copies of OOPARTS or Horn Again sitting around. The marketing thing is certainly disturbing. Although it doesn't seem like people are buying many copies of those albums anyway...

I never thought much about King Records when The Pillows were actually signed with them, but the fact that they put out Bloodthirsty Butchers' Kocorono, the documentary, and No Album is a serious boost to their credibility.

One of the things I enjoy so much about the band's older records like Little Busters and Please Mr. Lostman is how different the production can sound from one track to the next. Moon Is Mine sounds way different from Kanojo wa Kyou and Swanky Street, for example.

[quote="ThinlineTele"]When I came to Japan, I was amazed to see so many huge displays for the latest Pillows releases with a bajillion copies of OOPARTS or Horn Again sitting around. The marketing thing is certainly disturbing. Although it doesn't seem like people are buying many copies of those albums anyway...[/quote]
To derail the thread for a moment: you can't generalize that to all of Japan, though. Down south in Saga and Fukuoka, which is where I spent most of my time during my visit several months ago, no one I knew had even [i]heard[/i] of the pillows. The record stores had Comic Sonic on display and most of their discography (plus stuff like AMAP), but they weren't any more pronounced than other artists. On the other hand, the B'z were prominently featured on tons of billboards and displays, and everyone was familiar with who they are (especially since the guitarist won some kind of award recently, I heard).

Are you specifically referring to seeing all this in Iwate? If so, then perhaps it's because it's in northern Japan and somewhat near Hokkaido? You know, since the pillows are from Hokkaido and all? I dunno. *shrug*

To chime in, I lived in Sapporo and still no one had heard of the pillows. I'd sing them at karaoke all the time and my friends would be like "who the hell is this?" I began to feel that they're more popular in the states than they are in Japan.