Line #29 Music/ThePillows


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imageymdb_3628_2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Left to Right: Yoshiaki Manabe, Sawao Yamanaka, and Shinichiro Sato]]
3
4	The Pillows (often written as [[AllLowercaseLetters the pillows]]) are a Japanese AlternativeRock band that was formed in 1989 by Kenji Ueda (bassist), Sawao Yamanaka (vocalist), Shinichiro Sato (drummer), and Yoshiaki Manabe (guitarist), though Ueda left the band around 1992 due to musical differences. His absence is noted by the band as [[ReplacementGoldfish all of the bassist replacements]] are credited as supporting members out of respect for their former member. Yoshinori Arie is the current bassist. Due to their [[LongRunners long careers]], they have a huge number of albums, singles, and [=EPs=] under their belt.
5
6	They are best known for their heavily American/British influenced style of songwriting, which greatly contrasts in an industry saturated with the same-old j-pop sound. It is for this reason that they're quite popular in Japan and have since spawned many imitators. They're also quite popular in the US, having a sizeable fanbase, with their music spreading both out of their use in ''FLCL'' and word of mouth, but due to lack of official releases, they had to rely on imports or downloads. This changed when they officially released their music onto streaming platforms such as Spotify in the US.
7
8	Outside of Japan, they are best known for the inclusion of their music in ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'', as Creator/StudioGainax licensed three of their albums up to that point for almost the entire anime's soundtrack. Several songs from it such as "I think I can", "LITTLE BUSTERS", and "Ride on shooting star" are very popular because of this. One of their singles, "Ladybird Girl", was used as the theme song for the Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'', and they created "Rodeo Star Mate" as the theme song for ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'', Japan's incarnation of ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', as well as "Comic Sonic" for the ending theme of ''Manga/SketDance''.
9
10	The first two albums were contracted under Pony Canyon before Ueda left, the rest after that until ''Good Dreams'' were under the label King Records. They are currently under Delicious Label.
11	----
12	!! Studio Albums
13	* ''Moon Gold'' (1991)
14	* ''White Incarnation'' (1992)
15	* ''Kool Spice'' (1994)
16	* ''Living Field'' (1995)
17	* ''Please Mr. Lostman'' (1997)
18	* ''Little Busters'' (1998)
19	* ''Runners High'' (1999)
20	* ''Happy Bivouac'' (1999)
21	* ''Smile'' (2001)
22	* ''Thank You, My Twilight'' (2002)
23	* ''Penalty Life'' (2003)
24	* ''Good Dreams'' (2004)
25	* ''My Foot'' (2006)
26	* ''Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up!'' (2007)
27	* ''Pied Piper'' (2008)
28	* ''[=OoParts=] (Out of Place Artifacts)'' (2009)
29	* ''HORN AGAIN'' (2011)
30	* ''Trial'' (2012)
31	* ''MOONDUST'' (2014)
32	* ''STROLL AND ROLL'' (2016)
33	* ''Nook in the Brain'' (2017)
34	* ''Rebroadcast'' (2018)
35	----
36	!! Tropes about The Pillows
37	* AlternativeRock
38	* GratuitousEnglish: Done plenty of times on their albums, usually when they sing the chorus of their song. A couple songs, namely, "Rock 'n' Roll Sinners", "Rookie Jet", and "Naked Shuffle" are sung entirely in English.
39	* HiddenTrack: On their compilation album ''Fool on the Planet'', there's a hidden track, "Secret Slogan", a few minutes after the final track ("Hybrid Rainbow") ends.
40	* LighterAndSofter: Their early albums such as ''Living Field'' are this compared to their later works, with ''Living Field'' being more akin to Jangle Pop compared to the more straightforward Alternative Rock they'd end up doing in the future.
41	* SeriesFauxnale: In a sense with their album ''Please Mr. Lostman'', as it was created at a time when the band were unsure if they'd create another album due to poor sales of their previous albums, which led to them experimenting a bunch with their sound. However, as this album ended up being a hit, they'd go on to produce more albums afterwards.
42	* ShoutOut: As they've often been compared to the band Music/ThePixies, they've made references to them, notably on ''Happy Bivouac'', with a song being named after The Pixies' bassist Kim Deal, and their song "Back Seat Dog" having a similar structure to "Here Comes Your Man", complete with the vocalist singing the chorus to the song in the fade-out in English.
43	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "Black Sheep" off ''Little Busters'' comes right before the title track, and is a slow gentle song with only a guitar and bass drum.

Context Music / ThePillows