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Music: The Pillows

Left to Right: Yoshiaki Manabe, Sawao Yamanaka, and Shinichiro Sato

The Pillows (often written as the pillows) are a Japanese Alternative Rock/Power Pop 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 all of the bassist replacements are credited as supporting members out of respect. Jun Suzuki is the current bassist. Due to their long careers, they have a huge number of albums, singles, and EPs under their belt.

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. Their style somewhat resembles that of a Lighter and Softer Pixies - they even have a song named "Kim Deal", after the ex-Pixies bassist.

Outside of Japan, they are best known for the inclusion of their music in FLCL, as Studio Gainax licensed three of their albums up to that point for most of the 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 Ben 10 and created Rodeo Star Mate as the theme song for Stitch!, Japan's incarnation of Lilo & Stitch. They recently made Comic Sonic for the ending theme of Sket Dance.

As of 2011, the band has 17 albums, 3 EPs, and 31 singles. 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 Aven Trax.