Hisashiburi janaika. (⌐■~■)

It has been a while since the last update, hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been quietly keeping the discography page (mostly) up to date and there are a few projects that I still have to finish. Here’s a run-down on pillows’ related happenings since the last update:

* 2020: Sawao Yamanaka had an insanely productive year, releasing 3 new albums, several collaboration EPs, etc.

* 2021: The RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT! tour series continued with Vol.3 (Smile and Thank you my twilight)

* 2022: RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT! Vol.4 (Penalty Life and Good Dreams)

* 2022.3.2: Sawao’s 7th solo album “Muddy Comedy” was released

* 2022.10: the pillows released a new song for the 25th anniversary of “Indian Motorcycle” titled “Have you ever seen the Chief?”.

* 2023.04.26/2023.10.28: Sawao released his 8th solo album, “Booty Call”, and in October, a collaboration EP with Shiori Sekine from Base Ball Bear, “Sawao to Shiori”.

* 2023: Some re-recordings, instrumental tracks by Sawao, and a new song called “Vivid Venus” were recorded for FLCL “Grunge” and “Shoegaze”. An OST has still yet to be announced.

* 2023.916: the pillows’ discography from their King Records years have finally been made available worldwide on streaming services such as Spotify, etc.

* 2023.07.14: Yoshiaki Manabe collaborated with Kaminarigumo, participating as guitarist on the album “triograph” and releasing a new album under his “NINE MILES” project with Keiji Ueno as vocalist. Together, they performed NINES MILES’ first ever live event.

* 2024.03: Sawao released his 9th solo album, “I’m going crazy”.

* 2024.04: Sawao’s collaboration EP with Kenji Fujii from The Birthday, “Monologue of Meet Again”.

And that mostly brings us up-to-date on current news (as of May 2024). Now it’s the pillows’ 35th anniversary year, so we have some exciting things coming up.

* 2024.916: 35th Anniversary concert “ABOUT A ROCK’N’ROLL BAND” at Toyotsu PIT! If you’re interested in attending, maybe we can help you out a bit if you hop on over to our Discord Server.

* 2024.xx.xx: A new, special song for the 35th anniversary?! More NINE MILES?! A new “guest bassist”?! Stay tuned. :P

The discography page has been updated and now includes a page for 2019. So far, it includes the 20th anniversary Delicious Label omnibus album “Radiolaria“, the UNISON SQUARE GARDEN tribute album “Thank you, Rock Bands!“, the upcoming “Life is Only Once” bluray/DVD for the Rebroadcast tour final, and the soundtrack for the Ousama ni nare feature film. Hopefully they’ll be a couple more releases to add to it before the year is up!

Also, it has been a while, but a new translation has finally been added! It’s the latest song by the pillows, “Marshmallow & Peanuts“, from the Radiolaria omnibus album. Translated by yours truly! It’s a fun song, check it out!

In other pillows news– the feature film “Ousama ni nare” is scheduled to hit theaters in Japan on October 14th. Tickets are on sale now and you can see a list of the theaters on the official movie site. It’s an original screenplay written by Sawao, and it features the pillows and friends performing a lot of music. Don’t miss it if you happen to have the chance to see it in Japan! You may even be able to spot your friendly Instant Music site editor in the film (I’m an extra!).

The anime “Ahiru no Sora” is set to premiere in October, and the pillows will do the opening theme. It’s called “Happy Go Ducky!“. No information about the song’s release has been mentioned yet.

Pony Canyon has made the pillows’ early works available worldwide on streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, etc.! If you haven’t yet, get a history lesson by listening to the 1st Movement of the pillows!

If you’re interested in attending the 30th anniversary concert on October 17th at Yokohama Arena, general ticket sales start on Sunday. This is your chance to witness pillows history by seeing them perform their biggest concert yet! Check out the official site for more info.

Just a quick update for now — the pre-sale ticket lottery for the 30th anniversary concert “LOSTMAN GO TO YOKOHAMA ARENA” has started! If you’re interesting in attending this legendary event, head over to the forum for more details!
Let’s go to the 30th anniversary (How to get tickets, etc.)

Details on the new album have been revealed! “Rebroadcast” will be released on September 19th! The new album will contain 10 tracks including “Boku no tomodachi”. The limited edition will come with a DVD containing a new music video for the song “Ningendomo” and footage from the American tour. The discography page has been updated.
But wait… Spiky Seeds and Star Overhead aren’t included?! Of course not! Those will be on the FLCL Progressive/Alternative OST. The “FooL on CooL generation” song collection will be released on September 5th! It will have a total of 14 songs, including Spiky Seeds, Star Overhead, and 12 self-covers.

“Rebroadcast” marks the beginning of the band’s 30th anniversary “Thank you, my highlight” series. We can’t wait to see what else they have in store!
the pillows just arrived in America for the Mono Me You Sun tour! At long last, the pillows have returned to America! Please enjoy this tour!

Very big news to report for this update! Adult Swim has announced that they will be sponsoring a US tour starting in July! This will be the first time that the pillows have performed in US since 2011!
The new tour is called “MONO ME YOU SUN” and it will feature special guests Noodles and Cullen Omori.

Here are the tour dates and links for purchasing tickets:

JULY 10 – CAMBRIDGE, MA @ THE SINCLAIR
JULY 12 – NEW YORK, NY @ GRAMERCY THEATER
JULY 15 – SEATTLE, WA @ NEPTUNE THEATRE
JuLY 16 – PORTLAND, OR @ HAWTHORNE THEATER
JULY 18 – SAN FRANCISO, CA @ AUGUST HALL
JULY 19 – LOS ANGELES, CA @ REGENT THEATRE

This is an exciting and rare opportunity to see the pillows outside of Japan! Get your tickets as soon as possible!

The next set of limited vinyl records have been announced! RUNNERS HIGH and HAPPY BIVOUAC will be released on May 6th when the RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT! Vol.2 Tour starts! These limited records will only be available at the live venues and online from King e-Shop. If you want to get your hands on them, check out the forum for some good resources for getting them shipped overseas!
On April 1st, Toonami sneak aired the first episode of FLCL Alternative. This episode revealed new “Fool on cool” versions of “White Summer and Green Bicycle, Red Hair with Black Guitar” and “MY FOOT”, as well as a brand new song called “Star Overhead” as the ending theme. “FLCL Progressive” will premiere on Toonami on June 2nd, and “FLCL Alternative” will premiere in September. We’ll have to wait and see what the soundtrack has in store! (Likely 12 remade “Fool on cool” versions of past tracks and two new songs; “Spiky Seeds” and “Star Overhead”.)
With the release of the RUNNERS HIGH and HAPPY BIVOUAC records, we now have a discography page for 2018! Both records have been added in the discography and the 2017 page has been updated.

We have exciting news to post today! For the first time ever, the pillows will release two of their albums on vinyl!
In honor of the upcoming “Return to Third Movement Tour”, the albums Please Mr.Lostman and LITTLE BUSTERS will be available in vinyl format. They will be sold exclusively at live venues and on King E-shop starting on November 8th (you can pre-order now on King E-shop!). They might be a bit tricky to purchase if you’re outside Japan, but it’s still possible to get them! Check out our forum if you need help with purchasing.
Both new releases have been added to the discography page, and a new single titled “Boku no Tomodachi” is on the horizon! Please look forward to it!

September 16th was the 28th anniversary of the pillows! The 28th year already shows a lot of promise with the upcoming release of FLCL 2 and 3, the “RETURN TO THIRD MOVEMENT TOUR”, and the announcement of “NOOK IN THE WORLD” release! The new bluray/DVD documents the NOOK IN THE BRAIN TOUR FINAL at Zepp Tokyo and has been added on the discography page. It will be released on November 22nd! I personally attended this show, and it was a wonderful performance. Please look forward to it!