The Pillows

Over The Pillows' eighteen yeas (and counting) they have had, as they say, a lot of ups and downs. Easily their biggest "up" has been having three of their albums licensed by Gainax and used in the wildly popular anime FLCL. As the show made its way to the West, so did the popularity of The Pillows, exposing them to a much wider fan-base. The "downs" have mostly come afterward. After a bit of a break, then the release of FLCL and its slow burning popularity, the band's sound had time to evolve. While they have recently been signed to the massive Avex Trax label, their music seems to have lost much of the drive that propelled their earlier work. Nevertheless, The Pillows continue to release some great old fashioned pop rock and roll along with the crooning ballads.