It’s about time that I wrote about one of the great loves in my life. For far too long I’ve merely talked about them… and never in-depthly have I discussed their power of me.
Once upon a time there was a band known as blink-182. They single handedly turned me into the person I am today, basically. They’ve made me as ambitious, snotty, rebellious, absurd, creative, and wide-eyed as I ever try to be. They were my parents as far as music goes and raised me into the eclectic, talented, and goal-oriented musician you see today. I know just about every song by them on guitar, drums, and bass and can sing almost every single song from start to finish without even thinking about it. Tom Delonge is essentially the older version of me, Mark Hoppus sounds just like me, and Travis is all over the place like me. Take the members of blink-182, put them together, and the product is me. Mark was the reason I bought a bass. Tom was a reason I started writing. Travis inspired me to grab a drum kit (there were other factors involved with all of this, but those are some main reasons). There is no other band on the planet who matters to me as much as these blokes. Or… is there?
Blink-182 has been my obsession for the early stages of my musical life. Since 2000 I’ve never cared about a band more than blink. But seven years later I’ve found myself obsessing over a different band… one that is causing the greatest furor in my heart. I honestly have not felt this way about a band since blink and now I’d like to express my sincerest love for the band… The Pillows.
I’d heard about the Pillows for some time, but never cared about them. Attaining material was too hard. I then watched FLCL (an absurdly amazing anime) and noticed the music was really cool. There was one song though that I heard on it and was like “I… NEED that song!” Luckily I’d just gotten into Torrenting and I procured the FLCL soundtracks. There it was: Hybrid Rainbow, the song I’d been looking for. While that was awesome and all, I had no idea what I was about to discover. I fell in love with the Pillows very fast and very hard. I started torrenting everything I possibly could and bought the two albums released in America. I actually accidnetally downloaded their entiiiiiire discography (I have over 300 songs by them) and now I’ve found myself addicted to their music.
I don’t learn songs on guitar by bands, anymore. I just don’t like to do it. However, I’ve been eagerly learning riffs and memorable songs by the Pillows left and right and have been rather inspired to do so, even. The only other band I ever WANTED to learn stuff by was blink. This was a major indication of the power the Pillows were having over me.
The other day I had I-Empire on and flipped through a bunch of tracks before I settled on Love Like Rockets, a song I’ve been raving about for a while, but I even turned that off and went back to the Pillows because AVA just wasn’t sounding nearly as appealing as the Pillows! Also, there are two best-of cds in my 6-disc changer in the car of the Pillows. No band has ever gotten that treatment in my entire musical history of burning cds. I also don’t burn cds full of just one artist usually. I’ve burned two Pillows cds for Harriet, will be giving Glenn all my stuff, burned Joan a cd, and am giving Connor one as well.
I just can’t explain it. I’ve never heard better music than the Pillows. The only advantage blink has over them is the fact that they were first in my life, I can understand ALL the lyrics, and they’re very simple, fun songs. In terms of song structures, memorable riffs, style- ugh, the Pillows owns all. At times they’re so quirky, other times they’re straight up poppy, sometimes they’re hardcore as hell. They have such a delicious range that can cater to every single one of my moods. I don’t need to switch music artists depending on how I’m feeling. The Pillows have something for me at every time of the day! What’s best of all is that they’re Japanese! The Japanese factor is pretty big… but not like, a blinding factor. I don’t hear the Pillows and go, “Oh, they’re awesome cuz they’re Japanese.” Nonono. The fact that they’re Japanese is just a side note that happens to make me jump for glee. The Pillows have quite a few songs that are entirely in English, and you know what? Those songs are still really awesome. So them singing in a foreign language isn’t necessarily the core of their success in my life. The Pillows are genuinely just a fucking rad band.
Here are some fact about the Pillows and their affect on my life:
-they have the most tracks under the “Best of” playlists.
- they keep ranking as my top listened-to band on last.fm
-one of their songs is the one on my facebook
-my facebook status is a Pillows reference
-Apollo’s Dream = the darker version of the pillows
-my guitar tone now resembles the Pillows
-my drumming is very similar to the Pillows (accidentally, really)
-most of the music I listent o while playing Halo 3 online is instrumental Pillows stuff
-one of my favorite band practices ever/with Appastar was the other day when we played a couple pillows songs, and they were only short fragments
-I’ve never written a story about a band before… I have about the Pillows
-the only other artist to inspire more writing out of me is Loscil… and that’s all slow, industrial instrumental stuff. I’ve written a ton of stuff with Pillows music playing
Yes, it’s obvious, the Pillows are an incredible factor in my life. This blog makes me seem obsessed… but shit. I totally am and I’m okay with that. I’m even considering buying a Jaguar guitar merely because Sawao Yamanako uses one. And i might wear a black tie with my white dress shirt as a drummer merely cuz the Pillows drummer did it once and it looked hot.
So yeah, if you didn’t know, now you do.. the Pillows are honestly the greatest band I’ve ever listened to. Blink and them are tied… but not by much. If I knew more of what the Pillows were saying and could sing along to every word, blink wouldn’t stand a chance.
The Pillows own me.
