| The Silly Pillows | |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Genre: | Indie pop, Twee pop, Power pop, Lo-fi |
| Years Active: | 1986 – 2008 |
| Label: | Hoppel di Hoy Little Teddy Recordings Perfect Pop Rover Records Teichiku Records |
| Website: | https://www.salticid.com/sillypillows/ |
| Past Members: | Hilary Caws-Elwitt Jonathan Caws-Elwitt Cheryl De Luke Christopher Earl Sam Elwitt Michael E. Fiato Shauna Guidici Dave Joachim Belinda Miller Linda Smith Charlie Zayleskie |
The Silly Pillows were an American indie pop band formed by Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. They began as a home-recorded duo of Jonathan and his wife Hilary Caws-Elwitt, sharing tapes through the cassette underground. In the 1990s the band evolved into a studio-recorded full lineup, which dissolved in 2000. From 2005 to 2008, Jonathan and Hilary revived their home-recording career as "The Original Silly Pillows."[1]
In the early 1980s, Jonathan had been part of punk/psych/experimental group The Killer Asparagus (in the Boston area) and punk pop band The Degrads (in Rochester, NY, along with his brother Sam Elwitt). Jonathan started recording cassettes at home in 1984, and in 1986 he asked his wife Hilary Caws-Elwitt to join him on vocals, with the duo recording as the Silly Pillows.
The first Silly Pillows recordings were circulated on cassette through the growing network of home tapers, spurred by positive reviews in the magazines Option and Sound Choice (who said that "their whole catalog is essential listening").[2] In 1992, Hilary decided to stop singing, but by then their cassettes had attracted some attention in Europe. The tracks on the Silly Pillows' first vinyl release, "When She Gets Home," were home-recorded. In 1993, Jonathan assembled a group of friends for the Silly Pillows' first studio recordings, which were released as the "Equilibrium" EP on Norway's Perfect Pop label. The first studio lineup included Jonathan, Sam, Cheryl De Luke, and Christopher Earl of Squires of the Subterrain. Over the next few years, more studio recordings were released on vinyl and CD by Perfect Pop and the German label Little Teddy, bringing the band notice such places as Chickfactor ("It just bubbles over with vintage ambience and playfulness.... and it's more than just slightly pretty"[3]) and The Village Voice (making Elisabeth Vincentelli's "Pazz & Jop" top-10 list in 1996[4]).
In 1996, the possibility of a Japanese tour led Jonathan to assemble a lineup that could perform live: Jonathan (vocals), Sam (guitar), Michael E. Fiato (bass), Dave Joachim (drums; later a best-selling cookbook author), singer-songwriter/artist Linda Smith (vocals), and Charlie Zayleskie (keyboards). Although the tour never happened, the Silly Pillows performed in New York and a few other locations, opening for some well-known acts like The Magnetic Fields. Belinda Miller of the kids' radio show Greasy Kid Stuff later became the female co-vocalist; Time Out New York likened the Caws-Elwitt–Miller stage presence to "Mexican jumping beans."[5]
In Japan, where a split single (with Citrus) on Rover Records had reached No. 3 on the domestic singles chart, enthusiasm was high enough that a subsidiary of major Japanese label Teichiku Records released a "best-of" compilation, Pillow Paw Prints, in 1997. New Affections, released in 1998, was the Pillows' last full-length label recording. In 2000, the band set up a temporary studio at the Caws-Elwitt home in Friendsville, Pennsylvania, to record a new project, but soon after the lineup dissolved. The five song EP that had been recorded was released online as Tomorrow Is Yesterday.
After a hiatus, Jonathan began recording at home again. He and Hilary began making new recordings as the "Original Silly Pillows." In 2007, Jonathan, Charlie, and Hilary made two pop-festival appearances as "Silly Piano Pillows."
In 2010, an instrumental rendition of a 1990 Silly Pillows track was released by Nada Surf as part of their covers album If I Had a Hi-Fi.
Stylistically, the band's music has been described as "gems replete with incisive hooks, mindblowing harmonies and solos, and varied multilayered instrumentation with creative stylistic unpredictability and arresting rhythms."[6] Jonathan has stated that his goal is to achieve "exuberance, sincerity, and beauty without sadness."
(The Silly Pillows self-released many cassette-only albums from 1988 to 1993.)
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