Silly Image Pillowhead contains 24 of the two-hundred-odd home-recorded tracks created by the Silly Pillows during the first half of their career, hand-picked by the band's founder for this retrospective CD.
The Silly Pillows began in 1986 as the [+]Silly Image Pillowhead contains 24 of the two-hundred-odd home-recorded tracks created by the Silly Pillows during the first half of their career, hand-picked by the band's founder for this retrospective CD.
The Silly Pillows began in 1986 as the home-recording concept of songwriter Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. By the time the group entered a period of inactivity in 2000, it had evolved into an "indie-pop" band which -- like many others of the 1990's -- had earned a small following scattered from Manhattan clubs to U.S. college radio airwaves to northern European discos to Tokyo record shops.
In the early 1980's, Harvard undergrad Jonathan Elwitt was a retroactive mid-60's-rock enthusiast who had been turned on to punk and postpunk by his college buddies. He spent his weekends and summers as part of a dorm-blaring punk/psych/experimental group called The Killer Asparagus and a Rochester, N.Y. suburban punk-pop band called The Degrads (in which he was joined by his younger brother Sam Elwitt, and which got as far as a Trouser Press-reviewed single in 1983). As a punk/new music/psychedelic-revival DJ at the Harvard radio station, Jonathan was part of an era that also included future Galaxie 500/Luna frontman Dean Wareham; future Harriet Records guru Tim Alborn; future Bullet LaVolta member Corey Brennan; and future record industry mover-shakers Geoffrey Weiss, Jim Barber, Kate Tews, and Patrick Amory. More an artist and listener than a music authority, Jonathan's direct involvement in the station was largely motivated by his romantic connection to music aficionado Hilary Caws (they have been together as a couple since 1983; they hyphenated their names in 1985).
Jonathan spent his first couple of post-college years noodling around with primitive, solo home recordings in a punk/experimental vein (both he and Sam had always made the most of tape recorders and tape decks to spread their musical wings since before their voices had changed). But in 1986, he gained access to consumer-friendly multi-track technology, and he used it to craft a more poppy, 60's-influenced style. Around the same time, he first invited Hilary to share some of the vocals on his songs, and he began using the name "Silly Pillows" for the tapes that featured her on some tracks. Jonathan
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