Biography
The indie pop collective the Silly Pillows formed in Friendsville, Pennsylvania, during 1986 when singer/songwriter Jonathan Caws-Elwitt initiated it as a personal home-recording venture. After his wife Hillary joined on vocals, the pair put out the opening release in a run of cassettes through their self-run Pillow Image Ltd. imprint. Around the moment Hillary exited the group in 1992, Germany's Hoppel di Hoy label put forward the EP When She Gets Home, a set that also incorporated keyboard contributions from Dan Fioretti. For the 1994 EP Equilibrium the lineup was rounded out by guitarist Sam Elwitt—Jonathan's brother—alongside vocalist Cheryl De Luke and drummer Christopher Earl. The band's first full-length effort, Strangest of the Strange, juxtaposed fresh studio tracks with older home demos that drew on input from assorted relatives and acquaintances. Up in the Air, arriving in 1995, likewise gathered material spanning the prior three years of activity, whereas the 1996 cut "I Liked It--What Was It?," issued as one side of a split single with Citrus, attained the number three position on the Japanese pop charts. Pillow Image Ltd. came next, pulling together still more archival pieces that reached back to the earliest home sessions, and Out of Our Depth, released only months afterward, collected additional newly recorded material, just as New Affections would do in 1998.
Albums