The Special Pillow (ex-Hypnolovewheel) debut video for the single “I Woke Up”
New Jersey indierock band the Special Pillow debut first video “I Woke Up” off their upcoming mini-album / EP ‘ World’s Finest’ on Zofko Records at the Recoup.
RELEASE DATE: June 26th, 2020
Hello, I hope you are safe and sound able to be at home isolating during this crazy pandemic time. It’s weird to still even be pitching new music when folks are still trying to figure out how to adjust and how to possibly pay their bills or get by. I’m hoping this finds you with some hope and maybe you are wanting to write about new music. With that I’m pretty excited for this new mini-album / EP ‘World’s Finest‘ by The Special Pillow.
This first video off the EP “I Woke Up” is very much relevant in these times. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think and maybe you’ll share it or possibly consider it to be added to a playlist, new this week, or song of the day type coverage. We have CD and vinyl to offer, just get in touch and I’ll get you a copy mailed out. We also have tracks available for exclusive debut and music videos.
After twenty-five years in showbiz, The Special Pillow are right where they started: flying below the radar in Hoboken, New Jersey, creating a distinctive string-driven sound—a heady brew encompassing concise ’60s-flavored pop gems, dreamy psychedelic reveries, and a propulsive drive redolent of the antipodean indie acts of the ’80s. To commemorate their silver jubilee milestone, The Special Pillow has unleashed World’s Finest, an old-school six-song EP laden with the catchy and confounding songcraft that has earned them notable fans like Yo La Tengo, who covered the group’s classic “Automatic Doom” in 2015.
World’s Finest—the follow-up to the Pillow’s acclaimed 2018 album, Sleeping Weird—continues their collaboration with engineer Mitch Rackin. Featured players include bassist, songwriter, and majordomo Dan Cuddy (ex-Hypnolovewheel); charter Special Pillow member Katie Gentile (Run On, Mad Scene) on violin and viola; longtime collaborator Peter Stuart (Headless Horsemen, Tryfles) on a staggering array of guitars; and Eric Marc Cohen (Fly Ashtray, Autobody) on drums and percussion. All the band members contribute vocals, and the celestial choir is enhanced by the dulcet tones of folk chanteuse Debby Schwartz (of P.G. Six. Psych-O-Positive, and solo renown). Multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee supplies mellifluous embellishments on an arsenal of flutes, and ecstatic and celebratory horns on the title track are courtesy of Steven Levi and Cheryl Kingan (The Scene Is Now, 75 Dollar Bill). Capping off the digital version is a hallucinogenic remix of the single “I Woke Up” via North Carolina noisenik High Tunnels, aka Dan’s old Hypnolovewheel colleague Dave Ramirez.
Charming, idiosyncratic, and overflowing with instant classics, World’s Finest marks a new high point in The Special Pillow’s storied oeuvre.
VIDEO: I Woke Up
