Silly Pillows

Friendsville, PA-based indie pop group the Silly Pillows began in 1986 as the home recording project of singer/songwriter Jonathan Caws-Elwitt; with the addition of wife Hillary on vocals, the duo issued the first in a series of cassettes on their own Pillow Image Ltd. label. Hillary left the Silly Pillows in 1992, about the same time the German label Hoppel di Hoy issued the EP When She Gets Home, which compiled material also featuring keyboardist Dan Fioretti. Jonathan's guitarist brother Sam Elwitt, singer Cheryl De Luke and drummer Christopher Earl completed the lineup for the 1994 EP Equilibrium; Strangest of the Strange, the Silly Pillows' first full-length collection, balanced new studio recordings alongside earlier home demos featuring contributions from a number of family and friends. 1995's Up in the Air similarly compiled tracks from the band's past three years of recording activity, while 1996's "I Liked It—What Was It?," one half of a split single with Citrus, reached the number three spot on the Japanese pop charts. The subsequent Pillow Image Ltd. assembled even more material dating back to the group's earliest home sessions, while Out of Our Depth, issued just months later, compiled more freshly-minted sessions, as did 1998's New Affections.