''Happy Bivouac'' (officially ''Happy Bivouac on the Hillari Step'') is an album released by Japanese band

the pillows are a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 1989. The group has released 22 studio albums, several EPs and compilations, and over 40 singles. Outside Japan, they are best known as the group responsible for the soundtrack to the '' FLCL'' ani ...

on December 2, 1999. It marks the band's first record with Jun Suzuki from The Chewinggum Weekend on bass, who would play with the pillows for over 15 year until his dismissal in 2015. The album was produced by Zin Yoshida of

Salon Music Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and ...

. As with its predecessor '' Runners High'', several songs from the album were used for the

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series ''

FLCL is an original video animation (OVA) anime series created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido, and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which consisted of Gainax, Production I.G, and King Records. ''F ...

''. ''Happy Bivouac'' contains several references to the American band

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

. Track 8 is named after Pixies bassist

Kim Deal Kimberley Ann Deal (born June 10, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She was the bassist and the co-vocalist in the alternative rock band Pixies, before forming the Breeders in 1989. Deal joined Pixies in January ...

and at the end of "Back Seat Dog", the pillows can be heard singing the chorus of " Here Comes Your Man" from the album '' Doolittle''. "Crazy Sunshine" and "Funny Bunny", had already been written during the production of ''LITTLE BUSTERS'', and producer Jin Yoshida had instructed to complete them with lyrics. However, Yamanaka was adamant that he couldn't fill in the lyrics in time, so the song was cancelled, and instead, ''Hello, Welcome to Bubbletown's Happy Zoo (instant show)'' and ''LITTLE BUSTERS'', were used instead.

Track listing

Personnel

the pillows

*Sawao Yamanaka —

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

* Yoshiaki Manabe —

* Shinichiro Sato — drums Additional musicians * Jun Suzuki - Bass

References

* Happy Bivouac Cover Insert

External links

Happy Bivouac at the pillows official web site
The Pillows albums 1999 albums {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub