The Silly Pillows began in 1986 as the home-recording concept of songwriter Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. By the late 1990's, the Silly Pillows had evolved into an indie-pop band which--like many others of the era--had earned a small following scattered from Manhattan clubs to U.S. college radio airwaves to northern European discos to Tokyo record shops. As a punk\u002Fnew music\u002Fpsychedelic-revival DJ at the Harvard radio station, Jonathan was part of an era that also included future Galaxie 500\u002FLuna 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). Unbeknownst at that time to Jonathan, this lo-fi, home-recorded approach to underground pop--with its significant treatment of the home-cassette format as a vehicle for collections of finished recordings for a listener to enjoy (rather than just demos to sketch out song ideas for other musicians)--was becoming a widespread phenomenon. So was the Swingin'-London-meets-punk-flavored tweepop aesthetic (spawned chiefly by another recent favorite of Jonathan's, the Television Personalities), with which a hip listener might have identified the Silly Pillows sound (though Jonathan was ignorant of twee as a trend). 1998 saw the release of New Affections, the band's last album of new studio recordings for Little Teddy (the ambitious pop\u002Fpunk label that released much of the Pillows' work). This disc represents the most fully-realized incarnation of the combined input of the group, both as arranger-performers and as writers, with Michael, Dave, and Charlie expressing themselves as Jonathan and Sam's full creative partners. The co-vocalist slot was now filled by Belinda Miller, a DJ at the legendary WFMU who had begun singing with the group in early '97. With a perky Belinda joining a manic Jonathan at the front of the stage (Time Out New York compared them to Mexican jumping beans), the Pillows continued to build their reputation as a fun NYC club act. New Affections brought the Pillows a slightly-elevated level of attention at U.S. college radio stations, along with continuing critical notice and even a brief moment in the spotlight on MTV. Their U.S. record sales and name-recognition were undoubtedly up a notch in 1998. But though the Silly Pillows continued gigging through 1999 and recording through 2000, the group had disbanded by fall of 2000.