Stream or download "The Kids Don't Need Masters - An English Tribute to The Pillows" featuring all my covers from YouTube and one not featured here:

Bandcamp - carlsmananger.bandcamp.com
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1e068l...
Apple Music -   / carls-manager  

ITS THE CLIMAX! The most requested Pillows song for me to cover on YouTube and Reddit!

This one was a bit odd to produce since I like to match as close as possible to their original production and the quality of the original recording is uhhhh... Not great by 2022 standards. (Google "Loudness Wars" if you want to get nerdy about this.) It can honestly be a little grating to listen to, but that's also kind of the nature of the song itself. It grabs you on the first beat and doesn't let go except a tiny bit in the half time sections. Its exactly what makes it so great for the frenetic pacing of FLCL.

Lyrically, it's pretty close to translations I found on the web. As always though, I took some artistic license here and there for both the sake of English cadence and rhythm and infusing a bit of my own personal feelings into it. But like I said, the overall theme of the lyrics is about the same: a sense of "burn it all down", destructive nihilism in the face of hopelessness... which uhhh, really changed the vibe of the song for me when I started sifting through translations. Always thought it was the complete opposite based on the uplifting C-Major bounce of the music and how its used in FLCL. But perhaps a great anthem for us Millenials and Gen Z! Also, I got to make a William Gibson reference without bending the original lyrics much at all. Shout out in the comments if you can spot it.

Lyrics:

The coup de grace comes out of nowhere
And its been ages I’ve been waiting
Beneath a TV static sky I reside
And I’ve lost track of fear, no you can’t scare me anymore

Looking down on a city so quiet
Destroy it on a whim, just tinder and flint now
Set this whole site ablaze , just stare and watch it
I can’t even remember the places name anyway


I'm at peace with accepting, this role of solitude I take
You don’t need to go easy, or look out for me okay?
Oh no no no

Just want to be myself
Feeling strength in what I am
No matter who I’m with or where yeah
Right now now now


Shadows of shadows, are dragged out from me
Now lonely days are all I foresee
The whole wide worlds become annoying
Today, and every day, I shout it out into a void

Don't look at me like that
I'd rather your focus slid away
I feel like I'm naked, oh yeah
Right now now now

We can’t see a future, we’re anxious and panicking okay
We just want to wake up, Oh yeah
Right now now now

SOLO

I'm at peace with accepting, this role of solitude I take
You don’t need to go easy, or look out for me okay?
Oh no no no

Just want to be myself
Feeling strength in what I am
No matter who I’m with or where yeah
Right now now now

All performance, recording, mixing, mastering by CarlsManager AKA elstroproduction.com

Original song and arrangement by The Pillows