The Pillows have a new record out, Wake Up Dodo and it's a pleasant surprise to find it on iTunes .
I came to The Pillows like most American fans thanks to the anime insanity of FLCL (Fooly Cooly) which not only featured the shimmering J-Rock of "Ride On Shooting Star" as it's theme song, but also featured Pillows songs throughout the series.
Anyway while less eccentric than say Cibo Matto (another favorite group of mine), The Pillows are similarly deeply rooted in western rock but with ample shards of Japanese quirks that make the band fresh even a their most derivative. As for Wake Up Dodo, it's fairly straightforward pop-punk that for lack of a better description is a melodic hybrid of Ramones and Beach Boys. So let's split the difference and say they're sort of a Japanese Hoodoo Gurus. It helps that they are also obviously influenced by The Pixies (and really there is no better musical influence than that) and even have a song in their archive titles simply "Kim Deal" with appropriate swaths of juicy bass.

PS. The links to Ride On Shooting Star, and "Hoodoo Gurus" above both take you to delicious Youtube videos of the song or band in question (in the Gurus case it's for "What's My Scene." God you gotta love YouTube. No matter all the stupid videos it is a mindboggling archive for everything imaginable including videos, and shows you thought you'd never see again.)