Pages tagged “rilo kiley”

Two nights ago, I caught a great show at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse—up-and-comer Benji Hughes opened for one of my favorite artists of the last few years, Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis.

The Democratic National Convention kicked off last night in Denver, Colo. with a tribute to Ted Kennedy and a heartwarming speech from Michelle Obama. All well and good, mind you, but it's the four-day bonanza of musicians set to perform that boggles the mind. While music has been prevalent in campaigns for the last few decades, Barack Obama and the DNC take the cake with a truckload of inspiring and interesting choices for this year's convention.

Balancing a solo career while you're in a band can be a difficult proposition. Oftentimes, artists use their best material for their solo albums, and their work with the band suffers as a result. Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis seems to have a real knack for it, though, deftly planting a foot on each side of that line of scrimmage and earning critical acclaim and commercial success for just about anything she lays her hands on. Having shed the Watson Twins like so many rabbit fur coats, Lewis has emerged from the Sound City Studios in the valleys of Los Angeles to unleash her newest solo offering: Acid Tongue.

Click above to watch a live performance of "Bag of Hammers" from Thao with the Get Down Stay Down 's album We Brave Bee Stings and All, out now on Kill Rock Stars.

Hello again from Manchester’s Country Inn & Suites, where a bunch of us have temporarily retired from Bonnaroo to escape the drizzle—and Metallica.

It seems the members of Rilo Kiley will be doing a little moneymaking of their own this summer as they hit the road for a North American tour.

After taking a brief hiatus that allowed members Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett and Pierre de Reeder to pursue solo projects, the Los Angeles-based band released its latest album, Under the Blacklight, last August. The band followed the album’s release with a two-month tour of the U.S. and Canada last fall.

Rilo Kiley kicks off the '08 tour on April 17 in San Francisco, and will perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival later that month. See a complete list of tour dates below.

Even more adventurous:

April
17 - San Francisco, Calif. @ SF Design Center
19 - Portland, Ore. @ Roseland
20 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox SoDo
23 - Santa Cruz, Calif. @ Rio Theatre
24 - Pomona, Calif. @ The Glasshouse
26 - Indio, Calif. @ Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

May
15 - San Diego, Calif. @ Concerts in the Park
19 - Denver, Colo. @ Ogden Theatre
20 - Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown
21 - Omaha, Neb. @ Slowdown
22 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue
23 - Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Pabst Theatre
24 - Chicago, Ill. @ The Riviera
25 - Royal Oak, Mich. @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
26 - Cleveland, Ohio @ House of Blues
28 - Toronto, Ont. @ Phoenix Theatre
30 - Worcester, Mass. @ Palladium
31 - Providence, R.I. @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel

June
1 - Northampton, Mass. @ Calvin Theater
2 - New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
5 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Electric Factory
6 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
7 - Baltimore, Md. @ Rams Head Live
8 - Richmond, Va. @ Toads Place
10 - Norfolk, Va. @ The Norva
11 - Asheville, N.C. @ Orange Peel
12 - Charleston, S.C. @ Music Farm
13 - Manchester, Tenn. @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
15 - Dallas, Texas @ Palladium
16 - Austin, Texas @ Stubbs BBQ

Related links:
RiloKiley.com
Rilo Kiley on MySpace
NPR: Rilo Kiley in Concert

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

The mainstream press continues to write—with no subtle undercurrent of glee—about the woes of the recording industry. But if you put your ear to the ground and hold your breath, you can hear a gorgeous chord of hope ringing as crisply and clearly as the opening strum of “A Hard Day’s Night.” As alarm bells ring in anticipation of a Christmas season where CD sales may finally bottom out, this year also offers a peek at new beginnings. For those who watch the Billboard charts on a week-to-week basis, recent high-charting debuts from groups like The Shins, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse signal a sea change that’s brought some of the wittiest, edgiest and most organically satisfying artists to a level of accessibility and success otherwise barely imaginable in past eras, where the gloss and market blitz of disposable pop megastars inevitably overshadowed the quiet legions of journeyman bands evolving and slowly growing an audience through word-of-mouth, college radio and hard years on the road.

Of course, the juxtaposition of plastic pop acts and “sincere” indie-rockers is a canard, as the dichotomy is never so simple. Sometimes, even the glitziest pop acts are hard workers and sincere music lovers, and had long roads to “overnight success.” And the flags of purity, noble poverty, outsiderness and punk attitude that the more self-conscious denizens of the would-be indie underground tend to fly is often riddled with the shreds and knots of hypocrisy. But these basic facts remain: Bands with members over or approaching 30, with complex songs, varied instrumentation, no Behind the Music melodrama and no obvious radio singles are able to hit doubles and triples commercially with little sensationalism these days, when a decade ago they would’ve been unlikely to get a solid at-bat. And they’re increasingly releasing records on major labels that would’ve had limited interest in the heydays hair metal, pop rap or boybands. We’re in an era where the Clever Indie Everyperson has reached a higher stratum of the cultural jetstream.

Los Angeles’ Rilo Kiley is a significant case in point. Only three full-length albums into their career, they’ve become low-gloss superstars within the rarified world of blogs, music magazines and left-of-the-dial radio, propelled by songs and an understated charisma. On the heels of More Adventurous, their first release distributed by Warner Bros., and a series of festival performances ranging from Glastonbury to Coachella, the band only increased its cachet by scattering to the winds long enough to pursue solo albums and other side projects that seeped deeper into the collective conscious. Guitarist/vocalist Blake Sennett renewed his work with The Elected, an elegant and underrated indie collective; bassist Pierre de Reeder did artwork and design for other artists (including Rilo Kiley vocalist Jenny Lewis) while writing his own songs and Lewis collaborated with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard in The Postal Service and released the excellent, country-tinged Rabbit Fur Coat with the Watson Twins, featuring Rilo Kiley drummer Jason Boesel on the skins and Conor Oberst and Gibbard on guest vocals. The critical acclaim lavished on these albums has only served to raise expectations as Rilo Kiley prepares for the upcoming release of its fourth record, Under the Blacklight.

Like the other workmanlike lights of the rich, emerging indie-heading-mainstream tier (see also Spoon, Broken Social Scene, Neko Case and M. Ward), Rilo Kiley operates with intention and artistry, but isn’t performance art the way metal acts or Iggy Pop are. Rather, the band revitalizes the Laurel Canyon aesthetic, in which artists like Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills churned out songs without their images hovering over them like a paisley veneer—at least until their talent created weighty expectations that their names and the occasional gossip inevitably began to cue.

The unofficial white elephant in the room when talking about Rilo Kiley is the sloppy thrall so many indie fanboys find themselves in when the faintest mention of Jenny Lewis is made. A former child actress (a topic well past its sell-by date in interviews), Lewis has been described as everything from that hip babysitter you fell in love with as an eight-year-old to a red-dress siren with piercing eyes and an angel voice. In person, Lewis has a casual coolness but also a quiet tenacity—looking straight ahead, concentrating on questions and giving direct, thought-out answers with the focus of an eager young overacheiver doing long division. While her songs have plainly stated sinews of sex and interpersonal intrigue that more frequently feel like universalist storytelling than necessary confessions, what’s mysterious about Jenny Lewis is how she contains unusual talent within the frame of an otherwise accessible personality. You can see scenarios race in her head while she barely cracks a smile—she casually quizzes me on what would happen if, for instance, the band refused my request to tape-record the interview. Lewis is one of those people whose essential restraint, stretched tight over clear inner complexity, makes her a sensation. You’ll probably never see her in a leather catsuit and high heels playing rock star, but don’t be surprised if she ultimately becomes known as an indie-rock Mona Lisa.

Co-writer and kindred spirit Blake Sennett is a more ethereal cat, thinking through his responses as he talks them out, exploring the space with a quizzical honesty that half feels like he might be putting you on until you look back at him and he gives you a nod to punctuate what he’s just said. He’s the more stereotypical songwriter of the two, the quiet kid who appears to be doodling in the margins on a pad in a train station—but when you step closer and glance over his shoulder, it turns out the sketch is a dazzlingly complex cityscape that pours over pages and could well be framed if it were ever deemed complete. In a light moment, with mock bravado and a chuckle, Blake describes his guitar style as “wiry lightning,” but there’s an honest, earned boast underneath. On Under the Blacklight there are scads of loopy funk-guitar gestures wrapped in wistful gauze. There’s a road-weary ambient openness to Sennett’s playing that feels like classic early-’70s California rock stretched through the space-age strainer of ’80s dream pop and distilled into tight little studio-polished crystals which are scattered constellation-like through the band’s songs without scuffing the surface glaze created by the creamy flow of Lewis’ singing. Still, in person, Sennett gazes and talks like a curious, arty child, even if he plays like an old soul.

For their part, Boesel and de Reeder have the easy patience and abundant humor of supporting players who might frequently be called upon to be voices of reason or clear second opinions. While Lewis admits to frequently writing on bass these days and playing the instrument live on occasion to allow de Reeder more time on the guitar, the versatility and punch of Rilo Kiley’s rhythm section is a marked feature of the new record, particularly on slinky surprise jam “The Moneymaker” (written by Lewis on bass) or the lightly Latin “Dejalo.”

Collectively, the band members’ demeanor is warm and congenial, as they alternate playing straight man to one another’s goofier asides. Over a late lunch in the concrete warrens of the fringes of West L.A., the banter is easy and open. Considering the politics of artistic evolution as they relate to fan expectations, Lewis earnestly but with gentle force says, “It’s great to allow a band that you like to grow and change. And I am relieved that we didn’t make The Execution of All Things over and over again: That’s impossible to do because we’re in a completely different place. But why? Why would you possibly want to keep making the same record over and over again?”

“Why, God, why?” wails Blake with a smirk.

Calmly ignoring the theatrics, Lewis completes the thought. “And we’re fully aware of what we’re doing, so there’s no puppetmaster.”

“Except maybe James Hetfield,” quips Jason Boesel.

So are Rilo Kiley quiet metalheads? “Primus is as close as I got,” admits Sennett, whose turntable these days instead features Guitars of the Golden Triangle V.2, the Ethiopiques series, Panda Bear, the Tom Tom Club and even the Grease soundtrack.

Musically, while they may shy from devil-horn gestures, Rilo Kiley intriguingly careens across the stylistic map. The country-caked ramble of Jenny’s solo work makes an appearance in spirit if not really instrumentation on certain songs from Rilo Kiley’s new album, but Under the Blacklight also contains dashes of Memphis soul (“15”), Swingin’ London ascot-pop (“Smoke Detector”) and Talking Heads pan-synthery anthem-for-the-suddenly-single (“Breakin’ Up”), as well as dashes of funk and unvarnished modern rock.

Blacklight is a kinetic departure for the band, both in process and result. “On a lot of these songs, we didn’t have proximity to each other ... we were apart,” explains Sennett, “so we didn’t really work them out as a band like a lot of our previous records. With this one, we discovered the songs, a lot of times, in the studio or the day before we went into the studio, and that changes the approach and the production compared to songs and arrangements you’re already familiar with. So, in that way, it was kind of a learning experience and a bit of an adventure.”

Boesel also adds that there were fewer time constraints than normal, allowing for more open experimentation: “We were able to go in for a couple of weeks and see what happens, go back for a little while, go in for another couple of weeks and then see what happens.”

Having spent plenty of time on the road with the aforementioned side projects has also renewed the novelty of Rilo Kiley for its members. "It was definitely the longest break we’ve ever had as a band. Typically, the other records that we’ve recorded in the past, outside of Rilo Kiley, have gone on simultaneously with our own touring and recording.”

The band members then debate how long it’s been since they’ve toured together versus played together versus recorded together and the consensus emerges that, however the hiatus is defined, it’s been longer than any they’ve ever spelled out on paper for themselves. Sennett notes, “For me, it was kind of refreshing to come back to Rilo Kiley. When you tour for a record, by the end of the touring cycle, my experience is that you’ve kind of had enough of playing those songs, and it’s exciting to get to change channels and be with Rilo Kiley again.”

When brought back to the issue of Rilo Kiley’s musical antecedents and scope, Lewis suggests that certain songs do feature a world-music flavor (the aforementioned "Dejalo," in particular) “but maybe that’s more of a Steely Dan thing,” she says.

Blake counters “I have to be honest, I don’t like Steely Dan, but I did listen to them because we were talking about them for that song, so I just listened to Aja front-to-back.” The similarity is noteworthy if incidental. Taking jazz and a ’60s approach to songwriting and fusing them in a radio-friendly cocktail, Steely Dan were polished syncretists in a way that may not differ much from Rilo Kiley, whose net sweeps a bit broader but whose fusion seems similarly effortless.

This broadness becomes apparent when I ask what artist they’d like to hear cover a Rilo Kiley song. “Kelly Clarkson on ‘I Never’,” Lewis muses. “To hear someone truly belt that song would be cool. I know, that’s not the coolest choice.”

Sennett grooves on it for a second and then adds, “I’d Like to hear Horace Andy do ‘Silver Lining’ the original way.” From Kelly Clarkson to deep reggae and all points in between, Rilo Kiley seems open to every possibility.

In both its range and unassuming persona, Rilo Kiley is, as much as anyone else, indicative of this special (and, frankly, thrilling) moment in time when music is beginning to outpace its trappings. “It’s nice. It’s sweet to be living in a time and making a record at a moment when bands like ours are being more embraced,” says Sennett. And for its part, Under the Blacklight rises to whatever challenge the band’s increased profile might offer—the album’s 11 songs reel off a variety of moods in tantalizingly quick succession, all of them catching odd corners of your ear as they ease by. It’s a record that has a dose of simple joy and a dash of risk-taking (particularly lyrically) without insisting on itself so much as to burden you with its gestures, resulting in a listen that’s both rich and gentle—complex music made simple in its elegance. Much like the band that made it.

Rilo Kiley is returning in full force for a fall tour across the States to support its upcoming (August 21) album, Under the Blacklight. While 2006 saw the release of Jenny Lewis’ first solo (or semi-solo) effort, Rabbit Fur Coat, and Blake Sennett and Jason Boesel’s other band The Elected put out its sophomore album, Sun, Sun, Sun, the group always had plans of getting back together. “We had signed a pact in blood to come back together and make a record after one year so here we are. We spilled some blood for this one,” Lewis and Sennett tell Paste via e-mail.

With the American tour kicking off in just a few weeks following a series of summer shows across Europe, fans can be prepared for a few changes from the group. “It's feeling great," the Lewis and Sennett say. "Particularly the new songs. They just feel so much more focused than some of our older, dustier tunes. We have also brought in two new players for these tours. Orenda Fink from Art in Manilla and Azure Ray and Kristen Gundred from Grand Ole Party. We now have an even ratio of women to men. That definitely changes the dynamic for the better.”

Tour dates:

September
6 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Warfield
7 - Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom
8 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox
10 - Salt Lake City, Utah @ McKay Events Center, w/ Modest Mouse
12 - Columbia, Mo.. @ Jesse Auditorium
13 - Omaha, Neb. @ SokolAuditorium
15 - Chicago, Ill. @ Riviera Theater
17 - Royal Oak, Mich. @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
18 - Toronto, Ontario @ Phoenix Theatre
19 - Montreal, Quebec @ La Tulipe
21 - Boston, Mass. @ Avalon
22 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
23 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
25 - Philadelphia, Penn. @ Trocadero
26 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
27 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
28 - Asheville, N.C. @ Orange Peel
29 - Atlanta, Ga. @ Variety Playhouse

October
1 - Ft. Lauderdale, Flor. @ Revolution
2 - Lake Buena Vista, Flor. @ House of Blues
4 - New Orleans, Lou. @ Republic
5 - Houston, Tex. @ Warehouse Live
6 - Dallas, Tex. @ Palladium
7 - Austin, Tex. @ Stubb’s BBQ
9 - Tuscon, Ariz. @ Rialto Theatre
10 - Tempe, Ariz. @ Marquee Theatre
12 - San Diego, Calif. @ SOMA
13 - Las Vegas, Nev. @ The Joint
15 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Santa Monica Civic

Related links:
RiloKiley.com
Video for “The Moneymaker”
Paste's review of More Adventurous

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

In support of 2004’s More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley has announced its summer tour dates, including this year’s Bonnaroo festival. The band just finished their European leg with Bright Eyes.

Dates include:

5/6 - Austin, Texas - Stubbs BBQ
5/7 - Houston, Texas - Engine Room
5/8 - Dallas, Texas - TBA
5/11 - Lawrence, Kan. - Granada
5/12 - Omaha, Neb. - Sokol Auditorium
5/13 - Iowa City, Iowa - TBA
5/14 - Minneapolis, Minn. - First Avenue
5/16 - Chicago, Ill. – Metro
5/17 - Newport, Ky. - Southgate House
5/18 - Detroit, Mich. - St. Andrews Hall
5/19 - Toronto, Ontario - Opera House w/ Nada Surf
5/20 - Montreal, Quebec - Cabaret Music Hall w/ Nada Surf
5/21 - Burlington, Vt. - Higher Ground w/ Nada Surf
5/22 - Boston, Mass. - Avalon w/ Nada Surf
5/23 - Northampton, Mass. - Pearl Street w/ Nada Surf
5/25 - Philadelphia, Penn. - Trocadero Theatre
5/26 - New York, N.Y.- Webster Hall
5/27 - New York, N.Y. - Webster Hall
5/28 - Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club
6/1 - Norfolk, Va. - Te Norva
6/2 - Knoxville, Tenn. - Sundown in City Festival
6/3 - Charleston, S.C. - Music Farm
6/4 - Carrboro, North Carolina - Cats Cradle
6/5 - Atlanta, Ga. - Variety Playhouse
6/7 - Orlando, Fla. - House of Blues
6/8 - Birmingham, Ala. – TBA
6/9 - Louisville, Ky. – TBA
6/10 - Asheville, N.C. – TBA
6/11 - Manchester, Tenn. – Bonnaroo
6/13 - Denver, Colo. – TBA
6/15 - Seattle, Wash. – Showbox
6/16 - Vancouver, British Colombia – TBA
6/17 - Portland, Ore. – TBA
6/18 - San Francisco, Calif. – TBA
6/19 - Los Angeles, Calif. – Wiltern

Who says pop music can’t be smart? Rilo Kiley mix bubble-gum happy melodies with well-crafted, deeply challenging lyrics about love and war. The band also has one of the year’s best videos, for the More Adventurous single, “It’s a Hit.”