The Freedom Club

New Music Forecast
This is pretty much a summary of a band bio, including notable achievements, generally accepted categorizations, interesting or quirky facts or stories, etc to make the ignorant reader of wers.org interested in a band. Any inaccuracies on my part should be taken up with the multiple other websites I got my 4th hand knowledge from.


Rilo Kiley

How often do the lives of child stars end in anything but tears, let alone, god forbid, a bright future? What are the odds that two child stars would get together to form a rock band? With the exception of The Coreys, a band I'm hoping to dream into existence, indie rockers Rilo Kiley are the only ones exploring that particular niche, and doing it well. While the status of fronting band members Jenny Lewis (vocals, guitar, keyboards, "Troop Beverly Hills") and Blake Sennett (guitar, vocals, "Salute Your Shorts" and "Boy Meets World") as child "stars" may be debatable, their rising status on the indie pop/rock scene is not, a point that their forthcoming album Under The Black Light will no doubt solidify.

Drawing from many influences including country and jazz, their sound varies from lo-fi coffee house to polished hook-heavy pop, with some strings and horns thrown in for good measure. Their rock star status and label status both seem to follow parallel to their musical evolution into Major, going from the extreme indie and the ultra hip Saddle Creek, home to Bright Eyes and other celebrated indie names, to their own Warner Bros.-distruted Brute/Beaute label.

Walking the line between cynical hipsters and light-hearted folk-pop, the usually catchy Rilo Kiley have deservedly been to some degree darlings of the Pitchfork-influenced rock world, covering wider ground as their music develops with layers of appropriately distributed gloss, without losing their edge. The fantastic vocals of Jenny Lewis define the Rilo Kiley sound, and she continues to deliver style and talent along with her band mates. For an example of the bouncy, crooner-rock stylings of their new album (available 8/21/07), look no further than their groovy, sexy new single "The Moneymaker", it will have you shaking yours (your money maker, that is).

With ties and collaborations with Bright Eyes and The Postal Service, appearances on Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel and 3 acclaimed indie pop albums under their belt and major label support, Rilo Kiley's profile is reaching levels that even starring in "Salute Your Shorts" can't match.

www.rilokiley.com

-Jordan Clifford

Labels: Boy Meets World, Bright Eyes, Kiley, Moneymaker, Rilo, Rilo Kiley, Salute Your Shorts, Troop Beverly Hills, Under The Black Light