http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/entertainment/new_features/music/rilokiley072503.htm

Rilo Kiley Is Breaking Through

By Joe Heim
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, July 25, 2003

The members of Rilo Kiley had good reason to feel a bit apprehensive when they played a show at the Black Cat earlier this year. On a previous visit to town, only four fans showed up to catch the up-and-coming indie rock band from Los Angeles. And that wasn't the worst of it. Members of another band on the bill got into a fight with each other midway through their set. On the whole, it was an experience that Rilo Kiley wasn't interested in repeating.
"We thought, oh gosh, this is going to be horrible," says singer Jenny Lewis, reached by cell phone earlier this month as she and her band mates drove from Olympia, Wash., to Salt Lake City. "We were really worried it was going to be a disaster again."

Thankfully for the band, the return visit to Washington wasn't anything of the sort. A crowd of several hundred was on hand, a sure sign that in just the few months between visits Rilo Kiley had started making big waves in the indie rock world. Mentions in major music magazines such as Spin and Magnet certainly built up interest. It helped too that the band's most recent album, The Execution of All Things, was released on the hip indie label of the moment, Omaha's Saddle Creek Records.

Though the group's success may seem overnight to new fans, the band has been plugging away since Lewis met Blake Sennett in Los Angeles and the two started recording together in 1998. They recruited bassist Piere de Reeder and drummer Dave Rock (later replaced by Jason Boesel) and in 2001 released a brilliant debut album, Take Offs and Landings, a charmingly ethereal record marked by Lewis and Sennett's detail-rich songwriting and captivating music.

Though it has taken a while for the band's fortunes to take off, Lewis says that she's enjoyed the longer route to recognition.

"It's been a gradual progression and I think that's the really great thing about being in an independent rock band. You can put out a record and then just see the change happening, especially if you're persistent and you tour relentlessly. To go from playing to four people and have four hundred show up, it's a pretty amazing thing. It's really exciting and we feel really grateful."

Depressing, ominous and hopeful all at once, Rilo Kiley's music is emo with serious soul. The off-kilter songs feel as if they were created in some kind of dreamland or trance. It is music you can dive into, full of beautiful harmonies and progressions that point to both sadness and wonderment.

"When I sit down to write a song I'm not like, okay, I'm going to start out kind of dark and then let it evolve into a bit of hope. But I think that's indicative of my personality a little bit," says Lewis. "There's just this underlying darkness, but somewhere there's hope. When I think about my favorite songwriters or even my favorite movies, there's always a bit of hope. Even in the darkest of stories you sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Part of the band's appeal is that it draws from rich and varied influences. Lewis cites Modest Mouse, Neil Young and Patsy Cline among her favorites and she also acknowledges a new-found favorite.

"The last time I was in Washington, D.C., we were lucky enough to buy a bootleg go-go CD," Lewis shares. "You know, there aren't many people who are aware of the go-go movement outside of the District and I just want to say that I'm a big fan."

Who knows, maybe a Rilo Kiley/Chuck Brown collaboration is in the works.

Rilo Kiley performs at the Black Cat, Wednesday, July 30. With M. Ward and the Band of Four and Statistics.

 

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