NEW RILO KILEY!

Breaking news as of sometime before I heard about it: the new album, "More Adventurous", comes out in late July. The Rilo Kiley website has been updated to reflect the change, but details seem to be yet elusive. Live versions of some new tracks are available here -- they be "Absence of God," "I Never" and "It Just Is." A bit slow, I'll say, but I do appreciate the harmonica on "Absence."

According to Blog, Rilo Kiley is "everyone's new favorite band." I'm not sure that's true -- right now the indie band finally getting the recognition it deserves is Modest Mouse -- but if it is, then I'd like to think I had a hand in that (i.e. pressing copies of their last album on anyone who would listen). Also: If my relentless promotion of everything Modest Mouse over the years helped eventually push them to the Billboard Top 20, could my recent Rilo Kiley-peddling catapult them to the top of the charts? Wait, don't answer that.

P.S. Having listened to a number of these live tracks, I have to ask: WTF are they thinking with their live play of "Spectacular Views"? It's a great choice of a set closer, but that's the end of their great choices w/r/t this song. The live version deprives it of its two key ingredients: 1) Jenny Lewis' voice, and 2) it's rawkingness. For whatever mistaken reason, she steps back from the mic to let Elliott Smith wannabe Blake Sennett bring down the song with his tepid vocals. And while an acoustic version of the song might be a nice departure on occasion, this seems to be the standard live version. Weak! This is Lewis' song, and it's best played loud. If she won't kick Sennett out of the band (not a bad idea, unless he writes more than I'm aware of) she at least should not surrender the vocal duties to him just when concertgoers want something really kick-ass before heading out to their cars.

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posted by WWB at 10:56 PM |