Rilo Kiley is a Los Angeles-based indie rock band fronted by former child actors Jenny Lewis (Troop Beverly Hills, The Wizard) and Blake Sennett (Salute Your Shorts, Boy Meets World). They have released four albums, all of which combine country, folk, and pop sensibilities. The band originally signed with Barsuk Records, an independent label, for their first full-length album, Take-Offs & Landings, in 2001. Rilo Kiley went on to sign with Omaha's Saddle Creek Records and released The Execution of All Things in 2002. In 2004, they released More Adventurous on their own imprint, Brute/Beaute Records. They have sold nearly 75,000 records in three years and toured the United States repeatedly. Lewis sings lead vocals and shares writing credits with guitarist Sennett, who sings lead on about 20% of their songs. The band also features Pierre De Reeder on bass and Jason Boesel on drums.

2004 saw a great increase in recognition for the band, as Sennett and Boesel released an album with their band The Elected and Lewis sang backup on Ben Gibbard's indie electronic Death Cab For Cutie side project The Postal Service. Lewis toured with The Postal Service before heading out on two tours in support of Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous in the summer and fall of 2004. The album spent late 2004 high on Billboard Magazine's Heatseekers Chart, success only furthered by appearances on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

The band opened for Bright Eyes on the international leg of Conor Oberst's tour for 2005's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. In May of 2005 Lewis announced she would be releasing a solo project on Oberst's record label Team Love. The album, to be released January 2006, is titled Rabbit Fur Coat and is co-produced by M. Ward and Mike Mogis.

In May of 2005, Jenny Lewis announced in an interview that Rilo Kiley had signed with Warner Bros. and that the label is preparing to re-release More Adventurous. An exact release date has not been set, she says. In fall 2005, Rilo Kiley was the opening act for the North American dates of Coldplay's Twisted Logic Tour.

Origin of the name

There are a few theories, but no definitive answer. Pierre and Jason both insist that "Rilo Kiley" has no real meaning. Some have claimed that the name is a reversal of the common Irish name Kyle O'Riley. Former drummer Dave Rock once claimed during a radio interview that Rilo Kiley was the name of a pair of Siamese twins from the early 20th century and that they picked it as the name because the bandmembers were close (ironically, he left the band not long after). Another theory is that it was the name of a Scottish architect. An article in Performer Magazine (2001) states that the band got their name from the tragic tale of two exiled, gay, high school football players, Ben Rilo and Stephen Kiley, who committed suicide in 1909 on the railroad tracks just outside of their Midwestern town after making love for the last time. As a tribute to the two young men the band members adopted the name Rilo Kiley, which is also the name of the crossing where the two young men met their end.

According to one fan: "At the Westwood in-store show we asked Jenny [what the name meant]. She started to say how it was about some dream Blake had had once. Blake was packing up equipment on the other side of the stage, overheard, and yelled over not to listen to her, that she was just messing with our heads. So she said, she'd wanted to name them after her parent's band in the 70's "Love's Way," but that we'd have to ask Blake about Rilo Kiley. Blake claimed it was after some innovative architect he'd gotten into at the time."

Jenny Lewis said in an interview with PETA in February 2002 while on tour in Philadelphia for Take-Offs and Landings that the origin of the name was a dream that Blake had in which an Irish man called Rilo Kiley told him when [Jenny] would die. When asked, "Well, when will you die, then?", Jenny responded "He never told me, so it could be tomorrow, five years, twenty... Who knows?" Other band members weren't present to comment upon the subject.

Another fan says: "[Jenny] told me that they got it from a Jethro Tull song!"

On a 2005 episode of the MSNBC entertainment show Hotlist, the female host states that the name "Rilo Kiley" comes from "old Scottish sports almanacs." In the interview segment that follows, Sennett states, "We just looked in there and the name of one of the star players from the turn of the century was Rilo Kiley."

On the syndicated radio show Loveline in August 2005, Sennett explained that he had a dream where he was being chased by a sports almanac and "when it got me, I leafed through it...and I came upon a Australian-rules football player from the 19th century named Rilo Kiley, it's kinda embarrassing." When asked by co-host Drew Pinsky if he had ever seen this name in reality, Sennett said "I don't think so, I don't think that character exists...If you Google 'Rilo Kiley' you just come back with a bunch of pictures of us." On how this imaginary name became the name for the band: "I wrote it down on a blotter, an office desk when I woke up, and, I don't know, I came back to it when we were trying to think of a name and we thought we'd use that for one show then change it, 'cause who'd want that name? Who can remember that anyway?"

Discography

Full Length Albums

• Take-Offs and Landings (2001, Barsuk)
• The Execution of All Things (2002, Saddle Creek)
• More Adventurous (2004, Brute/Beaute)

EPs

• Self-Titled, first pressing (1999, Rilo Records)
• Self-Titled, second pressing (2000, Rilo Records)
• The Initial Friend E.P. (2001, Rilo Records)
• Live at Fingerprints EP (2004, Brute/Beaute)

Singles

• Execution of All Things (Single) (2003, Saddle Creek)
• Portions For Foxes, CD1 (Single) (2005, Brute/Beaute)
• Portions For Foxes, CD2 (Single) (2005, Brute/Beaute)

External links

• Rilo Kiley's Official website (Requires Macromedia Flash)
• RKNet - Rilo Kiley multimedia and information
• Untitled Rilo Kiley Fansite

• All Music Guide entry for Rilo Kiley