Rilo Kiley

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Rilo Kiley was an American indie rock band from Los Angeles founded by Former Child Stars Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett (aka Pinsky of Salute Your Shorts fame) with Pierre De Reeder and Dave Rock in the late Nineties. Starting off as a lo-fi, country-influenced indie band, they have since transitioned to a poppier, Soul-influenced direction, following Jenny Lewis' voice as it dragged her to her thirties. Additionally, Sennett's role as a singer has been drastically reduced (although he sings lead in his Side Project, The Elected).

In 2011, the band broke up.

As of 2007, they have four albums:

  • Take-Offs and Landings (2001)
  • The Execution of All Things (2002): Recorded with Conor Oberst's Saddle Creek Records in Omaha, and it shows.
  • More Adventurous (2004)
  • Under the Blacklight (2007)
Rilo Kiley provides examples of the following tropes:

"Then we'll go to Omaha to work and exploit the booming music scene and humility."

  • Last-Note Nightmare: Does He Love You? Merciful GOD, Does He Love You?
  • Ephebophile: The closest trope to "15," which is more or less about what you might expect. Also, from the same song: "Does your daddy have a shotgun?"
  • New Sound Album: More Adventurous, when they went major-label and started exploring new directions.
  • Shur Fine Guns: "Accidntel Deth" (sic: Indietronica artist Dntel produced the song) includes at least one instance where the accidental death was of a deer the father of the narrator (who probably isn't Jenny Lewis) had killed when his shotgun went off without him meaning it to (probably because he hit it too hard or something) while hunting with his dad when he was eight. Her dad swears off guns after that.
  • Sophomore Slump: Averted. Their second album, The Execution of All Things, was a sort of refinement of their previous work under the guiding hand of Conor Oberst's Saddle Creek Records.
  • Take That: To George W. Bush, in "It's a Hit" (from More Adventurous). She calls him a monkey. Hey, it was 2004, and that incident with the banner was still fresh in everybody's minds, OK?
  • Younger Than They Look: In "15", the guy who slept with the aforementioned 15-year-old mistook her as "a tiny woman".