Live Music: Rilo Kiley Boston Avalan show, Pt. 2

The Rilo party continues...

"It's A Hit":



"With Arms Outstretched", which is a hug in indie pop form:



"A Man/Then Me/Then Jim":



"The Moneymaker":



"Spectacular Views" ("IT'S SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL!"... One of my favorite lyrics of all time, and probably the best use of "fuck" ever in music:

Live Music: Rilo Kiley's Boston Avalon show, Part 1

This Boston Avalon show is the best that I've ever seen Rilo Kiley perform. The show was last September. Every video from the event is a gem at some point or another, so I'm just going to post a few thousand of them. By the way, it never occured to me how many RK songs that I know EVERY SINGLE WORD of until I watched this clips and heard the audience singing along.

"Close Call" and "Portions For Foxes":



"15" ("She was OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONLY... only... 15!!!!"):



"Does He Love You" (Great performance, but shut up audience, it's not that kind of song):



"Breakin Up":


"I Never":



"Silver Lining":



Part 2 one of the best live show bootleg collections that I've ever found on Youtube will be posted on Monday.

Random Track of the Day: "With Arms Outstretched"

I've had a fucked-up day and I need some Rilo Kiley to get me through the rest of it. I always loved "With Arms Outstretched" from "Execution of All Things". The instrumentation is simple and the vocals are far from perfect, but Jenny puts miles of charisma into it and makes the song really endearing despite how flawed the technical aspects of it are. Check it out.

Friday randomness: Rilo Kiley watches Paris Hilton sex tape

Yeah, you read that right. No music today because I'm leaving town in five minutes, but I have just enough time to post this bizarre little gem from Youtube:

New music Tuesday: Imperial Teen, Rilo Kiley, Imperial Teen, MIA, New Pornographers...

Lots of new stuff today. It's a big week for indie rock.

First of all, Rilo Kiley and MIA's new albums were released today. We told you about "Kala" last Wednesday and "Under the Blacklight" yesterday, so check out those posts for more info.

Imperial Teen is finally back after a five year hiatus with "The Hair, The TV, The Baby, and The Band", an album named after the projects that IT's members worked on during their hiatus. The album is more of the simple, happy-making indie rock we've come to expect from them. It's fun, but not much of a step forward for the band. It's probably the safest thing to do after coming off a long break, but hopefully their next album is a little more adventurous. Their website, imperialteen.com, was relaunched today, and you can listen to four of their new songs. Here's the album's first single, "Shim Sham":



The New Pornographers new album "Challengers" is now available. It has the same problem as Imperial Teen's new record: entertaining, but more of the same from them. Here's the opening track, "My Right Versus Yours":



I'm pretty much ODed on indie rock now. Not much gets released until September 11 when Kanye and 50 face off with new albums, with only VHS or Beta, Calvin Harris, and a UK Hard-Fi release dropping until then.

New Rilo Kiley: Best of "Under the Blacklight"

Rilo Kiley's new album, "Under the Blacklight", is now available for streaming on Myspace. It's a great album, and people who hated "The Moneymaker" will probably be relieved by how non-sellout the album is. The sound of the album is exactly halfway between "Moneymaker" and "More Adventurous", so their sound evolves without being completely changed. They also do a little experimenting with synths, which doesn't always work, but they pull it off a few times. And also, the lyrics are just as amazing as what you would expect from Jenny Lewis. Turns out that "Moneymaker" didn't mean that RK has given up on good lyrics; they just made a superficial song about a superficial industry (porn). In other words, I was right. The rest of the album has A+ songwriting. Most of the album is about the dark side of sex; porn in "Moneymaker", hookers in "Close Call", accidentally having sex with 15 year olds in "15", and probably other stuff I missed the first time. "Dreamworld" is easily my favorite song on the album, and will be on top of the Myspace playlist tomorrow. It's probably my favorite new song to come out since "The Way I Are" showed up in April. My only problem with it is that it's so hard to understand the lyrics. Blake's vocals are hushed and hypnotic, which totally works sonically, but you can't hear the amazing lyrics. They're the kind of lyrics that smart and tight, and you can't really completely understand what they're about, but they're intriguing enough to make you want to know. I googled up the lyrics, and they're at the bottom of this playlist. Here's three of the best songs on the album, uploaded to ProjectPlaylist.com since iMeem.com hates me today. If all you see is a white box, click on "Launch Standalone player" and you'll see the working playlist in a popup window.

Dreamworld:
she was the girl with the string around her neck,
with the boy who could only give her less.
it could be more if she learned to never expect,
and now she's her and him and then a baby next.

the wedding bells won't ring, but she couldn't care less,
you exist, when you're living in a dreamworld.

he grew up drinking milk from the cow, from the farm.
he was the traitor's father's father's father.
his father made him go give back to his country.
he gave his both knees, his overseas to fight the disease.

it's spreading fast over maps and it don't look back,
when you're living in a dreamworld.

it is a lion's science fiction wings,
just like a jolly dizzy for zero, one, three times
the size of the people that came before.
me and you and what we'd do for money.

this greed and jealousy turn to need.
see, i'm a man with a plan to use my hands.
i'm touching yours, you're the girl who wanted more.
now baby, the story has faded from love to lie.

the clover under your feet is shooting stars in the night.
the people under your feet are shooting stars in the night.
the people, all that you meet, they're living in a dreamworld.