Rilo Kiley

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.

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. 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 a 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.

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According to one fan:

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"At the Westwood in-store show we asked Jenny . 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."

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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 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.

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

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On a 2005 episode of the entertainment show Hotlist, Lewis and Sennett "revealed" that they found the name "Rilo Kiley" attributed to a horse in a 50-year-old Irish sports almanac. It's likely, however, that this, too, was a joke.

Related Topics:
2005 - Hotlist

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