anika in london

Yesterday me and my friend were talking about old Rilo Kiley. She hadn’t heard any songs that weren’t on the studio albums, so I sent them to her. I also listened to them too and it made me remember just how many incredible Rilo Kiley songs there are. They used to be my absolute favourite band for a while (I still love them a lot) so I have pretty much all their songs that are available, I think.

I’ve always thought that some of the non-album tracks are actually some of their best songs. Here are a few of my favourites:

Jenny, You’re Barely Alive (from Saddle Creek 50) – Angsty! Chunk guitar and angry vocals. This song is amazing. Listen here on Youtube. I have a couple of other versions too, one is acoustic and live from 2004 and one is live but I’m not sure when or where from.

A Town Called Luckey (from Portions For Foxes single) – This song is dark. Blood stained mattresses, storm clouds, birds eating other birds… it’s gloomy stuff. This is one of my absolute most favourite Rilo Kiley songs. The shimmering guitars and Jenny’s angry delivery show off Rilo Kiley at their most rock. You can’t listen to this and not want to sing a long; ‘tellin’ yourself to be humble! Singin’ to yourself to be free! It’s a middle age crisis type thing!’. The build ups to the choruses are all so epic. And I think it’s Tim Kasher who joins Jenny on the shouty ’storm cloud/hurricane’ part. Then it all subsides into some old-time sounding tinkling of the ivories and Jenny’s beautiful voice.

Pull Me In Tighter (unreleased) -I’m sad because I know there used to be a brilliant video online of the band playing this song at Austin City Limits. It’s not on Youtube any more but I just found you can watch the whole show here on Vimeo. Hurray!  ‘Pull Me In Tighter’ is the first song. I also have a great recording of them doing the song on radio for XFM, and one of them playing it live too. It’s one of my favourite Rilo Kiley songs. I love the lyrics and the way Jenny’s voice sounds, and there’s a moment when  all the instruments drop out and it’s just Jenny’s voice and the tambourine, and then she’s joined with back up vocals by the rest of the band. It’s so great. I love this song so much. I’m pretty thrilled to have just come across that Austin City Limits version, the whole of that show is excellent. It’s 30 mins long and I’d definitely recommend watching the whole thing.

I Love LA (unreleased) – Seeing as I just found that Austin City Limits footage again, you can check out ‘I Love LA’ there as well. It’s the last song they play. This is also one of my favourite Rilo Kiley songs. “I had a dream I was carried on backs of a thousand green birds/and they carried me to a place without words/there was nothing but there was everything”. I have a great recording of this where they’re playing it on a radio show in 2005. The guitar is simple but creates this wonderful nostalgic feeling. This song makes me want to cry. I love it.

Somebody Else’s Clothes (from the Live At Fingerprints EP) – Another of my favourite Rilo Kiley songs. Nice harmonica in this one. The whole of this Fingerprints EP is really lovely. Nice to hear acoustic versions of some songs, including ‘Does He Love You? in particular.

Room 8 (unreleased) - I love Jenny’s singing in this song. It’s a sing a long song, a real country jam with banjo n’all. It showcases the brilliant storytelling which makes Rilo Kiley so great.

About The Moon (from Science Vs Romance single) - I can’t believe this song is from so long ago (2001). It feels very similar to something that would be from ‘Rabbit Fur Coat’- it features the Watson Twins. I guess Jenny had that sound noodling around in her head for a while.

Butcher’s Paper (unreleased) - The recording I have is from 2004 and live. It’s a beautifully sweet song with wonderful finger picked guitar which Jenny dedicates to Blake.

And they have some nice live Elliott Smith covers (‘I Didn’t Understand’ and ‘The Biggest Lie’) that someone recorded from a show. And I have a great recording someone taped of them covering ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’. Oh and also a really great one of the band doing ‘Let My Love Open The Door’ with Blake singing lead vocals and loads of people doing handclaps. It’s sooo great.

Anyway, there are more but those are just my favourites. If you want me to share any with you just holla.

In a dark dark street. Remember that? From school? That’s what Dark Dark Dark remind me of. Anyway, the band (not the skeletons) are playing Lexington on Tuesday and I reckon it’s a show not to be missed. I can’t wait. I’ve listened to ‘Wild Go’ so many times and I can’t wait to hear them perform the songs live:

Here is the dark dark thing I was talking about:

FUNNYBONES! I love animation like this. Traditional animation. I miss it. It’s a shame you go to the cinema and anything animated now is computer generated.

Sea of Bees Christmas single, proceeds for The Trevor Project

Those of you with your eyes pointed in the direction of your calendar may have noticed it is less than one month until Christmas (!!!). I love Christmas time, it’s all very exciting. I have already turned my room into a grotto with fairy lights n’all. It’s very cosy. I think it’s perhaps time to bust out the seasonal music, so here are some words from Riot Act Media about Sea of Bees’ lovely festive jam.

From Riot Act Media:

Sea Of Bees snuck off to the studio to cut a few new jams and managed to churn out one of the most lovely versions of “Feliz Navidad” I’ve ever heard! The single is out now on all digital storefronts along with an live version of “The Woods” as the B side and you can stream it here.

Proceeds from the single will go to benefit the Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youth. Every day, The Trevor Project saves young lives through its free and confidential lifeline, in-school workshops, educational materials, online resources and advocacy. For more information, visit www.TheTrevorProject.org.

Jules from Sea Of Bees is one of those rare musicians you come across in your life who’ve grown up in a bit of a vacuum and managed to craft songs that come across as something completely new. Live is where Jules truly shines through… the moment she lets her voice ring out, you realize there was no studio trickery involved on her recordings, just a pure, beautiful sound emanates from her lungs! Songs For The Ravens, out now in the US, hits stores in Europe next month and Rough Trade is featuring it as the album of the month!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/feliz-navidad/id402828563

Best song of 2010 by miles. No other song even comes close, apart from maybe some of the others on ‘Teen Dream’.

Buy buy buy buy.

A couple of months ago I was talking to my friend from Sacremento and, I can’t even remember how we got onto that topic of conversation, but he told me Cryptacize had split up. I was sad; I love Cryptacize and I loved their live shows I saw here in 2009. He tried to diffuse my sadness by saying Nedelle would do a solo record and so would Chris and thus there’d be double as much great stuff.

Anyway Nedelle wrote about Cryptacize’s break here.

I really love Nedelle’s album ‘The Locksmith Cometh’ a lot. Loads. So I’m pretty excited to hear whatever she does next. Her voice is fantastic and her songs are so sweet. I never did properly check out The Curtains, but I’d be pretty excited to hear that too.

Check out ‘The Locksmith Cometh’ if you haven’t yet.