One Year, 100 Albums: #92 Rilo Kiley - Take Offs and Landings

Rilo Kiley Take Offs and Landings, 2001

My acquisition of this album is the result of two different girls telling me, in their own ways, that I HAD to listen to a song.

My friend Katy (I call her KT) IM'ed me when I was in my second year of college and she was in her first to tell me that I needed to listen to "We'll Never Sleep (God Knows We'll Try)" by this band, Rilo Kiley.

If you've ever told me I need to listen to something, you'll know that I usually say, "Awesome, thanks!" and then don't listen to it for 6 months. And then when I finally do, you receive a breathless email about how awesome the song is, and how mad I am at myself for not listening to it eariler.

That's pretty much what happened with KT. The song came up on shuffle one night and I thought, "Man, this is GORGEOUS".

In the interim between KT sending me the song and my actually listening to it, my girlfriend/ex-girlfriend at the time (it was complicated) made me a mix CD that had "Bulletproof" on it. Once again, it was this gorgeous song that I LOVED.

So, somehow I finally bought the album and realized that these are only two of the very lovely tracks on a very lovely album, but that the rest of the album rocked a little harder.

To this day, I put this one on when I need to be gently reassured and occasionally slapped in the face by the sweet voice of Jenny Lewis (who some people will know as being "the girl" from The Wizard).

It's a solid album that has aged VERY well.

Here's a video from a couple years ago of the band playing one of the centerpieces of the album

And here is what I consider the other centerpiece and the two songs I mentioned above. A veritable smorgasbord of Rilo Kiley goodness.

Rilo Kiley - Bulletproof
Rilo Kiley - We'll Never Sleep (God Knows We'll Try)
Rilo Kiley - Plane Crash in C

OH! This week is "Omaha Week" because both Rilo Kiley and the band that will be featured on Friday were, at some point in their careers, on Saddle Creek Records, based out of Omaha, Nebraska, near Bellevue, Nebraska where I spent several formative elementary school years!

You can purchase Take Offs and Landings at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes.

For the Ladies...

Well, Hello There!

All of a sudden it's almost the middle of March. I think someone stole the lion and rushed us on to the lamb!! That's ok. Weather is so crazy these days. Why do I always default to talking about the weather? It's like I'm a character in a play by a novice playwright.

But that's not important right now.

HERE'S what's important!

It's Women's History Month this month. I guess the ladies had better start making the most of it before the month is over! I'll do my part with a special surprise....


ACTUAL MUSIC LINKS!!!!!!

Mostly, I'm writing this because in the interim that I didn't have a hard drive (furthermore known as the Silent Quarter) I got a bunch of CD's by female artists or bands with female singers. So, I'm going to post one song from each of those and then match that with old favorites of mine.

Here we go!

Recently acquired

Rilo Kiley - Breakin' Up from Under the Blacklight

Grace Potter - Big White Gate from This is Somewhere

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Humble Me from 100 Days, 100 Nights (this would have been a good submission for the Envy Contrast Podcast this week...)

Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry on Their Own from Back to Black

Kimya Dawson - So Nice So Smart from Juno (Soundtrack)

Paramore - Born For This from Riot! (Warning: This might be a bit too pop-punky for some of you. It's a good song and they reference a really good Refused song, but I just wanted to warn you...)

Old Favorites

Carole King - I Feel the Earth Move from Tapestry

Dar Williams - Alleluia from The Honesty Room

No Doubt - Hateful from Burning London: The Clash Tribute

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit from Pretty much any Billie Holiday CD you can get your hands on

The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go? from Motown 1*s...and also probably any Supremes CD you could get your hands on...

Dance Hall Crashers - He Wants Me Back from The Old Record

So, I'll be able to post music again and that means that I'll hopefully be posting MORE! Woohoo! Bye guys!