Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley’s audiences have a strong tendency to fall in love on the spot. Perhaps it’s their beaming faces or laid-back, admirable West Coast attitudes. Or maybe it’s just their uncanny knack for designing nuanced pop songs and performing them with flair. Maybe it’s lead singers Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennet‘s adorable onstage banter and scissors-sharp wit. Whatever that little something extra is, Los Angeles, CA’s Rilo Kiley has it times ten. (Sing 365)

Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis

Born in Las Vegas in early 1977, singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis is one of indie rock’s treasured songbirds, known for her work as the primary vocalist of Rilo Kiley as well as her burgeoning solo career. A former child actress, she helped launch Rilo Kiley in 1998 with fellow musicians Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Dave Rock (who was later replaced by Jason Boesel in 2001). Lewis steadily developed her own vocal style, drawing from the sly country twang of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Patsy Cline while remaining indebted to pop music. Collaborations with the Good Life, Cursive, and the Postal Service helped expand her audience, and Lewis began working on her debut solo effort in the midst of Rilo Kiley’s third full-length release, More Adventurous. Rabbit Fur Coat was released in 2006, featuring vocals by Kentucky-born singers Chandra and Leigh Watson (thus the moniker Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins) as well as contributions by M. Ward, Ben Gibbard, Jason Boesel, and Conor Oberst, who released the record on his own Team Love label. Jenny Lewis then made the jump to Warner Bros. for the release of Rilo Kiley’s Under the Blacklight, which gave the band an unprecedented amount of chart success in the U.S. and overseas. Following that album’s accompanying tour, Lewis announced that her sophomore solo effort, Acid Tongue, would be released in September 2008. The record arrived on schedule, featuring collaborations with Elvis Costello, She & Him, Chris Robinson, and Lewis’ own family members. (StarPulse)

With Arms Outstretched (Rilo Kiley)

Acid Tongue – Jenny Lewis

Rilo Kiley on iTunes

Jenny Lewis

Sia

Sia (full name Sia Furler) hails from the famously laid-back Australian city of Adelaide. Boasting a powerful, soulful voice, she worked the Adelaide jazz circuit during the ’90s as a vocalist for the band Crisp. However, the blonde, blue-eyed antipodean’s big break came only after she followed in the footsteps of many other Aussie artists and hopped on a plane to the U.K.

While in London, Sia landed a gig as a backup singer for the very popular and extremely hip English outfit Jamiroquai. In early 2000, she released her first solo single, the alternative pop tune “Taken for Granted,” which debuted at number ten on the busy U.K. singles chart. Soon after, a string of big names in the British music scene asked for Sia’s services; projects with Massive Attack, Zero 7, and William Orbit ensued.

In mid-2001, Sia once again made a splash on the U.K. singles chart with the moody offering “Drink to Get Drunk,” a track that would appear on her 2002 full-length debut, Healing Is Difficult. Ironically, it was only after her considerable success abroad that she began to make a real impact down under. Colour the Small One appeared a year later. The track “Breathe Me” from the album gained attention when it was used in the elaborate final scene of the Six Feet Under series that aired in 2005. After a successful 2006 tour, as well as more appearances on Zero 7′s album Garden, Sia issued the live album Lady Croissant, which also included the new studio song “Pictures.” In 2008 she released Some People Have Real Problems, her fourth studio album.

via StarPulse

Taken for Granted

The Girl You Lost to Cocaine

Sia on iTunes