The Ike Reilly Assassination tonight at the Melody Inn

So Dodge and some of his posse are going to see The Ike Reilly Assassination tonight at the Melody Inn. Sweet.

The Ike Reilly Assassination - Boat Song (We're Getting Loaded)
The Ike Reilly Assassination - I Don't Want What You Got Goin' On

Here is one of those bio-type things I hate to write:
Blender Magazine has called Ike Reilly “The Worlds Most Rock and Roll Doorman,” but these days, the doorman is dead and the singer-songwriter’s been knocked off too. All that remains now is The Ike Reilly Assassination. The IRA, Reilly’s cool and woozy band, reflects his artistic vision by combining recklessness and unpredictability with pure confidence, lyrical candor and a greasy sexuality. Reilly, who The New York Press said looks like “the bad boy in a vocal pop band of serial killers,” swallows rock ‘n’ roll and spits out a unique and compelling vision that is refreshing for its fearless self-expression.

The Ike Reilly Assassination’s new offering, SPARKLE IN THE FINISH, is a scorching follow-up to Reilly’s critically- acclaimed 2001 Republic/Universal release SALESMEN AND RACISTS. On SPARKLE IN THE FINISH, Reilly is backed in the studio by his long time band mates: Dave Cottini, drums; Tommy * 'Donnell, bass; Phil Karnatz, guitar; and producer Ed Tinley on piano and guitar. Laced with punk-blues, classic and garage rock, and wrapped up in both lo-fi and contemporary production, Tinley brings elements of the band’s live greatness and Reilly’s eclectic individualism to the forefront on this unique recording.

The songs on SPARKLE IN THE FINISH look into Reilly’s dark and sexy world of bank robbers, cross dressers, mythical garage bands, the rich, the dead, and the things that often drive them – lust, pills and booze. All seen from the eyes of a wiseass everyman drifting through modern America, Reilly’s songs are compelling, often times hilarious, and wholly original. Songs on SPARKLE like “I Don’t Want What You Got (Goin’On),” “It’s All Right to Die,” “Whatever Happened To The Girl In Me?,” “Waitin’ For Daddy,” “The Boat Song (We’re Getting Loaded)” and “The Ballad Of The Choir Boy Bank Robber” are fascinating observations about simple events and conversations, about death and redemption, about excess and addiction, all infused with memorable melodies and a tough lyrical cadence.

Live, the band is undeniable and unpredictable. Reilly may begin an evening alone and singing strange hymnals from behind a children’s organ or the show could begin as the entire band explodes with an aggressive looseness that is alarming and endearing. Whatever the case may be, the performances always culminate with a cathartic and celebratory release. The Ike Reilly Assassination is part of no movement nor is it a concept contrived to be hip or to sell records. It is what rock ‘n’ roll should be – a form of pure individual expression.

The doorman may be six feet under, and the singer-songwriter may have kicked the bucket, but The Ike Reilly Assassination is alive and slithering through America.

PRESS QUOTES
"Ike writes simple, infectious guitar-and-piano pop nuggets and blesses them with a pleasantly ragged tenor... Meet the new radical. You can just call him Ike."
- Alternative Press

"Reilly's imagination torches reality... A headlong tumble into folk-singer lyrics that dances with a cave-stomp beat."
- Spin (8 out 10)

"...an appealing swagger in Reilly's ramshackle walk through rock and roll..."
- Chicago Tribune