Ike Reilly Assassination, Pocket Fuzz

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Grant Herbek

Ike Reilly

media release: Libertyville, Illinois, based genre-bending singer-songwriter Ike Reilly is set to release his eighth studio album, Because the Angels, on October 15, 2021, via Nashville-based label Rock Ridge Music. Recorded at Reilly’s own Diamond City Studio in Libertyville, Illinois and Fat Studio in Grayslake, Illinois, the album was produced by Reilly and Phil Karnats (Secret Machines, Polyphonic Spree) and was mixed in New York City by Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Julian Lennon).

This compelling batch of new Reilly songs required both a lighter touch and a ferocity that mirror the depth of Reilly’s writing and the varied nature of his songs. Of his work, Reilly dismisses it and says, “My songs are either lies or apologies.”

Two singles precede the album’s release date. Still to come is the second single, “Racquel Blue,” which will be released on September 10th; the track is already set to premiere on September 8th at Holler.Country. Blown-out speakers, marijuana shoes, tire fires, and abandoned driers all litter the suicide highways in the final track of Because the Angels, the epic “Racquel Blue.” This broken-beat, dubstep-tinged folk song could be on the soundtrack to some lost spaghetti western, but the song itself is too powerful and majestic to take a back seat to any film. An unlikely place for “hooks,” “Racquel Blue” has one of Reilly’s most timeless and memorable choruses, and a haunting group vocal “B” section, sung by Reilly’s own children, that is certain to generate communal singing wherever “Racquel Blue” is performed or played.

“Trick of the Light,” the first single, was already released on July 30th, and the song premiered at Glide Magazine, who praised the track’s “anthemic family harmonies brimming with hope and good vibes despite the darker questions about faith, hope, family, money, and fate.” “Trick of the Light” is a dark-pop-celebration of family dysfunction. Here, we find Reilly ironically sharing lead vocal duties with three of his own children. There is a festive innocence and a wise resignation in the vocal delivery as Reilly and his boys trade lines and ask questions about faith, hope, family, money, and fate. 

Of the shared lead vocals with his sons, Reilly said, “My boys singing on this album with us came about for really no other reason than we were f*cking locked up together during this pandemic. I had to take to Internet hustling-busking-begging to make ends meet, and the boys joined me on The Ike Reilly Family Quarantine Hour. We got comfortable singing together, and when we cut some of these songs, it felt natural for them to sing with the band on many of them. Their vocals really helped shape this record.”  Like all related singers, there is a distinctive quality in the voices of Shane, Kevin, and Mickey Reilly -- similarly raspy to their father yet not as torn up. This genetic connection is even more compelling given the seeking nature of “Trick of the Light.”

Like on all of Reilly’s records, the imagery, the locations, and the characters are authentic, unique, and unforgettable. On “Ashes to Ashes,” the band slams away and yet still holds down the groove to this Ray-Charles-on-speed track. As the band rocks, rolls, and rumbles, Reilly sings of the cursed and the blessed, the loved and the hurt, and he assures us that nobody escapes death. Sure, it’s dark, but ya might die trying not to move to this track. Because the Angels is home to racist girlfriends, killer cops, drunken candidates, swindled mothers, slandered brothers, and struggling lovers, all right here in the modern era. The locations are mostly American -- the police shooting and subsequent riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin inspired “Someday Tonight.” In “The Muhammad Ali Museum,” the lonesome main character, after searching unsuccessfully for weed in downtown Louisville, decides to go into the Ali Museum and is brought to new depths of anguish as he compares his own mundane life to the life of The Champ. 

Says Reilly, “All of this music is our thing. This thing of ours! Cosa Nostra! Nobody plays like Phil, Dave, Pete, and Adam. Ya take these stories and that band, and then throw my boys singing on top of it. F*ck, we know we made a great record. Don’t need anybody to tell us that. Just listen to it.”

Because the Angels personnel: Ike Reilly – Guitar and Vocals | Phil Karnats – Guitar | Dave Cottini – Drums | Pete Cimbalo – Bass | Adam Krier – Organ | Shane Reilly – Vocals | Kevin Reilly – Vocals | Mickey Reilly – Vocals

About Ike Reilly:

Since his explosive major label debut, Salesmen and Racists, Reilly has been creating rebellious punk/folk/country/blues-influenced rock ’n’ roll records that are poetic and cinematic. Critical praise for his work has been plentiful, and he has garnered a wildly loyal fan base -- from faithful fans in the dirty bars and rock clubs in the middle of nowhere to legendary authors. Reilly’s songs have a unique universality that affects people. Author Stephen King wrote that Reilly’s travel band saga, “Boltcutter,” was “the best new song to come out of the Trump era.”  The New York Times called Reilly’s longtime band, The Assassination, one of the best live bands in America. 

Reilly is the host of the Facebook livestream series, the “Ike Reilly Family Q-Hour.” Spawned in the early days of the pandemic, it quickly became the stuff of legend. Part traditional livestream performance and part variety hour, it features family members (who might climb in through the window behind Reilly to join him “on stage” in his living room), special guests from afar, and plenty of Reilly-esque stories between songs. As Cracker’s David Lowery wrote about Reilly’s livestreams: “You and your family basically need your own variety TV show. It’s like a f***ed-up Partridge family, while remaining family-friendly. You have the best livestream going.” The Daily Herald in Chicago deemed it “eclectic,” while Good Times Santa Cruz called it “the most compelling and watchable recurring quaranstream out there.” Each episode has had up to 30,000 live views, with over 500,000 views combined among the 20 episodes to-date.