From the Archive: 105 work of art

Rilo Kiley, HAIM, and Steely Dan

I was recently asked to make a Fly-Anywhere list: artists that, if they announced they were doing one night in Tokyo or something, I would book a flight for immediately and with no regard for financial repercussions. Of course, my list turned out to be longer than I wished it were, but every addition felt true: Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens, Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Cocteau Twins, Paul Simon, Talking Heads… it’s longer than that, but I’m feeling self conscious about how little I really value my life savings.

Rilo Kiley also makes the cut. Like the Cocteau Twins, they broke up long before I was going to concerts or even aware of their music. The first Rilo Kiley song I ever heard was on a mix someone made for me when I was in the sixth grade, the very first track in a list of twenty. I’ve written before that I only listened to show tunes prior to these mixes, so “Love and War - 11/11/46” introduced me to an entirely new genre of music. Rilo Kiley is the first band I really loved.

I saw Jenny Lewis in 2019 at a mid-sized venue promoting On the Line (2019). Her bright pink setlist from that show is on my wall, maybe the first I ever collected. The show was wildly fun, infused with her precise brand of kooky country pastiche. She rarely talks about Rilo Kiley, but she does often play “Silver Lining” in her solo sets, a standout from their major label debut and final studio album, Under the Blacklight (2007).

Fifteen years prior to the show I attended and seven years prior to their announcement of their breakup, Rilo Kiley performed a small acoustic set in what looks to be a record store that happens to be one of the best live sets posted on the Internet. Jenny Lewis has an exquisite voice that sounds live almost exactly the same as it does on the record. This video—Lewis’ outfit, the grainy quality, the haircuts, how young the members of the band look—screams early aughts, like jeans under dresses or earnest patriotism from your normal friends.

I’d pay a truly unconscionable amount of money to time travel, teleport, transcend to this little show. They play two of my favorite songs from what I believe is the most holistically perfect album of theirs, The Execution of All Things (2002). They take requests from the audience and whisper to each other conspiratorially onstage. They sound so good stripped down to just Lewis and a guitar, letting the incredible lyrics of their music shine. I would actually sell my soul to have been there in that room.

I’d give maybe not my soul but my left arm to have been at the final HAIM Women in Muisc Pt. III (2021) show where they brought out special surprise guest Taylor Swift:

hunter harris @hunteryharris

lord i see what you have done for others

Teodor Grama @rodoeti

NOT THE HAIM SISTERS BRINGING TAYLOR SWIFT ON STAGE AT THE O2 ARENA FOR THE LAST NIGHT OF THEIR TOUR I AM SCREAMING #taylorswift #haim https://t.co/iJEPPbuWGJ

HAIM is no longer on my Fly-Anywhere list because I already took one unhinged, ill-advised trip to see them, for their Santa Barbara Bowl comeback show. I drove six hours, parked my car, walked up to my balcony seat, thought about how much I hated balcony seats, bought a resale floor ticket from inside the venue, and had a truly spiritual experience dancing around with the other superfans in the confetti and the lights. I’ve never regretted a purchase less, and since then I’ve made a point of always buying a floor ticket.

I’m going to dedicate an entire issue to this phenomenon at some point soon, but I have an ongoing thread with one of my friends regarding the recent seemingly unprompted spike in popularity of Steely Dan. We say to each other, “Steely Dan is in the air again,” because it does actually feel like they’re just floating around in the ether at a higher density than usual. Why is a band whose biggest record came out in 1977 trending so often?

My favorite random Steely Dan cultural moment of recent history is this Twitter user that just retweets every mention of Steely Dan on that cursed website, which would be a rather boring premise if the takes were less beautiful and weird. People really love Steely Dan, and honestly I’m with them on that.

If you’ve made it this far, please comment either your own Fly-Anywhere list, your most unhinged concert story, or your best Steely Dan take. And if you’re reading this and you’re Rilo Kiley, please get back together.