Twittergem: The Elected

While we were writing about the Rilo Kiley split, long-time friend of No Rock @blowsmyskirtup was watching The Elected. And what did Blake Sennett have to say about the split covereage?

"Finally made the NME. Shit was taken out of context." And they played "Ripchord" which he dedicated to his "best friends in Rilo Kiley."

Bye, lo Kiley: Rilo Kiley now just portions for foxes

It wasn't all good news yesterday - even as Murdoch's plans were falling apart, so were Rilo Kiley. And it doesn't sound like the good death the band deserved:

"I just felt like there was a lot of deception, disloyalty, greed and things I don't really want to submit myself to," guitarist Blake Sennett tells Spinner. "I had related that frustration to music but I just thought, 'I'm not going to put myself in that position again,' so I said, 'F--- that, I can't do this anymore.'"

"That being said," he continues, "it was probably immature and that came from a place of ego. I think that stuff will rear its head in anything you do, depending on the personnel you surround yourself with; things change overtime and people change and relationships change."

That's really sad end for a really beautiful band. Although... it's not quite all done and said:

"I think we're going to try and release a two-disc set of 40 songs, or something. I think that can be more considered like our last release, to me. But I don't know."

Sennett is now going to expand his sideproject, The Elected, into the main focus that it's pretty much been anyway since the end of the last Rilo Kiley tour. Keen to parse the split, Spinner points out that Kiley drummer Jason Boesel has popped up in The Elected, effectively mouthing "doesn't get on with Jenny Lewis any more".

I wouldn't swap Kanye for any other cola

Here's a bizarre anecdote: apparently Jenny Lewis was approached by Kanye West and... well, let's let her tell her story:

We missed our flight and had to wait a couple of hours in the lounge. I noticed Kanye West was waiting for the same flight. He looked over and said, 'Excuse me, would you mind listening to my new track?' And so he put his headphones on my head and I listened to two of his new songs. He had no idea who I was. I guess he was doing research.

My mate Lincoln was once asked what he thought of the new style Coke cans, back when the shift from detachable ringpulls was being made - they paid him for his time by letting him finish the can of Coke for free; and I once spent some time on the top floor of Hepworth chambers sampling sandwich pickles, but I've never heard of an artist carrying out their own market research before.

I say "carrying out their own market research"; unlike Jenny, I suspect the question was not 'how does this track resonate with a non-core audience' so much as 'will confirming that, yes, I am Kanye West persuade this attractive young lady to fling herself at me'.

If I was a pop star, though, I think I'd adopt this approach for a laugh - imagine if, say, Paul Heaton came up to you on Piccadilly station and got you to listen to a track which had, halfway through, someone whispering 'everyone on the station thinks you are Paul Heaton's boyfriend'.

[Again, thanks to Michael M]

Blake Sennett engaged

Rilo Kiley's Blake has got himself engaged to some actor or other. Congratulations all round.

Kiley: New album in August

That's Rilo Kiley, of course, who are releasing Under The Backlight, their fourth album, on August 21st. It's their first thing since Jenny Lewis went off to be solo as well as part of the band.