New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Libertyville, IL-based genre-bending singer-songwriter Ike Reilly is set to release a new song, "Trick of the Light," on July 30, 2021. It is the first single from his forthcoming eighth studio album, Because the Angels, which will be released later in 2021 via Rock Ridge Music. On "Trick of The Light," a dark-pop celebration of family dysfunction, 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 here as Reilly and his boys trade lines and ask questions about faith, hope, family, money, and fate. 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. The genetic connection is even more compelling given the seeking nature of the song.
Says Reilly of the song, "This recording shows how combustible things can get when you tear down walls and preconceptions. The wall between my family and my band has been blown to bits. We had these characters, these singers, my kids, right in front of us all the time, then this question-and-answer song about petty family sh*t shows up, and I liked the idea of different voices asking the questions. It never dawned on me that my boys would or even could sing on that track until I heard them mimicking the opening lines. It was pretty clear once we got them in the studio with the band that they belonged there and that 'Trick of the Light' captured something special... something that nobody else could ever capture. It's our own f***ing thing."
Tom Morello, also a Libertyville native says, "These homogenous Midwestern towns like Libertyville can forge rebels, and Ike Reilly is just that. He's somebody who sees through the veil of bullsh*t."
"Trick of the Light" drops 20 years to the day after Reilly released his debut album, Salesmen And Racists, which was released before 50% of singers on this track were born. Reilly's long-time band, The Assassination, once again proves nimble in serving another one of his unique and brilliant songs. The single, and forthcoming album, were produced by Reilly and Phil Karnats (Secret Machines, Polyphonic Spree), and mixed by
Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Julian Lennon).
Since his major label debut, the groundbreaking Salesmen and Racists, Ike Reilly has been making punk/folk/blues influenced rock 'n' roll records that lean heavily on stories of outsiders with keen details and broad strokes that insinuate a crack in the American dream. Reilly's band, The Assassination, has been called one of the best live bands in America, and the body of recorded work they've turned out has been poetic, rebellious, wholly original, and critically acclaimed. Press praise for Reilly's music has been extensive over the years.
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.
Reilly also appeared in the Tom
Morello episode of "From Cradle to Stage," a new unscripted show directed by Dave Grohl that streams on Paramount+. The show was inspired by Grohl's mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, and based on the book she wrote entitled "From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars." Reilly appears throughout the episode, talking about Morello's mother.
www.ikereilly.com
