The last time we talked about Jenny Lewis, it was to ask whether she had the brass to actually stand behind her music—her video for “Rise Up With Fists!!” perhaps indicating otherwise. Well, Rilo Kiley’s gearing up for their next album, and it appears Lewis has put on her serious shoes this time. The lead single off Under the Blacklight, “The Moneymaker,” is an ode to Hollywood’s raunchier side, and is the clearest indication yet that Lewis and her band are no longer interested in the twenty-something slice-of-life portraits that filled The Execution of All Things. And though the video itself is set in a porn shop and features Lewis cavorting about in a glitzy gold top and wielding a lovely leather whip, it seems as though Rilo Kiley’s aiming for something past sexual innuendo.
It doesn’t take a genius to divine this, though; only a cursory viewing of the full-length music video, which runs about thirteen minutes. Before we get to the actual video, Rilo Kiley give us ten minutes of audition interviews with the other principal actors, who all happen to be porn stars. The three who make the cut—Hailey Young, Tommy Gunn and Faye Runaway—are incidental players in the music video, but as far as the band is concerned they’re very much the focus here. We get insights into the business and the lives of porn stars, with the general idea being one of “hey, did you know that porn stars are people too?”
Well, yeah, actually, we kinda did. And though it’s neat to meet the man who starred in the most expensive porn film ever made, you do get the sense that Rilo Kiley are trying for more shock value than they ultimately get out of the proceedings. Now that pornography is practically a mainstream consideration, examinations of the industry are well beyond the old-school made-for-TV “I was a Playboy centerfold” movies of yesteryear. In that sense Lewis and company are treading old ground.
As for the song itself, it’ll definitely have its detractors—it’s a departure from the usually literate, quirky sound Rilo Kiley was known for. But at the same time, you knew “The Moneymaker” was coming; More Adventurous was practically a Warner Brothers release, after all, and the new album will drop even the Brute/Beaute pretense of being on a boutique label. Lewis and Sennett are going big, whether you like it or not, and let’s be honest: if they’re going to drop the indie schtick anyways, better it be with engaging material like “The Moneymaker.” You can taste the sleaze coming off the guitar licks, and even if it’s by no means authentic it’s a decent enough show.
I don’t think the single is going to stick like good singles should, despite the porn star gambit. What it will do is keep Lewis in the spotlight and remind people she’s not just a faux-country singer; she’s got other things on her mind. For now, we’ll accept Rilo Kiley’s return for what it is, and in the meantime try not to remind them that only three years ago they were talking about chimps “deploying more troops than a salt shaker.” Talk about risqué.