Riley!'s "To Live and Die In The American South"
- Sage Plapp
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
South Texas-based alternative rock three-piece just released their new EP “To Live And Die In The American South” on July 17th. Additionally, they just finished headlining a tour across North America. After this, they will be gearing up to support Ben Quad on a UK tour and then Hot Mulligan for another North American tour.
“To Live and Die In The American South” benefits from Midwest emo influences, emotional lyricism, exciting pacing front to back, and collaboration. The track list goes:
Roll For Initiative
Another Round Of Radical ‘Ritas, Please featuring Tades Sanville of Hot Mulligan
Two Bucks featuring Eric Egan
Backseat Bartender featuring Gabe Wood
73 Summers
An Analysis of “To Live and Die In The American South”
“Roll for Initiative” immediately introduces the EP with a no-holds-barred, forward-focused pace with a hook-laden chorus that provides a sense of addictiveness. As an intro track, it does well at tying the music into the name of the EP, and its excitement is perfect for pulling listeners in. The hook-focus is extended to “Another Round Of Radical ‘Ritas, Please,” with the pacing still moving forward but with a softer beginning that does well at highlighting the buzzy whine of the lead vocalist Ryan Bluhm’s vocals. The ending of this track plays well with Bluhm’s repetition of “If I were you, I'd hate me more” paired with Tades Sanville screaming a repetition of “(Paint one color) / (Hate this thing you see)” in the background. Overall, both vocalists work really well together and bring their unique sounds to this track to bring it to life.
Then comes Two Bucks, which is a lot softer than the other two tracks. There’s less screaming in this track than in the two that establish the EP, but it fits in the perfect spot after pulling listeners in. This track starts as a sway, a smooth flow with the guitars and drums, the vocals once again hitting a nice warm buzz. Then things pick up a bit with the anthemic shouted vocals brought to the table by Eric Egan. After this, it once again builds, turns the temp up, and adds more of an instrumental growl, before fading back to soft reverby guitars once more. This comes before a really strong finish.
“Backseat Bartender” brings a really great bass lead to the table, which carries things strongly, with an instrumental portion where the guitars and bass play back and forth well. This one has a really great bounce to it, and it does well at saving its strongest musical burst for the end, using every bit of the track to build anticipation beforehand. The guitars in this track have a bit of a math rock reminiscence, and with Gabe Wood jumping into the mix, it once again uses some great collaboration to spice things up. This then leads into “73 Summers.” The instrumentation has a starry nature to it, and the guitars are beautifully intricate. Though this one has that starry feeling, the vocals have a sense of melancholy to them. Though all the tracks are lyrically deep cuts in a way, this one packs a serious punch. It’s a really nice slow build from start to finish, and once again has a really strong finish. It hits the heartstrings and leaves one last punch, begging for listeners to come and play it all back again.
In terms of lyricism, “To Live and Die In The American South” doesn’t let up from start to finish. It uses repetition of hooks to make the whole thing catchy, but all these hooks leave lingering feelings and thoughts to introspect on. “Roll For Initiative” explores a fear of death and an inability to move forward from one’s hometown. “Another Round of Radical ’Ritas, Please” brings an aspect of unrequited love and struggles with self-love and feeling worthy of love to the EP.
Then, “Two Bucks” explores the feeling of being invisible or insignificant, inner turmoil, and wondering if things will get better. “Backseat Bartender” seems to detail what it feels like wanting to be understood when one feels like they don’t understand themself. It also gets into how this is a feeling that can get familiar. “73 Summers” wraps things up with lyricism that comes from a place of grieving. This is apparent in the second line, “With God's greedy hands, that lucky son of a bitch has you now.” This track asks its subject if their sadness was left on the Earth, or if it traveled with them in the afterlife.
“To Live and Die In The American South” is musically captivating. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it has grit. It has really great energy but knows how to pull back at the perfect times to avoid feeling too rushed. Also, the collaboration really evolves the sound and concept as a whole. Then, front to back, the lyrics feel immensely raw and emotional, and the way that it delves into ideas of mental health struggles and loss is very poignant. This is a great EP that shows a lot of passion and dedication, from music to lyricism, then to production.
Upcoming Tours
As mentioned prior, Riley! have just wrapped up a North American tour, but they’re not stopping there. They’re currently gearing up for two more tours. Any dates and tickets can be found on their Pure Noise Records webpage underneath a listing of their current merch. The first tour is going to be in the UK supporting Ben Quad. It will start on October 13th in Manchester and end on October 24th in London. This tour will also feature performances in cities such as Newcastle, Glasgow, Bristol, and more. In total, there will be 10 shows.
Very soon after this, there’s another American tour, this time with Riley! supporting Hot Mulligan. This tour starts October 30th in London, Ontario, and ends in Nashville, Tennessee on November 20th. There are 14 shows total, including cities such as Portland, Maine, Baltimore, Maryland, and Miami, Florida. Once again, tickets can be found on their page on the Pure Noise Records site. With the tours being so close together, Riley! Will be traveling for over a month with several performances. This is exciting news for anyone who missed out on their last stretch of touring!
Who are Riley!?
Riley! is a South Texas-based three-piece alternative emo band that consists of vocalist and guitarist Ryan Bluhm (they/them), drummer Cesar “Izzy” Izaguirre (they/them), and bassist Kris Gallardo (he/him). Though they’re from the South, their sound is reminiscent of the Midwest Emo genre. They’ve been making music as this trio since 2020, and their discography includes three albums, an EP, and a handful of single releases leading up to “To Live and Die In The American South,” which is the first release under their new label, Pure Noise Records. Producer Phil Odom has also lent his hand to this EP, which has brought it to the next album. Riley! are openly LGBTQIA+, which has come with struggles living in the Deep South. These struggles, however, resound through their lyricism and have amassed a fanbase outside of their local community.
Now is the time to stream “To Live and Die In The American South” and try to cop tickets to one of Riley!’s upcoming shows.
Written by Sage Plapp
