Back in 2020, Riley! burst onto the emo scene with a musical point to prove. Since then, the band’s albums Already Fucked (2021) and Keep Your Cool (2024) solidified Riley! as one of the next generation’s leaders.
Now members, vocalist/guitarist Ryan Bluhm (they/them), bassist Kris Gallardo (he/him), and drummer Cesar “Izzy” Izaguirre (they/them) are preparing to take things up a notch. In a collaborative post on Instagram, Riley! revealed that they had signed a deal with Pure Noise Records.
“Riley! are the kind of band that only could have come from somewhere far off the map,” wrote a rep for Pure Noise in a statement shared with ENVERT. “Making music shaped by isolation, boredom, anxiety, friendship, and dreaming about what lies beyond the limits of their blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hometown. Their details may belong to the Rio Grande Valley deep in South Texas, but the feelings amplified through their hyper-modern spin on Midwest emo have carried them around the world, from self-booked headlining tours and bills with genre heavyweights.”
To celebrate the news, Riley! shared their Pure Noise debut single, “Another Round of Radical ‘Ritas, Please,” featuring Tades Sanville of Hot Mulligan. The Phillip Odom-produced record serves as the first taste of Riley!’s forthcoming EP To Live And Die In The American South.
Riley! discussed the song’s origin in a note alongside their signing announcement.
“This is the first song we wrote with the intention of it being a part of this record,” said the band. “We all wanted to try writing a more upbeat, poppy track. I took a lot of inspiration from modern pop songs that I like and came up with the idea for the verses.”
They continued, “We played around with 4 or 5 different ideas or choruses but ultimately decided the heaviest version just felt right and ended up with what you hear now.”
The closed by touching on securing Sanville as a collaborator.
“I think this is when we decided to start asking our friends to do features all over this EP and felt like Tades would kill it on this track,” revealed the band. “He initially was supposed to only do one part, but through some miscommunication, he ended up recording vocals over what was supposed to be an instrumental break. Sounds badass, so we kept it, and he still recorded the part we initially intended for him to do. Hooray, double feature!”
Watch Riley!’s official Derek Rathbun-directed video for the single “Another Round of Radical ‘Ritas, Please” featuring Tades Sanville of Hot Mulligan below.
Continue reading to view Riley!’s To Live And Die In The American South cover and tracklist.
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Tracklist
- “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”
EP Cover
Riley!’s album, To Live And Die In The American South, is due out on July 17, 2026, via Pure Noise Records. Click here to pre-save or pre-order.