CHICAGO (TNA)—Musician Ike Reilly hopes to make a killing. So maybe it’s appropriate that he calls his band an "assassination," rather than, say, a congregation.

The Chicago-based leader of the Ike Reilly Assassination admits the band name is as much as a character assassination as anything.

Ike Reilly

"Back in 1999, when I was signed to Universal, I was pegged as a folk singer," Reilly said. "I kept getting billed with guys like John Mayer. After I was dropped, I decided I wanted to have a band to blame, rather than just myself."

With the band, Reilly has switched his focus from folk to rock and says the benefit – besides the camaraderie – is that he "can create more drama and intensity with a band."

But, he’s quick to concede: "The songs all start from a single guitar."

Reilly admits the women who attend his solo shows tend to be different than the ladies who go to see the Assassination but jokes, "The women who see the band are in far greater danger."

The Assassination’s latest album, "We Belong To The Staggering Evening," is a far way off from folk music and, in some moments, raises the bar for bar bands everywhere.

Luckily, Reilly takes pride in the bar band label.

"I don’t look down on the term," Reilly said. "The Stones were a bar band. Any band should sound good in a bar. But while the music may sound festive, there is something going on with the lyrics."

For example, Reilly points to "Fish Plant Uprising," which sounds like chaos at some moments and has a dark punchline with the lyric, "His bride is my mistress/ My kid is swimming in her womb."

But while Reilly is proud of "We Belong To The Staggering Evening," he is the first to admit it isn’t breaking new ground in rock.

"This isn’t revolutionary. But I don’t know if any rock is revolutionary. At least, not in a musical sense," Reilly said.

He says the days when a single band like Nirvana could change the face of music in a matter of weeks are long dead "and will never happen again."

"The delivery systems are so narrow that if you’re not seeking out the music, you’ll never find it," Reilly said. "These days, no one is going to find a band like The Clash by listening to the radio."

Although that band is influential to the Assassination’s sound, Reilly says his days as a doorman and a bellman in Chicago clubs and hotels have impacted how he approaches life as a musician.

"To this day, I never carry my own bags in a hotel," Reilly said. "I remember seeing guys carry their own suitcases and I used to think, ‘What? You can’t shell out three bucks? I’m a big tipper at restaurants too."

Currently, the Ike Reilly Assassination is performing around the country, but he isn’t giving up his solo gigs. Earlier this summer, he did a solo tour with former Rage Against The Machine lead singer Tom Morello.

"We both grew up in Libertyville, Illinois," Reilly said. "His first gig was at my present wife’s eighth grade graduation party. We’ve always known of each other but we’ve become better friends in the last 10 years."

Reilly’s music isn’t as overtly political as Morello’s, but he jokes that he does have a message: "The kids need to rock! And they need to rock hard!"

For more information, check out www.ikereilly.com or http://www.myspace.com/ikereilly

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