Riley! have announced their new EP ‘To Live And Die In The American South’ is set for release on 17th July 2026 via Pure Noise Records. Alongside that comes the blistering single ‘Another Round of Radical ‘Ritas, Please’ (featuring Tades Sanville from Hot Mulligan).
As an openly queer, progressive band in a deeply red state, Riley! have always built their own version of belonging. That spirit runs throughout ‘To Live and Die in the American South’, from its very title to the song themselves – deeply personal stories of isolation, connection and the eternal fight to feel seen. Outside the walls of their hometown, though, they’ve built connections that have made survival possible, growing alongside a fanbase that has found itself reflected in every sweat-soaked note as they’ve carved out their own communities.
“This is the first song we wrote with the intention of it being a part of this record. 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. 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. 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. 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,” says the band.
Riley! are the kind of band that only could have come from somewhere far off the map – 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. Having formed with the current lineup in 2020, what’s followed on albums like 2021’s ‘Already Fucked’ and 2024’s ‘Keep Your Cool’ has been a steady transformation from scrappy cult favorite to one of modern emo’s most compelling young bands on the strength of twinkly textures from high-capoed guitars, raucous rhythm section energy and Bluhm’s highly personal storytelling. Now, Riley! has levelled up on their Pure Noise Records debut, ‘To Live And Die In The American South’.
Recorded in Austin, TX, alongside producer Phil Odom (Militarie Gun, Say Anything and a protegee of Grammy-winning producer Will Yip), the five-song EP finds Riley! embracing a more finely harnessed sound without losing any of their edge. “We were going for something a little bit more polished,” Bluhm explains. “Not everyone is necessarily into screaming emo music, so we wanted to make things a bit more digestible.”
That range comes into focus from the opening swell of ‘Roll for Initiative’ bursting in with off-kilter, syncopated energy and a thread of existential dread, while ‘Another Round of Radical ‘Ritas, Please’ zeroes in on the quiet spiral of feeling left out and left behind. Elsewhere, ‘Two Bucks’ finds the band leaning into melody, its high, soaring harmonies bolstered by Eric Egan of Heart Attack Man; ‘Backseat Bartender’ featuring Gabe Wood of Saturdays at Your Place, taps into classic emo influences, and closer ’73 Summers’ trades urgency for something more devastating and reflective as Bluhm wrestles with grief, loss and impermanence.
‘To Live And Die In The American South’ EP tracklist:
01. Roll For Initiative
02. Another Round Of Radical ‘Ritas, Please (Ft Tades Sanville /Hot Mulligan)
03. Two Bucks (Ft Eric Egan)
04. Backseat Bartender (Ft Gabe Wood)
05. 73 Summers
North American tour dates (support from Kerosene Heights and Bugsy):
11th July — Vibes Underground — San Antonio, TX
14th July — Larimer Lounge — Denver, CO
16th July — Reggies — Chicago, IL
17th July — Turntable — Indianapolis, IN
18th July — Pike Room — Detroit, MI
19th July — Mahall’s — Cleveland, OH
20th July — Pearl St — Washington, DC
22nd July — Nikki Lopez — Philadelphia, PA
23rd July — Warehouse XI — Boston, MA
24th July — Webster Underground — Hartford, CT
25th July — Elsewhere – Zone One — New York, NY
27th July — Local 506 — Chapel Hill, NC
28th July — Masquerade (Altar) — Atlanta, GA
29th July — Will’s Pub — Orlando, FL
31st July — TX Tea Room — Dallas, TX
UK tour dates (support from Ben Quad):
13th October – YES (Pink Room) – Manchester
14th October – The Cluny – Newcastle
15th October – Stereo – Glasgow
16th October – O2 Institute3 – Birmingham
17th October – The Key Club – Leeds
19th October – The Fighting Cocks – Kingston
20th October – DUST – Brighton
22nd October – Exchange – Bristol
23rd October – The Joiners – Southampton
24th October – Dingwalls – London