The Heavy Heavy at the Raccoon Motel -- June 13.
Tuesday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Listed by NME as an "Essential Emerging Artist for 2023," the rockers of The Heavy Heavy headline a June 13 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the group's Life & Life Only, a debut EP lauded by Pop Matters as a work that "mashes up soul, psych, mod, and a tinge of eerie folk to create a blended sound that might be thrillingly at odds with today’s pop charts but would sound perfectly at home busting the rock conventions of half a century past."
Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band The Heavy Heavy began with a shared ambition of, as they state on their Web site, "making records that sound like our favorite records ever,” and soon arrived at a reverb-drenched collision of psychedelia and blues, acid rock, and sunshine pop. As revealed on their debut EP Life &Life Only, The Heavy Heavy breathe an incandescent new energy into sounds from decades ago, transcending eras with a hypnotic ease.
In a little more than one year, The Heavy Heavy have toured relentlessly in the United States and Europe, garnering numerous accolades from both fans and critics. The Guardian deemed the band “one to watch” and praised their “thrillingly instinctive retro rock," and The Heavy Heavy appeared on national television on CBS Saturday Morning, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Their single “Miles & Miles” reached the top five of the Billboard AAA and Americana Radio Charts, while the band also landed numerous high-profile placements, such as on Netflix’s popular series Outer Banks. ATO Records released an expanded version of their EP Life & Life Only in March of this year, the recording including harmony-laden covers of Father John Misty’s “Real Love Baby," CSNY’s “Guinnevere,” and Jonathan Wilson’s “Desert Raven.”
With their full-length debut due out in next year, The Heavy Heavy recently expanded their lineup to five members, allowing for an even more vast and bombastic sound now touched with heavenly four-part harmonies. A massively prolific outfit who’ve written and recorded hundreds of songs in the last two years alone, the band feels perpetually inspired by the pursuit of making music that provides a rarefied pleasure, saying “The driving force behind all our songwriting is to feel good, and to make other people feel good, too."
The Heavy Heavy headline their Davenport engagement on June 13 with additional sets by The High Divers and Blue Cactus, admission to the 7 p.m. Concert is $20, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
