Lala Lala at the Raccoon Motel -- April 13.
Wednesday, April 13, 8 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Touring in support of the 2021 album I Want the Door to Open that Pitchfork raved “slips into new grooves on each track like a mind in a perfect state of creative flow,” Lillie West's music project Lala Lala headlines an April 13 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist herself praised by Paste magazine for “her compressed yet stadium-ready indie-rock sound.”
Guitarist and vocalist West was raised in London and moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was a teenager. She would soon relocate to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and become involved with the city's underground club scene. A longtime music fan, it wasn't until West began college that she would begin to create music of her own after being encouraged by a friend to purchase a guitar from Craigslist. Working under her chosen outfit title, Lala Lala's debut album Sleepyhead was self-released in 2016 and followed by the sophomore recording The Lamb, which was released in September of 2018 on Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art. Upon the announcement of the band's second album, Stereogum gave Lala Lala the prestigious recognition of "Band to Watch" in July of 2018, and The Lamb was met with favorable write-ups by various notable publications including Pitchfork, whose review stated, "On her second album, Lillie West retains the charming simplicity of her songs, but she finds new depth as a songwriter as she explores the act of standing up to herself."
In January of 2019, Lala Lala released a single titled "Siren 042," a collaboration with Yoni Wolf, frontman of the American band WHY? NPR's Adelaide Sandstrom praised the release for West's "ability to offset sharp lyricism with shimmering guitar and singalong-worthy vocal refrains, and that March, Lala Lala set out on a nationwide tour, opening for the Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers duo Better Oblivion Community Center. Later in 2019, Lala Lala opened for Death Cab for Cutie on their U.S. Summer tour, and is currently on tour in support of I Want the Door to Open, which Under the Radar deemed “at once introspective and existential, atmospheric and surreal.”
Describing Lala Lala's skills, and her album The Lamb, in a 2019 article, the River Cities' Reader's Max Allison wrote of West, "Her huge choruses, animated by a more howled, heavy vocal style and peals of noisy lead guitar, break the stereotype of the jaded slacker to reveal an emotional gradient that encompasses affection, rage, sadness, and confusion. The interplay between the muted verses and these towering chorus moments lifts West’s songwriting into far more surprising territories than many of her underground-rock colleagues. Clearly, she has carefully considered the trajectories of each of her songs and plotted out the emotional arcs they cast."
Lala Lala's Davenport engagement takes place on April 13 at 8 p.m., admission to the concert is $16, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
