Neva Dinova at the Raccoon Motel -- November 6.
Thursday, November 6, 6 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Touring in support of their most recent albums, the indie- and country-rock musicians of Neva Dinova and Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band play Davenport's Raccoon Motel on November 6, the former band's most recent LP Canary lauded by Tinnitist as "more urgent than anything they’ve created in the past," and the latter's New Threats from the Soul hailed by Rolling Stone as "teeming with unexpected musical detours and lyrical wonders."
With the group's current lineup including co-founder Jake Bellows on guitar and vocals, Roger Lewis on drums, and Megan Siebe on bass and cello, Neva Dinova formed in Omaha, Nebraska in 1993, at the height of the slowcore movement, by Bellows and bassist Heath Koontz, whose grandmother's name inspired the band's. They were initially on Crank! A Record Company, where they released their debut album Neva Dinova in 2002, followed by a collaborative split EP with Bright Eyes titled One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels in 2004 and their second album The Hate Yourself Change in 2005. The indie rockers' third album You May Already Be Dreaming was released in 2008 on Saddle Creek Records, and for a time, Neva Dinova subsequently dissolved, playing their last show in 2009. But Saddle Creek reissued One Jug of Wine in 2010, with four new tracks, and in August of 2013, frontman Bellows released his solo debut album New Ocean on Saddle Creek, which led to Neva Dinova's next performance together in December of 2014. Eight years later, the group released their "rarities collection" Demos And C-Sides, and in 2023, they released two new songs – "Something's Out There" and "Outside" – prior to delivering last year's acclaimed Canay.
The full-band project of Louisville-based visual artist, multi-instrumentalist, and singer'songwriter Davis, Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band released their latest album New Threats from the Soul earlier this summer via Sophomore Lounge / Tough Love, the recording hailed by Paste magazine as "generationally perfect." The Americana and country-rock ensemble's latest album has quickly garnered praise from fans and critics alike, including the Wall Street Journal, NPR Music the New Yorker, Pitchfork, and more, with the latter hailing it as “the late arrival of an essential new voice in American indie rock.” Davis’ sophomore album reckons mightily with the perplexities of human efficacy and agency in an absurd and debased world. The songs are all earwigs; the arrangements genuinely thrilling, enlivening efforts by the crackerjacks that comprise the sprawling Roadhouse Band that the New Yorker deemed “intoxicatingly raucous." Each trip through the record reveals more of the depth and breadth and tangle of its tapestry, and as the Wall Street Journal raved, "If you have a weakness for well-turned phrases and vivid imagery that reminds you of life’s essential strangeness, something fresh, funny and a little heartbroken, Mr. Davis casts a spell."
Neva Dinova and Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band play their Davenport engagement on November 6, admission to the 6 p.m. concert is $19.84, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
