The Slaps at the Raccoon Motel -- January 29.
Wednesday, January 29, 6 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Touring in support of their 2024 album Mudglimmer, a recording whose title track was lauded by Flood magazine as "a patient and unyielding jazz-funk-rock exercise landing somewhere between Tortoise and Pavement," the indie artists of The Slaps headline a January 29 engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the group's 2022 album Tomato Tree additionally hailed by Under the Radar as "showcasing the band’s winding instrumental sprawl and effortless chemistry."
Composed of guitarist Rand Kelly, bassist Ramsey Bell, and drummer Josh Resing, The Slaps, as detailed at TwntyThree.com, "formed in Chicago at DePaul University, and debuted with 2017’s Susan’s Room, a scrappy and surf-y rock project recorded via Garageband at Rand’s parents’ place. Their local profile grew quickly. Subsequent EPs A and B – recorded, for the first time, in proper studios – did well enough to enable them to embark on summer tours of the Midwest, striking a hazy and moody middle ground between The Strokes’ tightly wound garage rock and Crumb’s jazzily arranged psychedelia.
"The 2020 COVID pandemic re-shuffled the deck, as the band moved to Lexington, Kentucky, to keep rent cheap while they toured four months out of the year. They recorded 2022’s Tomato Tree and got ready to hit the road. Hardship followed, including several friends passing away and the cancellation of a major tour. It was a challenging time, but one that strengthened the band’s artistic resolve. 'We had to commit, to each other and to ourselves,' recounts Rand. Their conclusion: 'If we’re going to be out here and risk our well-being, we can’t do it for any other reason than for us and our expression.'
"Pulling inspiration from experimental principles espoused by a college class they took called Improv Scratch Orchestra, taught by Jeffrey Kowalkowski (himself a staple of Chicago’s experimental jazz and post-rock scenes), The Slaps followed their muse to odd but rewarding places. In 2023, they recorded and released Pathless, an entirely improvised release recorded at the legendary Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, a hub of the city’s rich free jazz scene and home of the Sun Ra / El Saturn Collection. Around the same time, they were writing and recording This Is My First Day at Drawing, a reflective collection influenced by traditional folk and country songwriting. From this time came Mudglimmer, a record that finds The Slaps reconfigured and re-energized – finding purpose, not in reaching for a brass ring, but in becoming fully, unashamedly, their own wonderfully confounding thing."
The Slaps headline their Davenport engagement on January 29 with additional sets by Hemlock and (as a solo set) Social Animals, admission to the 6 p.m. concert is $22.49, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
