I’ve been a fan of the Heavy ever since I first heard a few of their songs on an advance single ahead of their first release “Great Vengeance and Furious Fire” in 2007. Kelvin Swaby, lead singer, was already on my radar because of some work previously done with one of my favorite trip-hop acts, Alpha. The Heavy on record are largely a rock group, often aided by samples. Live they are nothing but a high octane rock’n’roll act, with Swaby bouncing all over the stage. In a relatively short period of time they’ve moved from playing smaller venues like the Echo, to being a supporting act for the likes of Sharon Jones to headlining the El Rey all by themselves.
A measure of their success is based on the ace placement of one of their songs in a KIA commercial, but the boys (and girl, perhaps, if Little Hannah Collins is still in the group) have the chops to stay in the game a bit longer than some of their commercial assisted peers. If you want tickets to the see UK’s The Heavy perform at the El Rey in Los Angeles, make sure to e-mail me at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com before Noon on Friday 11/5!
For your musical enjoyment and general bemusement, here’s the KIA commercial that made the boys stars…one of the better stories to come out of the use of music in commercials.
Just as an additional track, here’s one of my favorites from their superior debut record: