Davenport, Iowa's Mondo Drag (formerly known as Holy Smokes) are proof that good bands — and records — can germinate in the most oddball of surroundings. In fact, their material seems to suggest that what's needed to make good music is not a hopping music scene so much as a killer record collection. One might guess that Davenport, then, has a plethora of good thrift stores and yard sales given Mondo Drag’s latest release, New Rituals. Filled with five-minute-plus cuts of pure blues/psych/sludge, New Rituals conjures up a stew of influence: early Pink Floyd, Pentagram and, says the band, any of about 20 forever-thought-lost-to-the-ether records the band collectively happens upon in a given week. For a band whose sound can eerily echo some of the better fuzz blooze of days past, there is a consistent growth and newness to each of their releases. (Pink Floyd grew from record to record too, you'll remember.) Let's hope Springwater has had a structural engineer pop by in the last year or two — Mondo err more on the Black Mountain side of psych but don't forget the Black Sabbath either.
Fri., Feb. 12, 9 p.m., 2010
Fri., Feb. 12, 9 p.m., 2010
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