Mondo Drag Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 12th 2010 4:08PM by Matt Meisinger
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Mondo Drag are a psychedelic rock band from Davenport, Iowa. More of a blues-rock outfit with psychedelic flourishes, they are sure to be welcomed into SXSW HQ Austin, home to Roky Erickson and fellow contemporaries like the Black Angels and Smoke and Feathers. Spinner recently interviewed guitarist Jake Sheley and keyboardist John Gamino about their influences, band formation and grim some road stories.

Describe your sound in your own words.

This sound is massive reverberating vocal sounds crooned over lush hot fire fuzzed trance riffs and hazy atmospheric analog FX-ed space rock 'n' roll melted into feedback-drenched electro-oscillating freak-out jams spliced with organ-heavy garage-punk stomp parts, dark and dreamy synth-prog buildups with folky acoustic ragas and filthy blues slides. We try to pay homage to the forefathers but drag it down its own direction, a new cross-bred path untraveled, good jams, basically.

How did your band form?

Nolan Girard, Johnnie Cluney and Jake Sheley were all living in the same duplex in Davenport, Iowa, in the fall of 2006 when we started jamming out in our living room. We all shared the love for experimental music, abstract sounds and love for vintage music equipment. Good friends Dennis Hockaday and John Gamino joined the band in 2009. All five of us played in other bands prior to Mondo Drag, and we all grew up in the same local punk-rock music scene, so we've all been friends with each other's bands since high school or before.

What are your musical influences?

Space rock, '70s kraut[rock] scene, proto-metal, beatnik freakbeat, acid folk, free jazz, psych pop, flamenco, analog electronic, world music, Japanese psych, early punk, shoegaze -- it's a vast range. We're into music thats interesting and progressive, that's it and that's all.

How did you come up with your band name?

Mondo Drag is whatever you want it to be. It can mean a large marijuana puff, or "what a drag, man." Terrible things always happen, but sometimes it's cool.

What's your biggest vice?

Dennis is the only one in the band with a vice, his dark lord and master -- the coffee bean! And the cigarette bean.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Tents, sleeping mats, a box of spare parts and cables for our gear, fresh fruit and veggies, good bread, a cooler mostly full of a mixed variety of exotic beers from foreign regions of the country, herbal tea, soul food, airliner booze bottles, coffee and strange magic.

Who was your first celeb crush?

Interesting question. Ginger from 'Gilligan's Island,' Jessica Rabbit, Marcia Brady

Beatles or Stones?

We are three-fifths Beatles and two-fifths Stones.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

We saw a dead body of someone who was shot outside a McDonalds drive-through off the highway in some small mountain town while driving through Pennsylvania. We actually overheard some local girl gossiping about it at this gas station a couple miles up the road, where someone [said to us,] "Y'all aren't from here, are ya?" I guess word travels fast there. The moral of the story is that you can't have it your way!

Matt Meisinger is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.