The
Common Dread (Formerly The Mondo Idols)
Chris Dardick, drums, vocals Matt Foy, guitar, vocals Don Kunto, guitar, vocals Bryan
McNally, bass A Sudbury band formed by house musicians from The Townehouse Tavern to play Reggae, Ska, Rock, and a little surf music. The members of the band have played in most of Sudbury’s top acts of the last ten years. They pay alumni dues to… The Smokers, Animal Farm, Potroast, Road Kill Possum, Wreck Beach, The Legendary Band of No Goods and more. The basic premise is to have fun, get people to dance, and generally forget that tomorrow we all have to go to work at some forgettable job.
The Common Dread have shared stages with The Kingpins, General Rudie, Chris Murray, The Kiltlifters and other folk, but mostly like to play three sets. The band recorded their debut album in 2001 and have been selling it from the stage since then. The self titled record is sixteen songs, clocking in at 61 minutes of love, with detailed liner notes and creative, non-plastic packaging. Matt Foy has released his own record in 2004 which contains a few songs from the Mondo Idols set.
Ska is a form of Jamaican music. It emerged in the late 1950’s when Rhythm & Blues collided with the traditional Jamaican Mento music. Ska manifests itself in many forms today as it has traveled through many townships of Jamaica, acquiring urban angst, country depression or resort town cheer. Artists such as The Skatalites, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh all took a different path within this music form. A second wave of ska was exported to England in the 1970’s, meeting harsh economic conditions, being championed by urban youth, white and black. The Two-Tone generation: The Specials, Madness, The English Beat were born. The 1980’s saw the 3rd generation of ska be born in North America. Many punk bands became infused with the rhythms of the islands giving the world groups such as Operation Ivy, The Toasters, King Apparatus, the Planet Smashers, Sublime, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Skavoovie, Me, Mom & Mortgantaler and many more all took ska and reggae to new speeds and energies.
The Mondo Idols took most of 2007 off to recharge batteries after eight years playing almost monthly. January 2008 sees the band come back with a new name and a new energy... The Common Dread will explore dub, reggae, ska and groove as you have never seen before... keep those dancing shoes on!
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